Uncle Tom's Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Reverend Josiah Henson
Josiah Henson and John Lobb
Abstract
This 1876 version of Josiah Henson's autobiography, the first of many editions issued by British editor John Lobb, followed the original 1849 edition and a much-expanded 1858 version. The autobiography traces Henson's life from his birth into slavery in Maryland in 1789; his escape to Canada in 1830; his participation in the founding of the Dawn Settlement for fugitive slaves in Ontario; and his several trips to England to raise funds for the settlement. Henson, who in his later years toured as the model for the Uncle Tom of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, describes his meeting with Stowe in 18 ... More
This 1876 version of Josiah Henson's autobiography, the first of many editions issued by British editor John Lobb, followed the original 1849 edition and a much-expanded 1858 version. The autobiography traces Henson's life from his birth into slavery in Maryland in 1789; his escape to Canada in 1830; his participation in the founding of the Dawn Settlement for fugitive slaves in Ontario; and his several trips to England to raise funds for the settlement. Henson, who in his later years toured as the model for the Uncle Tom of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, describes his meeting with Stowe in 1852 and draws parallels between the histories of other Uncle Tom's Cabin characters and his own acquaintances. While Stowe herself stressed that there was no single model for her title character, she called Henson a “parallel instance” for Uncle Tom in A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Keywords:
Josiah Henson,
John Lobb,
autobiography,
slavery,
Maryland,
Canada,
Dawn Settlement,
fugitive slaves,
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
slave life
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780807869611 |
| Published to North Carolina Scholarship Online: July 2014 |
DOI:10.5149/9780807869628_henson |
