# 10: Britain's Star by Jean Stanclift
The patterns were free online for two years but now I am
offering them for sale in two formats
at my Etsy shop. Buy a PDF or a Paper Pattern through the
mail here:
Twelve years after the U.S. Civil War was over, an English woman described in her diary a "most interesting book" about an African-American man who'd escaped slavery and run to Canada with his wife and children. The book may have been a gift from the author whom she'd
just met.
Henson's story was told in several editions under several titles.
Josiah Henson was on a publicity tour of sorts. In their short
conversation he impressed her with his concern for others. She wrote that she
admired his energy and patient endurance for he had been through many trials in
his long life,
She liked to think that she too had endured many trials.
Her Majesty Queen Victoria noted in that diary entry that
Henson was the real-life model for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's
bestseller Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Nancy and Josiah Henson
Chloe on the left
Stowe's Aunt Chloe is a character to make the modern reader grind
her teeth, the essence of Aunt Jemima, fat and subservient, an excellent cook
who guffaws while speaking in an almost impenetrable dialect.
The 1849 edition
Before Uncle Tom,
Henson created a different sketch of Charlotte .
In his first autobiography, published in 1849, he revealed a woman with real fears, real intelligence
and real love. His wife was "a very efficient, and, for a slave, a very
well-taught girl."
Henson, living his own version of slavery's misery in Kentucky in 1830, decided to escape with Charlotte and their four young children. At first Charlotte
refused to go, "terrified by the dangers." He recalled that she
argued "to persuade me from it, and
try to make me contented with my condition as it was."
After fighting all
night he threatened to leave her and take the children. "I said to her,
very deliberately, that though it was a cruel thing for me to part with her,
yet I would do it…. She wept and entreated, but found I was resolute." She agreed to go.
Stowe's Eliza became the national image of the escapee.
Their youngest boys were too small to
run, so he asked her to stitch a linen knapsack, a sort of backpack large
enough for Josiah to carry them. Their trip north took them through Cincinnati, where antislavery friends sheltered them; then along an old military road through the backcountry to Lake Erie . They spent two weeks scrambling through the Ohio and Indiana woods,
frightened, starving, exhausted and occasionally squabbling over who was at
fault. Charlotte
fainted from hunger and Josiah chanced talking to a farmwife who gave him
venison and bread to carry back into the woods.
They were fortunate enough to receive provisions from the Indians who still
dominated Ohio 's
woodlands.
At the Great Lakes they found sailors who carried them toCanada and sent
them off with a dollar to invest in a new life.
At the Great Lakes they found sailors who carried them to
The Henson's house at Dawn near Dresden, Ontario, has been preserved.
The Hensons settled in a colony called Dawn where Josiah co-founded a manual labor school that earned a reputation as a model for ex-slaves helping their brothers and sisters. Josiah's 1849 book, brought him additional fame.
While he was on his first trip to
Britain's Star by Becky Brown
After
Henson adopted the popular image of Uncle Tom.
He published a new version of his autobiography, reinventing himself as Uncle Tom and Charlotte as Aunt Chloe. He returned to
Britain's Star by Becky Brown
in Ladies' Album reproductions
What We Can Learn About the Underground Railroad from Charlotte Henson's Story
Read More:
Fergus M. Bordewich weaves the Henson's tale through his overview of the Underground Railroad. Bound for
You can find several versions of Josiah's autobiographies
online by going to www.google.com/books . Search in the "full
view" books for Josiah Henson to read how the story changed over the
years.
1851 The first version from 1849
doesn't seem to be available online but a second printing is. See The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave as
Narrated by Himself [to S.A.
1858. Truth
Stranger Than Fiction: Father Henson's Story of His Own Life. With an
Introduction by Mrs. H. B. Stowe. (Boston: John P. Jewett, 1858)
1879. An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom"), From 1789 to 1879 (Boston:
B. B. Russell, 1879)
1876 Uncle Tom's Story
of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe's "Uncle Tom") from 1789 to 1876
(London: Christian Age Office, 1876). This version is available at Documenting the American South, a web
page from the University
of North Carolina Chapel Hill
To learn about Uncle Tom's Cabin and its remarkable influence see a webpage from the
The illustrations and the virtual bookshelf (in the center
of the home page) are particularly interesting. To view a page about Josiah
Henson's role as the model for Uncle Tom click on this link:
Make a Quilt a Month
Combine two similar stars to make a 42" quilt with a 3" finished border. Alternate 4 Britain's Star blocks with 5 Jacksonville Star blocks (#8). For coloring, think outside the block. Recolor to
create a kind of Barn Raising shading with a central focus.
Is this the enduring image of Uncle Tom painted on an 1880s crazy quilt?
Collection of Julie Silber.
