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