The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 | Page 2

third master was "vulgar in his habits, unprincipled and cruel in his
general deportment and especially addicted to the vice of
licentiousness."[2] On his plantation Henson served as water-boy,
butler and finally as a field hand, experiencing the usual hardship of the
slave. He ate twice a day of cornmeal and salt herring, with a little
buttermilk and a few vegetables occasionally. His dress was first a

single garment, something like a long shirt reaching to the ankles, later
a pair of trousers and a shirt with the addition of a woolen hat once in
two or three years and a round jacket or overcoat in the winter time. He
slept with ten or a dozen persons in a log hut of a single small room,
with no other floor than the trodden earth, and without beds or furniture.
In spite of this, however, Henson grew to be a robust lad, who at the
age of fifteen could do a man's work. Having too more mental capacity
than most slaves, he was regarded as a smart fellow. Hearing remarks
like this about himself, Henson became filled with ambition and pride,
and aspired to a position of influence among his fellows.
At times Henson would toil and induce his fellow slaves to work much
harder and longer than required to obtain from their master a kind word
or act, but these efforts usually produced no more from their owner
than a cold calculation of the value of Josiah to him. When, however,
the white overseer of this plantation was discharged for stealing from
his employer, Josiah had shown himself so capable that he was made
manager of the plantation. In this position his honest management of
the estate made him indispensable to his master also as a salesman of
produce in the markets of Georgetown and Washington. He had during
these years come under the influence of an anti-slavery white man of
Georgetown and had become a devout Christian with considerable
influence as a preacher among the slaves.
About this time, Josiah was serving his master in another capacity,
which brought upon him one of the greatest misfortunes of his life.
This was accompanying his master to town for protection and
deliverance when the owners of his order indulged in excessive
drinking and brawls in taverns. Sometimes in removing his master from
the midst of a fracas, he would have to handle his owner's opponent
rather roughly. On one occasion when Riley became involved in a
quarrel with his brother's overseer, Henson pushed the overseer down;
and falling while intoxicated the overseer suffered some injury. The
overseer decided to wreak vengeance on Henson for this. Finding
Henson on the way home one day the overseer assisted by three
Negroes attacked him, beating him unmercifully and left him on the
ground almost senseless with his head badly bruised and cut and with

his right arm and both shoulder blades broken. Being on a farm where
no physician or surgeon was usually called, Henson recovered with
difficulty under the kind treatment of his master's sister; but was never
able thereafter to raise his hands to his head. The culprit did not suffer
for this offense, as the court acquitted him on the grounds of
self-defense.
In the course of time Henson's master, Isaac Riley, lived so
extravagantly that he became involved in debt and lawsuits which
heralded his ruin. Seeing his estate would be seized, he intrusted to
Henson in 1825 the tremendous task of taking his 18 slaves to his
brother, Amos Riley, in Kentucky. Henson bought a one-horse wagon
to carry provisions and to relieve the women and children from time to
time. The men were compelled to walk altogether. Traveling through
Alexandria, Culpepper, Fauquier, Harper's Ferry and Cumberland, they
met on the way droves of Negroes passing in chains under the system
of the internal slave trade, while those whom Henson was conducting
were moving freely without restriction. On arriving at Wheeling, he
sold the horse and wagon and bought a boat of sufficient size to take
the whole party down the river. At Cincinnati some free Negroes came
out to greet them and urged them to avail themselves of the opportunity
to become free. Few of the slaves except Henson could appreciate this
boon offered them, but he had thought of obtaining it only by purchase.
Henson said: "Under the influence of these impressions, and seeing that
the allurements of the crowd were producing a manifest effect, I sternly
assumed the captain, and ordered the boat to be pushed off into the
stream. A shower of curses followed me from the shore; but the
Negroes under me, accustomed to obey, and, alas! too degraded and
ignorant of the advantages of liberty to know what they were forfeiting,
offered no resistance to