® Free Press Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad

March, 2012 urrfreepress.com Volume 7, Issue 35

Josiah Henson Probable Kin to John Hanson, First President

Recent research points strongly to the possi-

bilityurrFreePress.com that Underground Railroad icon Josiah  Henson was related to John Hanson, the first president of the United States’ original gov- ernment under the Articles of Confederation. Editrial Introducing Author Karolyn Smardz Frost and Under- Underground Railroad ground Railroad Free Press publisher Peter H. Free Press Books Michael have unearthed historical and genea- logical evidence definitively linking Henson While recent years have seen several excellent books on the Underground and the Hanson family in time and place. Frost is author of the prize-winning Under- Railroad, too many remain unpub- lished in an era when traditional pub- ground Railroad biography I’ve Got a Home In Josiah Henson John Hanson lishers must be ever more selective Glory Land and is a Free Press Prize judge. Josiah Henson was born enslaved on the in what they publish to survive as the Charles County, , plantation of Dr. The Henson-Hanson relationship is brought to industry reels under rapid change. Josias Hanson McPherson in 1795 or 1796 ac- light in Michael’s recently released Remem- A few publishers have kept pace with bering John Hanson. Please see Henson, page 3, column 1 rapidly changing book market but many have lagged, most conspicu- Smithsonian Opens Jefferson Slave Exhibit ously the Borders bookstore chain Through October 14, the Smithsonian Institu- ing its seepage across the Appalachians. The which vanished last fall. Add to this tion’s National Museum of African-American plain choice laid before the Congress was to that no publisher is dedicated to Un- derground Railroad books. History and Culture offers “ at Jeffer- contain slavery within its 1784 boundaries or son’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty,” explor- open the door for its national expansion with Meanwhile, Amazon is now the larg- ing the lives of the enslaved who built and no western bulwark to stop it. est bookseller and its e-books now maintained the national historic landmark, surpass its print sales. and of its ultimately conflicted owner. The Jefferson Plan was defeated by a single What this all means to Underground vote putting the United States on an unstop- Railroad writers is ever fewer oppor- The exhibit, conducted in concert with Mon- pable transit to the Civil War. Immediately tunities to get their works into print. ticello, looks at slavery in Revolutionary War- grasping the full import of this failure, Jef- Now Underground Railroad Free Press era America, how the plantation’s enslaved ferson anguished, “Thus we see the fate of Books fills the void. families fared in Jefferson’s time, and Jeffer- millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one We offer authors of the Underground son’s descendants, black and white, since. man, and heaven was silent in that awful moment.” Railroad and related topics afford- In 1784, the ultimately conflicted Jefferson, able publication services under our snot yet willing to part with his slaves but In this raw example of the nation's torn soul imprint. Editing, proofreading, publi- cation, fulfillment, distribution and knowing that continued slavery tainted the on slavery, Thomas Jefferson, he of the en- marketing may be purchased to- new nation’s professed ideals, posing a long- slaved common-law African-American wife gether or separately for books meet- term national threat, chaired a committee of Sally Hemings and their enslaved children, ing Free Press Books standards. the nation’s first government charged with grieved the lost chance to abolish slavery and organizing lands west of the Appalachians. give uncompromised life to the soaring ideals The first Free Press book, Remem- he had penned in the Declaration of Inde- bering John Hanson, tells the Josiah The Jefferson Plan included prohibition of pendence eight years before. Henson story reported as the lead ar- slavery. If passed, it would have held slavery ticle in this issue. to six eastern seaboard slave states, prohibit- Please see Jefferson, page 3, column 3 Maryland Proposes Tubman for US Capitol Emancipation Hall Emancipation Hall, centerpiece of the new to ask other states to observe Harriet Tub-

