The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 | Page 5

comfortable wigwam for the
night. They were then informed that they were about twenty-five miles
from the lakes. After experiencing some difficulty in fording a
dangerous stream and spending another night in the woods they saw the
houses on the outskirts; of Sandusky.
Using good judgment, however, Henson did not go into the village at
once. When about a mile from the lake, He hid his family in the woods

and then proceeded to approach the town. Soon he observed on the left
side of the town a house from which a number of men were taking
something to a vessel. Approaching them immediately he was asked
whether or not he desired to work. He promptly replied in the
affirmative and it was not long before he was assisting them in loading
corn. He soon contrived to get in line next to the only Negro there
engaged and communicated to him his plans.[4]
He told the captain, who called Henson aside and agreed to assist him
in getting to Buffalo, the boat's destination, where the fugitives would
find friends. It was agreed that the vessel should leave the landing and
that a small boat should take the fugitives aboard at night, as there were
Kentucky spies in Sandusky that might apprehend them. Henson said
he watched the vessel leave the landing and then lower a boat for the
shore and in a few minutes his black friend and two sailors landed and
went with him to get his family. Thinking that he had been captured his
wife had grown despondent and had moved from the spot where he left
her. With a little difficulty, he found her, but when she saw him
approaching with those men, she was still more frightened. She was
reassured, however, and soon they were received on board in the midst
of hearty cheers. They arrived at Buffalo the next evening too late to
cross the river. The following morning they were brought to Burnham
and went on the ferry boat to Waterloo. The good Captain Burnham
paid the passage money and gave Henson a dollar beside. They arrived
in Canada on the 28th day of October, 1830. Describing his exultation
Henson said: "I threw myself on the ground, rolled in the sand, seized
handfuls of it and kissed them, and danced round till, in the eyes of
several who were present, I passed for a madman. 'He's some crazy
fellow,' said a Colonel Warren, who happened to be there. 'O, no,
master! don't you know? I'm free!' He burst into a shout of laughter.
'Well I never knew freedom make a man roll in the sand in such a
fashion,' Still I could not control myself. I hugged and kissed my wife
and children, and, until the first exuberant burst of feeling was over,
went on as before."
He soon found employment there with one Mr. Hibbard, whom he
served three years and was lodged in a cabin better than that in

Kentucky. His family, however, had been so exposed that during the
first winter they almost died of sickness, but his employer was kind to
him. Mr. Hibbard taught Henson's son Tom, then twelve years of age.
Tom's achievements were soon such that instead of reading the Bible to
his father to assist him in preaching he taught his father to read. Henson
then entered the service of one Mr. Risely, who had experienced more
elevation of mind than Mr. Hibbard. With this advantage Henson not
only realized more fully than ever the ignorance in which he lived, but
became interested in the elevation of his people there, who had been
content with the mere making a livelihood rather than solving the
economic problems of freedom. A good many, thereafter, agreed to
invest their savings in land. In this they had the cooperation of Mr.
Risely. Henson set out, therefore, in 1834 to explore the country and
finally selected a place for a settlement to the east of Lake St. Clair and
Detroit river later called Colchester.
Henson thereafter directed his attention to those whom he had left in
bondage. If he felt any compunction of conscience for having
conducted the party of Maryland slaves through a free State without
making an effort to free them, he made up for that in later years.
Addressing an audience of Negroes some years later at Fort Erie,
Pennsylvania, he took occasion to remind them of their duty to assist in
the emancipation of their fellowmen in the South. In the audience was a
young man named James Lightfoot, who had fled from a plantation
near Maysville, Kentucky. Seeing his duty as never before, he
approached Father Henson to arrange for the rescue of his enslaved
kinsmen. Knowing the agony in which he was, Henson undertook the
perilous task