Uncle Tom's Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson

"Uncle Tom's Story of His Life" is a slave narrative written by Josiah Henson, who would later become famous for being the basis of the title character from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The narrative provides a detailed description of his life as a slave in the south. Josiah Henson (1789-1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada, now Ontario, in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Dresden, in Kent County, Upper Canada, of British Canada. Contents: My Birth and Childhood My First Great Trial My Boyhood and Youth My Conversion Maimed for Life A Responsible Journey A New Home Return to Maryland Taken South, Away From Wife and Children A Terrible Temptation Providential Deliverance Escape From Bondage Journey to Canada New Scenes and a New Home Life in Canada Conducting Slaves to Canada Second Journey on the Underground Railroad Home at Dawn Lumbering Operations Visit to England The World's Fair in London Visits to the Ragged Schools Closing Up My London Agency