what book was to some extent modeled on the autobiography of fugitive slave josiah henson?

Josiah Henson equally a young man at left, and at correct, at age 87, photographed in Boston on June 17, 1876 Library of Congress; Schlesinger Library

From its very first moments in impress on March xx, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was a corking success. It sold 3,000 copies on its first day, and Frederick Douglass reported that v,000 copies—the unabridged get-go print run—were purchased inside four days. By May iii, the Boston Morning Post declared that "everybody has read information technology, is reading, or is virtually to read it."

According to reports at the time, it took 17 printing presses running around the clock to keep upwardly with demand. By the end of its first year in print, the book had sold over 300,000 copies in the Usa alone, going on to become the best-selling novel of the 19th century.

In Canada, a former enslaved laborer and aging Methodist minister named Josiah Henson—whose life story bore uncanny resemblances to Stowe's titular character—immediately understood its importance.

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Born near Port Tobacco, Maryland, around 1789, Henson's first memory was of his father existence whipped, having his ear cutting off, and sold south—all as punishment for striking a white homo who had attempted to rape his wife. He never saw his father again.

Henson was later separated from his mother and sold to a child trafficker, but soon roughshod deathly ill. The slave trader offered the boy to Henson's mother'south owner, an alcoholic gambler named Isaac Riley, for a bargain: complimentary of charge if the young Henson died, a castling of some horseshoeing work if he survived.

Only he did recover, and Henson and his mother were enslaved about 12 miles from Washington, D.C., on Riley's plantation. He endured countless beatings every bit a child—peculiarly after an ill-fated attempt to acquire to read.

Henson had great concrete force and leadership ability, and eventually became Riley's market man in the nation's capital letter. As the person in charge of selling all his master's farm produce, he rubbed shoulders with eminent lawyers and businessmen and learned the skills of running a business.

Despite the fact that he wouldn't larn to read until much later in life, Henson also became a great preacher, memorizing verses and relying on his eloquence and natural sense of humor to connect with parishioners. A white government minister convinced him to secretly raise money to buy his own liberty while traveling between the Riley family's farms. The minister arranged for churches to host Henson, and he raised $350 towards his emancipation, just Riley swindled him out of the coin and tried to sell him south to New Orleans. Henson narrowly avoided that harsh fate through a highly providential twist of events: Riley's nephew Amos, the young human tasked with selling Henson, contracted malaria. Rather than letting the son dice, Henson loaded him on a steamship and returned north. In 1830, Henson ran away with his wife and ii youngest children; they walked more than 600 miles to Canada.

Once in a new land, Henson helped kickoff in 1841 a freeman settlement called the British American Institute, in an area chosen Dawn, which became known as 1 of the final stops on the Underground Railroad. Henson repeatedly returned to the U.S. to guide 118 other slaves to freedom. It was a massively dangerous undertaking, but Henson saw a greater purpose than simply living out his life in Ontario, Canada. In addition to his service to the school, Henson ran a farm, started a gristmill, bred horses, and built a sawmill for high-quality black lumber— so good, in fact, that it won him a medal at the get-go Globe'south Fair in London ten years later.

Earlier the Civil War, Henson frequently traveled unhindered between Ontario and Boston, where he ofttimes preached. During one such trip, Henson befriended the abolitionist Samuel Atkins Eliot, a former mayor of Boston and land legislator; Eliot would subsequently serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Impressed with Henson, Eliot offered to pen the story of his life as a memoir. That book, titled The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself, was published in early 1849.

Henson's volume garnered attention at the abolitionist reading room in Boston besides equally in like-minded households throughout the North. On i of his trips dwelling house from Boston, Henson took a detour to visit a woman who was most to write a book of her own. As a later edition of Henson's memoir recalls:

"I was in the vicinity of Andover, Mass., in the year 1849, where Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe resided. She sent for me and my travelling companion, Mr. George Clark, a white admirer, who had a fine voice for singing, and usually sang at my meetings to add to their interest. We went to Mrs. Stowe's house, and she was deeply interested in the story of my life and misfortunes, and had me narrate its details to her. She said she was glad it had been published, and hoped it would be of peachy service, and would open the eyes of the people to the enormity of the crime of property men in chains. She manifested so much interest in me, that I told her about the peculiarities of many slaveholders, and the slaves in the region where I had lived for forty-2 years. My experiences had been more varied than those of the majority of slaves..."

