Josiah Henson

It was October 28, 1830, on the banks of the Niagara River.

A man had just crossed the water with his wife and their four children. He set foot on the shore of Upper Canada.

He threw himself on the ground. He let his joy burst out, with his family around him.

His name was Josiah Henson. For the first time in his life, he was free.

He had been born enslaved, on June 15, 1789, in Charles County, Maryland.

His father was punished for standing up to an overseer. Then he was sold to Alabama.

After their owner died, his brothers and sisters were sold at auction. His mother begged her new buyer, Isaac Riley, to take her youngest too. He pushed her away brutally.

Later, though, Riley bought the boy. The mother kept her youngest near her.

As a young man, Josiah was attacked by an overseer. He was injured for life. Never again could he raise his arms above his shoulders.

Around 1811, he married Charlotte. They had twelve children.

In 1825, Riley was ruined. He ordered Josiah to lead his enslaved people, on foot, to his brother's place in Kentucky. Josiah led them all the way.

He also became a Methodist preacher.

In 1828, he tried to buy his freedom. He had saved 350 dollars. But Riley changed the amount on the note: 1,000 dollars.

Then Josiah learned he was to be sold in New Orleans.

So he left. With Charlotte and the children, he walked by night and hid by day. They crossed Indiana, then Ohio.

They passed through Cincinnati. Then a captain named Burnham helped them reach Buffalo by boat. All that remained was to cross the river.

And so came that day in October, on the Canadian shore.

In Upper Canada, Josiah worked on farms, near Fort Erie, then near Waterloo.

His eldest son, Tom, went to school with the money his father earned. Then it was Tom who taught Josiah to read.

Several times, he went back to Kentucky. He guided others out of slavery to freedom.

With Hiram Wilson and an associate, he bought 200 acres of land in Dawn Township, near Dresden. From 1841, he lived there in his house.

In 1842 the British-American Institute opened. A manual labour school, for students of all ages.

Around it a settlement grew. A sawmill, a grist-mill, a brickyard. At its height, Dawn counted about 500 people. They cut black walnut and sold it far away.

In 1849, Josiah published the story of his life.

The writer Harriet Beecher Stowe met him and read his book. In 1852 her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared. It is said that Josiah inspired its hero. The question is still debated.

He crossed the ocean several times to raise funds. In 1877, in England, he met Queen Victoria.

Life at Dawn, with its school for refugees, echoes Ubuntu without merging with it: no one is free alone.

Josiah Henson died in Dresden, Ontario, on May 5, 1883.

His house is still there. It is part of a museum of African-Canadian history that bears his name.

He left behind a shore of the Niagara. And a man throwing himself to the ground, on free soil, with his family around him.