MY THANKS START WITH MY WIFE, MICHELLE, FOR INTRODUCING ME to Josiah Henson in that roundabout way. I hope we can share many more fruitful and committed decades together, like Josiah and Charlotte, through happiness and hardship alike.
I must express great gratitude to Alex and Renie Elsaesser. I wrote many early drafts in their centuries-old barn conversion, and to them I’m grateful for providing such a hallowed hall in which to work.
Elizabeth Stein edited a winning proposal, Beth Fisher Adams once again ensured my submitted draft was actually readable, and Katherine H. Streckfus’s work was nothing less than a great gift. My work is by many degrees better for having such capable editors aboard.
Jennifer Gates and Jane von Mehren, my literary agents at Aevitas Creative Management, took on a young author with high hopes and helped them become a reality.
Colleen Lawrie grew up just minutes from Port Tobacco and had never heard of Josiah Henson, but she seized upon the story with an immediate and sustained passion. My gratitude extends to her especially, along with Jaime Leifer, Lindsay Fradkoff, Miguel Cervantes, Brooke Parsons, Katherine Haigler, Melissa Raymond, Michelle Welsh-Horst, and the rest of the team at PublicAffairs, plus Lauren Peters-Collaer, whose cover design was breathtaking from its very first draft.
I am also grateful to Andrea Cohen Barrack, Beth Puddicombe, Ibrahima Gueye, Edwige Jean-Pierre, Loida Ignacio, Ruby Weber, David Murray, Omar Omar, and the rest of the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their support in helping bring Josiah’s story to a wider audience through live events.
My appreciation extends to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for supporting the Documenting the American South project of the University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, especially for the project’s electronic publication of four of Josiah Henson’s original texts.
An author could spend a small eternity on the Library of Congress’s website, which I did, and I’m grateful to the library’s kind staff for their assistance.
Thanks to one of my lawyers, Robert Lanteigne, and Amanda Fudge at the Waterloo Region Law Library, for tracking down details on several 150-year-old lawsuits.
I also owe thanks to the many researchers, librarians, archivists, historians, and archaeologists whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting: Professor Julia Ann King, Gary A. Adams, Isaac Settle, Jamie Glavic, Jamie Kuhns, Alex J. Flick, Sondra Millner, Rachel M. Kennedy, Karen Milligan, Samantha Meredith, Chantelle Rodrigues, Sabina Beauchard, Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, Maira Liriano, Cassandra Michaud, Joey Lampl, Shirl Spicer, Mike Nardolilli, Sarah Hedlund, Pat Andersen, and Leslie Thomas-Smith. A special thanks to Cindy Robichaud and the Kent Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, along with the Black Mecca Museum in Chatham and the Chatham-Kent Public Library for their wealth of information. I also must thank several other libraries, including the Guelph Public Library in Ontario, the Boston Public Library and the Marlborough Public Library in Massachusetts, and the New York Public Library, particularly its Schomburg Center.
I am grateful to Michael J. Sullivan for the hours of laughter and conversation, and for opening up his magnificent barn for several sleepovers while I conducted research in Maryland.
A very special thanks to the immensely kind Beth Burgess at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center for taking me into the vaults and showing me the petition signatures of 563,000 women who were as passionate about ending slavery then as Beth is about preserving Stowe’s legacy now. I am especially grateful that she allowed me the thrilling experience of holding (with white gloves, of course) a document signed by Josiah Henson’s own hand.
I am humbled by Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Wilson, the Wills Family, and George and Cynthia Hawes, who all graciously allowed me to step foot on private properties once trod by Josiah himself.
An especially warm thanks is reserved for Steven Cook and Brenda Lambkin at the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site in Dresden, for giving me the freedom to roam Josiah Henson’s homestead at will, as well as for sharing their deep passion with me.
I’m grateful for many of the people who gave me their time in the form of an interview, including University of Maryland’s Dr. Cheryl LaRoche, Erin Greenwald at the Historic New Orleans Collection (whose Purchased Lives exhibition I cannot recommend highly enough), Kathy Olsen at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History, Dr. Michael Battle at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, John Franklin at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Janice Wilson at the Charles County Branch of the NAACP, and Lisa Macleman at Montgomery Parks, who kindly allowed me to interview her twice.
I am profoundly grateful for the hospitality of friends who played host along my journey, including Chris and Katherine Rader near Washington, DC, my dear aunt-in-law Anneli McCulley near Boston, and especially the ever-generous Keith and Rosie Ketchum near London, in whose astoundingly welcoming home I have penned thousands of words.
I’m incalculably indebted to Ari and Lea Uotila for the countless sleepovers in your spare room, days of work in your spare office, and ceaseless support of my projects.
Thanks to Pastor Bob, for his constant encouragement and confident prayers, as well as the prayers, love, and support of my own parents, Gord and Karen Brock.
I extend my deep appreciation to the members of the Henson family who so kindly welcomed me into their homes—and fed me so deliciously at the Michigan family reunion. Thanks to those who volunteered to share with me, including Kristel Anthony, Darryl Beard, Marie Booker Woodard, and Ron Dean, plus Michelle Roberts for making introductions, and Stephanie Johnson for joining our board and providing an exceptional and profoundly moving interview. To my dear friend and brother, Rev. Terrence Vick, a special thanks for being a willing and passionate spokesperson for the Henson family.
I’m deeply indebted to the Reverend Father Josiah Henson himself, for providing me with an intimately personal example of justice without violence, generosity without question, and faith without compromise. I hope this humble biography honors your memory and furthers your legacy.