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In March 1851, Stowe wrote to Gamaliel Bailey, editor and publisher of The National Era, a Washington antislavery paper, and offered him the story she had been working on, which she thought would run for three or 4 installments. The plot, at its most basic, details the journeys of two enslaved laborers on the precipice of beingness sold off by their owner, a Kentucky farmer in deficit. One, named Harry, flees with his female parent, Eliza, to the Northward, eventually ending up in Canada, while the other, Uncle Tom, is transported downwards the Mississippi River, where he is eventually sold to a vicious Louisiana plantation owner. Tom's faith nearly falters, but a pair of visions places him back on firm ground. Subsequently encouraging two women to escape north, Tom is beaten to death when he refuses to reveal where they've gone; an attempt by Tom's original owner to purchase Tom back arrives also late. Upon returning to Kentucky, the farmer's son sets all of his belatedly father'due south enslaved free, encouraging them to remember Tom's sacrifice whenever they come across his motel.

Uncle Tom' s Cabin debuted in the Era on June 5, 1851, and information technology ran in 41 weekly installments over the post-obit 10 months, and immediately grabbed the capital city's attention. The paper's subscriber base grew past 26 percent, and an estimated 50,000 people read Stowe's story in series form, spurring John P. Jewett and Company to publish it as a novel in two volumes of 312 pages each.

Henson wrote of the release: ""When this novel of Mrs. Stowe came out, it shook the foundations of this world… It shook the Americans out of their shoes and of their shirts. Information technology left some of them on the sandbar barefooted and scratching their heads, so they came to the determination that the whole matter was a fabrication."

Indeed, the backlash against the novel came chop-chop and rabidly. Critics argued that Stowe'southward writing was far also emotional to impact events in the existent world. Afterward all, it was a novel. It wasn't based on facts, they said. And in whatsoever case, some said, she'd overlooked many of the "benefits" of slavery, including romantic love between an enslaved woman and her master.

Stowe wasn't concerned virtually the politics. To her, an agog abolitionist and daughter of a world-famous preacher, slavery was a religious and emotional challenge. Her goal, as stated in the first edition preface, was "to awaken sympathy and feeling for the African race." On this point she certainly hit her marker, with many moderate antislavery advocates praising the volume for putting a human confront on slavery. If the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had been a tipping indicate, then Uncle Tom' s Cabin was a hard shove toward abolitionism.

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Josiah and his second married woman Nancy Library of Congress

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Josiah and his editor John Lobb, probable 1876 Public Domain, originally from the London School of Photography

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A Cardinal to Uncle Tom'due south Cabin Book Library of Congress

Proslavery advocates saw the novel equally sectarian propaganda. They insisted that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible, and that Stowe had made an unrealistic, one-dimensional moving-picture show of slavery in the South. Pro-slavery newspapers were mocking and sarcastic in their reviews, which had titles like "More Anti-Slavery Fiction," "A Few Facts for Mrs. Stowe," and "Uncle Tom Mania." Editors lamented that "Uncle Tom' southward Motel seems blighted to be an e'er-springing fountain of discord," and "We tremble for the traditional chivalry of the South."

Rather than letting the media and propagandist anti-Tom novels gain attention and discredit the truths behind her novel, Stowe decided to fight fire with fact. Her response to critics was another book, published in early on 1853, called The Cardinal to Uncle Tom's Motel: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon Which the Story Is Founded, Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Piece of work. A giant annotated bibliography of her sources, the book pointing to hundreds of documented cases of real-life incidents that were similar or identical to those portrayed in her story.

Stowe had named names. She had described the diverse people who had inspired the characters of Mr. Haley, George Harris, Eliza, Simon Legree, and the rest. One of those characters, of course, was of item interest. Who was Uncle Tom?

Stowe wrote in The Key: "The graphic symbol of Uncle Tom has been objected to as improbable; and yet the writer has received more confirmations of that character, and from a dandy variety of sources, than of whatever other in the volume." Stowe spends several pages describing the inspiration for various scenes in Uncle Tom'southward story, and and then she declares: "A final case parallel with that of Uncle Tom is to be found in the published memoirs of the venerable Josiah Henson . . . now pastor of the missionary settlement at Dawn, in Canada."

There were meaning overlaps between the lives of Josiah Henson and Tom, and readers familiar with Henson'south story immediately saw them. Their existent-life and fictional slave owners both separated a female parent from her kid while she begged him not to tear the family unit apart. Both Josiah and Tom lived on plantations in Kentucky. Legree constantly beat Tom, and Tom was sold to pay his owner's debts earlier beingness sent to Louisiana, a fate Josiah just barely escaped. Both would cross the Ohio River in their daring escapes. Above all, it was Josiah'due south faith in God in the face of hardship that fused him to Stowe'southward hero, for both Tom and Josiah were strongly religious men.

