Jim Henson was an African man who was
enslaved in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, U.S.
[ Henson escaped slavery, and made his way to Canada, where his slave narrative, entitled '' Broken Shackles'', was published in 1889.
]
Biography
Henson settled in Owen Sound
Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay.
The primary tourist attract ...
, on Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...
.[
Henson's maternal grandmother, Chandesia, was the daughter of a chieftain of the ]Bagirmi people Baguirmi or Bagirmi may refer to:
* Baguirmi Department
* Baguirmi language
* Baguirmi people
* Sultanate of Baguirmi
The Sultanate or Kingdom of Bagirmi or Baghermi (french: Royaume du Baguirmi) was a kingdom and Islamic sultanate southeast of L ...
, in what is now Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, when she was kidnapped.[
In his review future poet-laureate of Canada ]George Elliot Clarke
George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known larg ...
cheered the 2002 republication of Henson's memoirs, characterizing it as ''"one of the humble wellsprings of what we now proudly term African-Canadian literature."''[
He traveled through ]Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
on his way to Canada.[
Henson had seven different masters while he was a slave.][ His first master's widow had promised to free all of her slaves when they reached the age of 35, but she died before he reached 35. At the time he escaped he needed only to make his way to Pennsylvania in order to be free. He lived there for several years and then decided to make his home in Canada after the passage of a law that allowed bounty hunters to seize any African Americans inside the United states which they suspected were fugitive slaves.
In 1889, when John Frost wrote Henson's memoirs, based on his oral account of his life, the book's publication led to Henson reuniting with his long-lost wife.][ Henson was able to join her in Philadelphia, and they were able to spend their final months of life together.
]
References
{{Authority control
Fugitive American slaves
American emigrants to Canada