National Capitol Visitor Center, has moved man Day, celebrated each March in Maryland beyond the concept stage as the Senate Rules since 2000 when Fields recommended legis- Committee studies the Hall’s final design. lation making the observance official. Senator Catherine Pugh and Delegate Susan All four 2012 bills are expected to pass the Lee of the Maryland General Assembly have Maryland General Assembly with bipartisan cross-filed bills to have their state donate a support and little if any opposition. statue of to Emancipation The bill proposing the donation to Emanci- Hall as the Hall’s signature element. pation Hall follows an unsuccessful 2011 bill The bills were urged by Tubman descendants to install a Tubman statue in the Capitol’s

and by the Maryland Underground Railroad National Statuary Hall. But the Hall’s stat- For pricing, how our publication serv- Coalition and its president, Louis Fields. ues, two per state, are now scattered about ices work, and submission require- the Capitol in many places where visitors Continued on page 2 Pugh, Lee and cosponsors also put forth a bill are no longer allowed for security reasons. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 2 ments, click on Books at our website or email [email protected]. Four Underground Railroad Conferences Queued Up The Underground Railroad History Project American History and Culture. Visit Black- Free Press Books is pleased to offer of the Capital Region will hold its 11th annual Museums.org for more. these new services to the interna- conference April 13-15, at Russell Sage Col- PAID ADVERTISEMENT tional Underground Railroad commu- lege, in Troy, New York. The conference of- nity. We look forward to working The Underground Railroad with you. fers a visit to the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church of Henry Highland Garnet, an Under- Turned on Its Head: ground Railroad site tour and a jazz perform- Old Themes, New Directions

Subscribe ance. Visit ugrworkshop.com for more. April 13 -15, 2012

Free Press subscriptions are free. To Organized by Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, Inc. subscribe, send email addresses of Next, the National Park Service’s Network to Hosted by Russell Sage College, Troy, New York those you would like to receive Free Freedom program will host its 6th annual In Collaboration with Rensselaer County Historical Society Press to [email protected]. conference, themed “Escaping to Destina- Keynote speakers: View or Add to Datebook tions South,” in St. Augustine, Florida, June Email us about upcoming events and 20-23. Search at the Park Service website or Manisha Sinha, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts we will add them to Datebook. Click on call 404.507.5830 for information. “Fleeing for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves and the Making of Datebook at urrFreePress.com to view American ” a comprehensive calendar of events. The Choptank Region History Network will Barbara McCaskill, Ph.D., University of Georgia Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads host its Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad “A Thousand Miles for Freedom: a New Take on the Old

News, letters or articles: Conference, “Connecting Pieces of the Puz- Story of , the Georgia Fugitives” [email protected] zle,” at Cambridge, Maryland’s Chesapeake Advertising: [email protected] Alan Singer, Ph.D., Hofstra University See the notice on our web site for College June 1-2. Email Tubman.Conference “Abolition: From Marginalization to Emancipation”

specifications, rates and restrictions. @gmail.com. Miles Ahead Jazz Quartet Link Your Web Site or View Lynx Across the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore, the Spectres of Liberty: the Ghost of Liberty Church Visit urrFreePress.com to view Lynx, UGRR Tours of Schenectady and Troy links to other organizations. To add Association of African-American Museums your link, email its web address to will convene “Commemorating Struggles: “The gold standard of UGRR conferences” ...Fergus Bordewich [email protected]. Claiming Freedom” on August 22-25 at the Information at www.ugrworkshop.com Free Press Prize Nominations Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African Visit urrfreepress.com to learn more about these annual prizes and to In PBS Bio download a nomination form. On February 6, the Public Broadcasting Sys- telling in 190 accounts the escapes of over Rate Your Underground Railroad Site tem premiered “The Underground Railroad: 900 souls. Still in print, the book remains Go to urrfreepress.com/#Scale to use the The William Still Story,” a 60-minute bio of the prime collection of first-hand accounts Wellman Scale to rate authenticity of an Underground Railroad site claim. the famed Philadelphia safe-house operator. of the Underground Railroad.

