FATHER HENSON'S STORYOF HIS OWN LIFE.
TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.
FATHER HENSON'S STORY
OF
HIS OWN LIFE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY MRS. H. B. STOWE.
BOSTON:
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
HENRY P. B. JEWETT.
1858.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1858, by
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court
for the District of Massachusetts
LITHOTYPED BY COWLES AND COMPANY,
17 WASHINGTON STREET,
BOSTON.
Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery.
PREFACE.
The numerous friends of the author of this little work will need nogreater recommendation than his name to make it welcome. Among allthe singular and interesting records to which the institution ofAmerican slavery has given rise, we know of none more striking, morecharacteristic and instructive, than that of Josiah Henson.
Born a slave—a slave in effect in a heathen land—and under a heathenmaster, he grew up without Christian light or knowledge, and likethe Gentiles spoken of by St. Paul, "without the law did by naturethe things that are written in the law." One sermon, one offer ofsalvation by Christ, was sufficient for him, as for the Ethiopianeunuch, to make him at once a believer from the heart and a preacherof Jesus.
To the great Christian doctrine of forgiveness of enemies and thereturning of good for[Pg iv] evil, he was by God's grace made a faithfulwitness, under circumstances that try men's souls and make us allwho read it say, "lead us not into such temptation." We earnestlycommend this portion of his narrative to those who, under much smallertemptations, think themselves entitled to render evil for evil.
The African race appear as yet to have been companions only of thesufferings of Christ. In the melancholy scene of his death—whileEurope in the person of the Roman delivered him unto death, and Asiain the person of the Jew clamored for his execution—Africa wasrepresented in the person of Simon the Cyrenean, who came patientlybearing after him the load of the cross; and ever since then poorAfrica has been toiling on, bearing the weary cross of contempt andoppression after Jesus. But they who suffer with him shall also reign;and when the unwritten annals of slavery shall appear in the judgment,many Simons who have gone meekly bearing their cross after Jesus tounknown graves, shall rise to thrones and crowns! Verily a day shallcome when he shall appear for these his hidden ones, and then "manythat are last shall be first, and the first shall be last."
Our excellent friend has prepared this edition[Pg v] of his works for thepurpose of redeeming from slavery a beloved brother, who has gro