Uncle Tom's Journey from Maryland to Canada

“The true story behind Uncle Tom’s Cabin . . . the real story of his escape is more moving, and more harrowing, than anything one could put in fiction.” —Yesterday’s America

Josiah Henson was born into slavery in La Plata, Maryland, and auctioned off as a child to pay his owner’s debt. After numerous trials and abuse, he earned the trust of his slaveholder by exhibiting intelligence and skill.

Daringly, he escaped to Canada with his wife and children. There he established a settlement and school for fugitives and repeatedly returned to the United States to help lead others to freedom along the Underground Railroad. He published a bestselling autobiography and became a popular preacher, lecturer, and international celebrity. He is immortalized as the inspiration for the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Author Edna M. Troiano recounts the amazing life of Maryland’s Josiah Henson and explores the sites devoted to his memory.

“[An] intriguing examination of another heroic individual, Josiah Henson. Born in 1789, in Maryland, Henson was the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s primary inspiration for Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” —Literary Review of Canada