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CA-K181History

Josiah Henson and the Dawn settlement

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site near Dresden, Ontario, now the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History, photographed in 2014.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site near Dresden, Ontario, now the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History, photographed in 2014. Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site 02 · NearEMPTiness · Photo source · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for display; item previews may be cropped. The image remains under the licence shown.
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After escaping slavery in Kentucky to Upper Canada, Reverend Josiah Henson (1789–1883) became an Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist, founded the Black settlement of Dawn and established the British American Institute school. Harriet Beecher Stowe said his 1849 memoirs supplied ideas and incidents for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, raising awareness of Canada as a haven from slavery.

Scope & context

Henson’s life and influence, not the novel itself or the Underground Railroad as a whole (see CA-K065).

Sources behind this record

1
Reverend Josiah Henson (1789-1883) National Historic Person ↗

Parks Canada

Historical importance; plaque text