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Josiah Henson Background

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Josiah Henson Background
Include the person’s people group (gender, ethnic background, cultural background etc..). This date marks the birth of Josiah Henson in 1789.

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Josiah Henson was born into slavery on June 15, 1789 in Charles County, Maryland. As a young boy he witnessed slavery’s cruelties inflicted on his immediate family. Young Henson watched his father receive fifty lashes for standing up to a slave owner and then witnessed his father’s ear being severed as part of the punishment. Shortly afterwards he watched his father sold off to an Alabama slaveholder. Upon the death of his owner, Henson was separated from his mother and siblings in an estate sale. Although he was reunited with his mother, he never saw his siblings again. Henson remained on his new owner’s farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, until he was an adult. As he aged he rose to become a trusted slave and supervised other enslaved people on the farm. However, …show more content…
For the next 68 years it is estimated that 50,000 Blacks entered Canada for safety and freedom. One of them was Josiah Henson, a former slave from Kentucky. During his lifetime, three masters owned Henson. Henson started preaching to raise money in the hope of buying his freedom. His master took the money that Josiah had earned, and then raised the price of Henson's freedom to $1,000.

He returned to his master's plantation after a plot to secretly sell Josiah fell through, where he informed his wife of his plan to escape. Soon after he, his wife, and their four children escaped to Canada. On their journey to freedom, the Henson family struggled through sickness, wolves, and starvation. A tribe of Native Americans assisted the family along the way. Finally on October 28, 1830, after many hardships, they reached freedom. He stayed in Canada only a short time before he decided to get involved with the Underground
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