The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 | Page 7

became
helpful to them in escaping the slave hunters who were then on their
trail. This man while working for an employer who undertook to punish
him had used violence and had to run off. The party, knowing the
increasing danger of capture, walked all night, trying to cover the
distance of forty miles. At daybreak they reached a wayside tavern near
Lake Erie and ordered breakfast. While the meal was in preparation
they quickly fell asleep. Just as the breakfast was ready, however,
Henson had the peculiar presentiment that some danger was near and
that he should at once leave the house. After experiencing some
difficulty in persuading the fugitives to leave the tavern quickly they
agreed to follow his orders. They had hardly left the tavern when they
heard the tramping of the horses of the slave hunters. They hid
themselves in some bushes nearby which overlooked the road. The
Lightfoots quickly recognized the slave hunters and whispered their

names to Henson as they passed by. This was the critical moment of
their lives. Had they remained in the house a few minutes longer they
would have been apprehended. Their white friend proceeded to the
door in advance of the landlord and when asked as to whether he had
seen any slaves said that he had, that there were six of them and that
they had gone toward Detroit. The slave-hunters at once set out in that
direction. The fugitives returned to the house, devoured their breakfast
immediately and secured the assistance of the landlord, who hearing
their piteous story agreed to take them in his boat to Canada. In the
language of Henson, "Their bosoms were swelling with inexpressible
joy as they mounted the seats of the boat, ready, eager, to spring
forward, that they might touch the soil of the freeman. And when they
reached the shore, they danced and wept for joy and kissed the earth on
which they first stepped, no longer slaves but freemen."[5]
Within a short time thereafter the boy whom they had left in dying
condition on the way reached them on the free soil of Canada in good
health. And Frank Taylor, the master of these fugitives, on recovering
from an attack of insanity which apparently resulted from the loss of
these slaves was persuaded by his friends to free the remaining
members of the Lightfoot family, an act which he finally performed,
enabling them after a few years to join their loved ones beyond the
borders of the land of the slave. In this way Henson became
instrumental in effecting the escape of as many as one hundred and
eighteen slaves.[6]
The next important work was the establishment of the British American
Manual Labor Institute in connection with Reverend Hiram Wilson.
After working out a tentative plan, Wilson wrote James O. Fuller,
residing in the State of New York, and interested him in the free
Negroes of Canada West. On a trip to England Mr. Fuller raised $1,500
for this purpose. A convention of the leading refugees in Canada West
was then called to decide exactly how this money should be spent.
Henson urged that it be appropriated to the establishment of a manual
labor school, where children could be taught the elements of knowledge
which are usually the courses of a grammar school; and where the boys
could be given, in addition, the practice of some mechanic art and the

girls could be instructed in those domestic arts which are the proper
occupations of their sex. Such a school he though would so equip the
Negro youth as to enable him to take over much of the work then being
done by white teachers. This was then necessary, owing to the
prejudice arising against the coeducation of the whites and blacks and
the stigma attached to teachers of Negroes. For this purpose two
hundred acres of land were bought on the river Sydenham. In 1842 the
school was established at Dawn, to which Henson moved with his
family. Henson traveled in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and
Maine in the interest of the institution and obtained many gifts,
especially from Boston, the liberal people of which gave him sufficient
funds to maintain it some time.
In connection with this school there was established a saw-mill, the
building and the equipment of which was secured by Henson also from
philanthropists in Boston. These gentlemen were Rev. Ephraim
Peabody, Amos Lawrence, H. Ingersoll Bowditch, and Samuel Elliot.
Henson then proceeded to have walnut sawed in Canada and shipped to
Boston. He sold his first eighty thousand feet to Jonas Chickering, at
forty-five dollars a thousand. The second cargo was shipped to Boston
via the St. Lawrence and brought Henson a handsome profit. This
business not only became profitable to the persons directly interested