Josiah Henson was born enslaved in Charles County, Maryland, and endured the hardships and injustices of slavery in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Kentucky with integrity, fortitude, and stamina. He escaped to freedom with his family, helped free many others through the Underground Railroad, and established a stable settlement in Canada. A self-educated minister, author, abolitionist, and entrepreneur, he wrote sermons, articles, and books that influenced millions and placed him alongside figures such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman as an abolitionist and civil rights leader. His life story, memorialized through Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, fueled sentiment for social change and Black liberation and helped propel the growing movement to abolish slavery in America.
