BUFFALO, N.Y. — For Saladin Allah, the Underground Railroad Heritage Center is in his blood. Not only is he a curator at the Niagara Falls, NY attraction, his connection also goes back to his great-great-great grandfather, and the landmark book that his life inspired, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Josiah Henson was born on a tobacco farm in Charles County, Maryland on June 15, 1789. Like most slaves, he was exposed to the cruelty of the practice early in life. "His oldest and earliest memory of his father is seeing him come into the slave quarters holding the side of his head with blood running down the side of his face." Saladin says Josiah received that beating for defending his wife to a slave handler.
From that moment, Josiah knew he had to one day win his freedom. "So he earned a little bit of money going from plantation to plantation to preach, and he would give it to his owner in the interest of buying his freedom papers. So every time he would come back to his enslaver and give him money, he would say just a little more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more. He realized that he never intended on him being free."
At age of 41, after countless beatings that left him with limited use of his arms, after raising a family, and after he and his entire family were sold to another plantation, Josiah Henson said enough is enough. He walked from Kentucky to Western New York, 500 miles. It took him over a month to take that journey. Two of his children were too small, he had to carry them in a knapsack on his back.
He crossed the Niagara River at Broderick Park and into Fort Erie. He made it his life's work to fight injustice. He established a community for fugitive slaves in Dresden, Ontario called the Dawn Settlement.
But possibly his most lasting contribution came in 1852, when Harriet Beecher Stowe used Josiah Henson's life story and memoirs as the basis for Uncle Tom's Cabin.