The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-08
"UNCLE TOM"
The Points in Which Rev. Mr.. Henson
Differed from Airs. Stoves Hero.

The Points in Which Rev. Mr.. Henson
Differed from Airs. Stoves Hero.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stoves Uncle Tom
the Rev. Josiah Henson, was born June 15
1888, in Charles county, Nd, on farm be-
longing to Francis Newman, abont a mile
from Port Tobacco. His mother was slave
of DIR. Josiah Mcpherson, but hired to New
man, to whom his father belonged One of
the earliest incidents Father Henson remem-
bered on the Newman farm was that of see
ing his father suffering with lacerated
back and bleeding head the overseer, q
rough, coarse man, had brutality assaulted
Uncle Toms mother, when his father, hear
ing her cries for help, rushed at the fellow
threw him down and would have killed him
but for the entreaties of the wife and
mother The slave who had dared to attack
white man, no matter what the provoca-
ton, must be punished, and Uncle Toms
father was sentenced to a hundred lashes and
to have his ear nailed to the whipping post
and then severed from the body; and the
sentence was carried out. The master, Nc
Pberson, was good master but Incorporate,
and returning home one night from a con-
yivial gathering, he was drowned. Then his
property" had to be sold, and Uncle Tom
and mother and children were separated
the father had been sent to Alabama some
time previous and sold, and was never heard
of again. Uncle Tom rose to be overseer
after time was converted; at the age of
twenty-five he married, and twelve children
were the fruit of this union; seven of these
survive. He removed to Kentucky in 1926
and after time became a Methodist preach
err. He finally purchased his freedom, but by
that trickery which shareholders know so
well, he was kept in bondage. He was taken
down the Mississippi to be sold, but escaped
that dread of the negroes-life on the planta-
tons of the far South. He fed at length
mil xxttfa OH 10 tl.saI lid a,,o
shore, and after innumerable hardships he
and his wife and little ones reached free Can
ada, Oct %, $780, He got on well in the
Dominion. From that time he preached and
iabored for his poor enslaved brethren; made
perilous journeys from Canada to the slave
States, and succeeded in aiding a number to
escape from slavery; and visited New York
and Boston, where he collected money with
which to build saw-miil at Camden, Canada
then called Dawn. Subsequently he visited
Great Britain, where he was as cordially re-
ceived as he had been by the Friends in Indi-
ana and Ohio, the ant-slavery men in New
England or the free people in Canada. His
life was very varied and nothing like salts
factory outline even can be given within our
narrow limits, so we select only the more
prominent of the incidents of his remarkable
career During the Canadian rebellion he
was appointed captain OF a company OF col
ored volunteers. When the slavery war
broke OUT hiS son lOn WHO was Inen IN Oal-
ifornia, went into the navy, and it is be-
leved was killed, as he was never heard
from since that time; and his son-in-law en-
listed at Detroit in the Union army. Father
Henson again visited Great Britain a few
years ago, where he was received by the most
distinguished men and women, and was
given, among other honors, an audience by
the Queen. After returning to America, he
visited his old slave home in Maryland, and
went to the grave of his mother, who had
passed away her life in sorrow and chains.
The story of this old man reads like novel
to all but himself and those who have trod-
den the wine press, and who toiled the
weary hours away in that bondage which
never has been, never can be, fully told, for
the tale is too horrible to hear. Mrs. Stowe
makes her Uncle Tom die in bondage,
while the person from whose life the author
ess borrowed the outlines of that well-known
character lived to be free, and to do much in
this country and Great Britain in enlisting
the sympathes of philanthropisis III behalf
of his once oppressed, but now emancipated
race.
A little chloride of lime dissolved in hot