List Your Underground Railroad Site PBS stations will rebroadcast the William Still PBS was joined by significant Canadian spon- Go to urrfreepress.com/#Visit to link to Story from time to time. Check local PBS list- sorship including the Canadian National the most comprehensive map of Under- ings. The program may be purchased as a Railway, Canada Media Fund and Rogers Ca- ground Railroad sites and list yours. DVD or viewed free at the PBS website, and ble Network. The program was produced by th Amazon sells the DVD for $14.95. Toronto’s 90 Parallel Productions and Underground Railroad Free Press® WNED-Buffalo/Toronto. Independent Reporting On Beginning sometime in the 1850s at great Today’s Underground Railroad risk, Still began recording the stories of free- Free Press Prize judges Fergus Bordewich Peter H. Michael, Publisher dom seekers passing though his care, and in and Karolyn Frost are among the program’s [email protected] 1872 published his The Underground Railroad 301.874.0235 narrators.

Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news- Grass + Web Reveal Buffalo Underground Railroad letter published by Underground Railroad Free Press Publications, 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike, As the resurgence of Underground Railroad ers do the same authenticating their own Adamstown, Maryland, 21710. Back issues are available free at our web site. Underground interest has spread in recent years, more lost sites, local Underground Railroad maps begin Railroad Free Press is distributed by email. pieces of its mosaic have come to light, often to interlink revealing the stories of a growing Send email address changes and new subscriber email addresses to [email protected]. thanks to the work of individual Underground number of Underground Railroad figures. Railroad enthusiasts. Underground Railroad Free Press welcomes news Once a site is identified, next steps are to articles and letters to the editor of 800 words or less. All rights to submissions including email While oral traditions and sparse documenta- rate site authenticity on the Wellman Scale, and letters will be treated as unconditionally as- tion long held that certain buildings in Buf- then post sites and ratings at the Under- signed to Free Press for publication and copy- right purposes, and subject to our unrestricted falo, New York, were used in the Under- ground Railroad map of MapMuse.com. Links right to edit and comment editorially unless oth- ground Railroad, work by Cynthia Van Ness to both are at the Free Press website. erwise negotiated with authors. has now documented many buildings’ roles. Van Ness is the Buffalo & Erie County Histori- Free Press accepts tasteful nonpolitical advertis- ing and reserves the right to reject advertising Says Van Ness, “When Google Books began, cal Society’s Director of Libraries and Ar- which for any reason in our sole judgment is not the full-text search capability helped me lo- chives. A list of Buffalo sites which she has acceptable. Submit advertising in pdf, jpg, tiff or gif format or text. Visit urrfreepress.com for cate many finds. I also used local databases, authenticated is at BuffaloResearch.com. rates and layout specifications. which included some African-

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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 3

