Father Henson's Story of His Own Life. [slave narrative] With an introduction by Mrs. H. B. Stowe. John P. Jewett and Company, 1858. Hardcover, 212 pp. Top of title page (presumed series name): "Truth Stranger Than Fiction."

Brown textured cloth hardcover with gilt letters on spine. Cloth is faded, especially on and along spine. Some few foxing spots on pages, otherwise clean. Tissue at title page and portrait are especially foxed. Some signatures are loose and part of the inner block has pulled away from the outer spine. Could be fixed rather easily.

Josiah Henson (1789-1883) was born in Charles County, Maryland. He escaped to Canada and established a school at the Dawn Settlement in Kent County, Ontario. Henson's life provided the inspiration for the titular character in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henson worked on a plantation in what is now North Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland. A fascinating story of ante-bellum Maryland, the underground railroad, and the path to freedom in Canada.  This is the expanded version of Henson's memoir, first published in 1849, as The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself.

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