The parallels were close enough for prominent African-Americans to accept notice. On April 15, 1853, Martin Robison Delany, one of the get-go three black men admitted to Harvard Medical School, and the only black officeholder who received the rank of major during the Civil War, wrote a alphabetic character to Frederick Douglass in which he confirmed Stowe'southward interpretation of Josiah. He wrote, "It is now certain, that the Rev. JOSIAH HENSON, of Dawn, Canada Due west, is the real Uncle Tom, the Christian hero, in Mrs. Stowe's far-famed book of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'"

Josiah'due south audience with Queen Victoria on March 5, 1877 Courtesy of Uncle Tom's Cabin Celebrated site

Delany suggested to Douglass that perhaps Stowe owed Josiah something more substantial than a citation in her volume: "Since Mrs. Stowe and Messrs. Jewett & Co., Publishers, have realized so great an amount of money from the sale of a work founded upon this proficient old man, whose living testimony has to exist brought to sustain this great volume . . . would information technology exist expecting besides much to suggest, that they—the publishers—present Father Henson . . . merely a portion of the profits? I do not know what you may think most it; but it strikes me that this would exist merely just and correct."

Not only would Henson—the existent Uncle Tom—never receive a dime from Stowe's publishers, history itself didn't remember him kindly because of his connection to the fictional hero. Afterwards the publication of Stowe's novel, theater owners adapted the story for the stage, producing "Tom shows," better known as "minstrel shows" that inverted version the novel's plot. Played by white men in blackface, Tom was a caricature, an one-time hunchback with poor English who would happily sell out his own race to curry favor with his possessor. Fifty-fifty though the novel was the best-selling book of the century, considerably more people saw one of these racist performances than read the volume. That perversion of the proper name "Uncle Tom," has stuck ever since.

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Amid all the readers of Stowe's Key, there was one whose influence could not be overstated. According to the Library of Congress'south circulation records, President Abraham Lincoln borrowed The Key to Uncle Tom' s Motel on June 16, 1862, and returned it 43 days after, on July 29. The dates stand for exactly to the time during which he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. We may never know the degree to which Harriet Beecher Stowe influenced Abraham Lincoln himself. Only it is clear that the northern writer used her celebrity platform to powerfully sway public opinion toward emancipation. And during the critical fourth dimension when Lincoln was crafting the Emancipation Annunciation, he had Stowe'south Key–and Josiah Henson's story— near at hand.

Which would be plumbing fixtures every bit the original offering played a major role in Lincoln'south election. His Republican Party had distributed 100,000 copies of Uncle Tom' s Cabin during the presidential campaign of 1860 equally a way to stir up abolitionist back up. Without the abolitionist press and Stowe'south book, it's possible that Lincoln would non have garnered enough support to be elected President. As Radical Republican leader and U.S. Senator Charles Sumner declared, "Had there been no Uncle Tom' s Cabin, in that location would have been no Lincoln in the White Firm."

For his part, Henson used the publication of Stowe'south books to agitate for change in the The states. He re-published his memoir and used the funds to purchase his brother's freedom. He supported black families whose husbands and fathers went off to fight in the Ceremonious War. He ran businesses in Canada to utilise black refugees. In 1876, at historic period 87, Henson did a 100-plus urban center speaking tour of the United Kingdom to relieve himself of debts shouldered on behalf of the work at Dawn, and Queen Victoria invited him to Windsor Castle. Sixteen years after the Civil State of war ended, Rutherford B. Hayes entertained him at the White Business firm.

Josiah's cabin Boom Documentaries

Henson died in Dresden, Ontario, in 1883 at the historic period of 93; the New York Times obituary included his literary connection in the beginning line.

His funeral was one of the largest in Dresden's history. Bells rang from the churches, and well-nigh of the businesses closed for the service. Black musicians performed hymns, and 50 wagons followed his catafalque in a nearly two-mile procession to the graveside. Thousands of black and white attendees paid their respects.

Henson's cabin in Dresden is at present a small museum, and more than 200 of his descendants are still alive today. The hamlet of Dresden is still home to hundreds of descendants of enslaved laborers, men and women who first settled in the area every bit fugitives in Josiah Henson'southward fourth dimension.

Though history has been unkind to Uncle Tom, there'southward hope that his reputation as a martyr tin can be resuscitated equally readers extricate him from the more negative connotations. Were he still alive today, one would hope Henson could still proudly repeat his words upon learning of his connection to the novel's hero: "From that time to the present, I have been called 'Uncle Tom,' and I feel proud of the championship. If my humble words in any way inspired that gifted lady to write… I have not lived in vain; for I believe that her book was the offset of the glorious end."

African American History American History American Writers Books Literature Slavery Writers

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Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-josiah-henson-real-inspiration-uncle-toms-cabin-180969094/

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