Henson subject narrate it in the 1870s. Jefferson cording to Frost who corrects Henson’s Josiah Henson, among the most famous The 1787 Northwest Ordinance did man- usually cited birth year of 1789. of Underground Railroad freedom seek- age to prohibit slavery in the six states of In his autobiography dictated to London ers, was in significant part the basis of the Northwest Territory, but was fol- transcriber John Lobb in the 1870s, Hen- 's 1852 landmark lowed in 1788 with a Constitution which son says of McPherson, “As the first ne- 's Cabin. fatally sidestepped the issue except to gro child ever born to him, I was his es- exacerbate it by legislating that enslaved After escaping slavery on the Under- pecial pet. He gave me his own Christian were to be counted as three- ground Railroad in 1829, Henson settled name, Josiah, and with that he also gave fifths of a human being and then only for in Canada, founded the town of Dawn, me my last name, Henson, after an uncle apportioning white representation in the , established the first school for of his, who was an officer in the revolu- new House of Representatives. Underground Railroad freedom seekers, tionary war.” The uncle was Major Sam- and became one of history's most promi- After years of resistance, the Thomas uel Hanson McPherson. That Josias Han- nent and articulate advocates for eman- Jefferson Foundation which owns and son McPherson would name his "first ne- cipation and human rights. operates Monticello relented to a degree gro child" and "especial pet" Josiah Hen- in its denial of scientific evidence that son — or perhaps originally Josiah Hanson Josiah Henson died May 5, 1883, proba- Jefferson sired a line of descendants or Josias Hanson — gives quick rise to the bly in his late eighties, deeply revered in borne by Sally Hemings. The Monticello suspicion that Josias Hanson McPherson the United States, Canada where he set- website acknowledges that, “Most histo- fathered Josiah Henson, an all too fre- tled, and elsewhere. rians now believe that the documentary quent indignity inflicted on enslaved and genetic evidence, considered to- families. In 1909 his great-grandnephew, , who accompanied Admiral Rob- gether, strongly support the conclusion Henson’s describing himself as McPher- ert Peary on his expedition to the North that Jefferson was the father of Sally son's first negro child could be literal and Pole, became the first person ever to set Hemings’s children.” The Foundation, begs deeper conjecture. In his autobiog- foot at the Pole as he scouted ahead of which maintains Monticello’s graveyard raphy, Josiah Henson ascribes his father Peary and the exploration party. where Jefferson descendants continue to as his mother's husband sold south, but be interred, still remains segregated. also reveals that this man was kept on Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 60 lan- the plantation of his enslaver, Francis guages, is still regarded as the most in- Readers Invited: 2012 Free Newman, while his mother lived on fluential book ever written by an Ameri- Press Prizes and Survey Josias Hanson McPherson’s plantation. can, and has never been out of print since its original publication. Each spring, we ask our readers whom Though for some period his mother was they believe deserve special recognition hired out by McPherson to a nearby farm John Hanson, a major Revolutionary War for Underground Railroad work. Each fall, militia raiser, logistician and financier, after Josiah Henson's birth, McPherson we then award the Underground Rail- would have had access to her whenever persuaded Maryland at the last hour to road Free Press Prizes for Leadership, he wanted before (or after) the birth. join in the Declaration of Independence, Preservation and Advancement of This combination of circumstances raises and later brokered the Articles of Con- Knowledge in the international Under- the possibility, perhaps the likelihood, federation, after all others had failed, ground Railroad community. that Josiah Henson was actually a permitting nationhood and establishment of the first government. If you have someone you would like to McPherson related to the Hanson family nominate, let us urge you to do so. It's through Josias Hanson McPherson. These two nation-saving strokes led to easy. Go to urrFreePress.com, click on The McPherson farm was a mile from his unanimous election as president as Prizes, download a nomination form and Mulberry Grove, ancestral farm of John the first government was formed No- email it to us. While you are there, en- Hanson. Dr. Josias Hanson McPherson's vember 5, 1781. John Hanson ably ad- joy having a look at past prize winners grandfather, Samuel Hanson, was Presi- ministered the nation’s government dur- and their accomplishments. dent John Hanson’s first cousin. If Josiah ing the Articles’ prescribed one-year presidential term in 1781-82. Free Press also sponsors the annual Free Henson and John Hanson (1715-1783) Press Survey of the International Un- were related, they were first cousins Hanson died away from home on Novem- derground Railroad Community and three generations removed. ber 22, 1783. In an astounding twist of shares results with the community, pub- Since President Hanson was related to fate unique to any United States presi- lic officials and others. The surveys in- Presidents William Henry Harrison and dent, his grave was forgotten, robbed clude some questions carried forward Benjamin Harrison, this would make and bulldozed after a developer bought each year to track trends, and new ques- Henson related to three presidents. the property in the 1980s, and rediscov- tions on recent developments. ered by Peter Michael in 2011 in time for As President Hanson is related to Peter inclusion in the John Hanson biography. Some of the most valuable lessons Michael, he and Henson, if they are re- learned from these surveys since the first lated, are fourth cousins twice removed. DNA comparison of Henson and Hanson in 2007 came from reader suggestions. descendants would determine if Josiah Let us know what you think would be Remaining unexplained is the one-letter Henson is indeed related to President good to ask in the 2012 survey which will difference in the spelling of the sur- John Hanson. A Hanson descendant is be administered online in May. Subscrib- names Hanson and Henson. This might be willing to provide a DNA sample. Free ers will be invited to participate. Survey attributed to Lobb’s recording the name Press seeks a Henson descendant related results will be presented in our July issue as he thought he heard his semi-literate to Josiah Henson willing to do the same. and full results posted on our website.