Real-Life Figure Was ‘Uncle Tom’ Inspiration

The world knew him as Uncle Tom, the hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about American slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

But to the townsfolk of this town, a small settlement in Ontario, Canada--and to Stowe herself--Uncle Tom was more than a fictional character in a book. He was a key figure in black history, both in America and Canada.

His real name was the Rev. Josiah Henson. He was an American slave who escaped with his family to Canada in 1830 and established the first vocational school for fugitive slaves on the outskirts of Dresden.

Visitors to Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site can go back 150 years in history as they tour the rustic house where Henson lived, walk through a small museum filled with memorabilia from the slavery era and pause briefly at his tombstone.

Visitors also may talk with manager Barbara G. Carter, who is Henson’s great-great-granddaughter. Two other direct descendants, Thelma L. Henson Williams, a great-granddaughter, and Thomas G. Henson, a great-grandson, live nearby.

Dresden is on Highway 21, 18 miles north of Highway 401 and about 80 miles from the border crossing between Detroit and Windsor.

Signs along the main street in Dresden direct visitors to Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, which occupies three of the original 200 acres bought by Henson in the mid-1800s.

The story of Henson’s 41 years as a slave and his escape to Canada, which Stowe used as the basis for her book, is contained in his autobiography, “The Life of Josiah Henson: Formerly a Slave.”

Copies of the slender volume are sold in the museum gift shop, along with commemorative plates, mugs and T-shirts marking the 200th anniversary of his birth, which was celebrated last June.

Henson’s life story began on a Maryland farm near Port Tobacco, where he was born on June 15, 1789.

On display in the museum are balls and chains, whips, handcuffs and clubs used to punish slaves. Also newspaper advertisements of the early 1800s offering $1,200 to $1,250 for black slaves.

On Oct. 28, 1830, Henson, his wife and four children, were rowed across the Niagara River from Buffalo to Canada. Three years later, when Canada officially abolished slavery, Kent County, Ontario, became a key terminal on the Underground Railroad and a mecca for runaway slaves.

To provide food, clothing and shelter for the fugitives, Henson established the British-American Institute, a resettlement colony south of the Syndenham River near present-day Dresden.

Funds contributed by antislavery supporters in the Northern states and England helped buy the 200-acre site for the institute in 1841 and provided a sawmill, gristmill, blacksmith shop and carpenter shop where ex-slaves could be taught trades.

On one of Henson’s trips to the New England states on behalf of the settlement, a brief story of his life was published by the Anti-Slavery Society of Boston. Stowe read the account and in 1849 invited Henson to meet her at her home in Andover, Mass.

Henson’s tales provided Stowe with the material to create the fictional characters in her novel.

Since its initial publication in 1852, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” has been translated into dozens of languages. About 35 volumes of the novel printed in Swedish, Romanian, Danish, Polish, Spanish and other languages fill several museum display cases.

According to Carter, many of the 10,000 visitors who tour the historic site every year are tourists from foreign countries, where the story of Uncle Tom is well-known.

“I see people come from communist countries such as the Soviet Union and Poland and tears flow down their cheeks because they understand the atrocities the slaves suffered,” Carter said.

During his lifetime Henson had three meetings with Queen Victoria while he was in England raising funds for the institute. One of his most prized possessions, now on display, is a signed portrait of the queen, which she presented to him in 1877.

Despite the prominence Henson achieved during his lifetime, very little was done initially by his descendants to preserve his legacy after he died in 1883 at age 94.

The reason, according to Carter, is because the slavery era was a period that most black families wanted to put behind them.

“Around my home there was never a lot of talk about the life of Josiah Henson before he came to Canada,” she said. “Generally, blacks who came from slave holders wanted to forget about it.”

William Chapple, a Dresden-area historian, managed to salvage the Henson house and opened it to visitors.

Later the house was moved to its present site, where it was incorporated into a museum by another local historian, Jack Thompson. Today the historic site is owned and operated by Kent County.

The partially restored Henson house, which was built about 1842, is covered with tulip wood siding and has handmade square nails and bubbly, wavy glass in the windows.

Inside the two-story home, visitors will find life-size wax figures of Josiah, seated in a wooden rocker, and his second wife, Nancy, standing by his side.

Near the Henson house stands a smaller, red, two-story cabin that once was occupied by a fugitive slave named James Harris, better known as Old Uncle Jimmy.

A church similar to the one in Dresden, where Henson, a British-ordained Methodist minister, preached, also has been moved to the site. Inside are the pulpit and pipe organ salvaged from Henson’s original church that was destroyed by a fire.

A hand plow, butter churner, cider press and blacksmith’s tools used by the early settlers are among the farm implements and logging equipment on display in the agricultural building.

Nearby is a smokehouse made from the hollowed-out trunk of a giant sycamore tree.

Although Henson’s colony eventually was sold due to a huge debt, Carter says Henson’s contributions have been lasting ones.

“I have pleasant thoughts about the integrity of my great-great-grandfather and what he did, not only to better himself but to help free other slaves,” Carter said.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site is open daily from mid-May to mid-October. For bus/tour group reservations, call (519) 351-1010. Prices: adults, $2.50; seniors and students, $1.75, children, $1.

To get to Windsor from Detroit, take Highway 401 east to Highway 21 and drive north to Dresden. From Port Huron-Sarnia, take Highway 402 east and go south on Highway 21 to Dresden. From Toronto, take Highway 401 West to Highway 21 and go north to Dresden.

Dresden has a couple of mom-and-pop restaurants--Marlene’s and Dad’s Place. There also is a small snack bar inside the museum and a picnic area on the grounds.

There are no motels in Dresden, but nearby cities offer a variety of options, including: Barb & Bob’s Bed & Breakfast, Chatham: (519) 682-1923; Best Western Wheels Inn, Chatham: (519) 351-1100; Journey’s End Motel, Chatham: (519) 352-9222; Longwood’s Motel, Thamesville: (519) 692-3944, and Oak’s Inn, Wallaceburg, (519) 627-1433. Expect to pay $50 to $75 U.S. per night.