® Underground Railroad Free Press Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad
January, 2011 urrfreepress.com Volume 6, Issue 28
Josiah Henson and the First President of the United States George Washington? No, Washington was ac- material tying Henson to the Hanson family
tuallyurrFreePress.com first president of the second United and a possible blood relationship to President States government which, as every American John Hanson. school child learns, began in 1789 with the Frost says Henson was born at Port Tobacco, Constitution. For eight years before that, the Maryland, probably in 1795 or 1796, in the nation was governed by the original United midst of many Hanson plantations and within Editorial States government chartered in 1781 by the a few miles of Mulberry Grove, John Hanson's Now is the opportunity to recog- Articles of Confederation. nize someone doing good Under- birth place and home until 1769 when he ground Railroad work and tell us The original government, named by the Arti- moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he rose what should be included in the cles as the United States in Congress Assem- to national political prominence. 2011 survey. bled, all too well understood its weakness Please see Henson/Hanson, page 3, column 2 and replaced itself through the Constitutional Call for Nominations for Convention. The original government had its the 2011 Free Press Prizes presidents who were elected to one-year Each January, we ask our readers terms, the first of whom was Maryland's John whom they believe deserves spe- Hanson, the actual first president of the United States, who served the 1781-1782 cial recognition for Underground Railroad work. Each Fall, we then term. award the annual Underground In her work for the Ontario Heritage Trust in Railroad Free Press Prizes for 2007 researching the Canadian Uncle Tom's Leadership, Preservation and Ad- Cabin, the Ontario home of famed Under- John Hanson's presiden- vancement of Knowledge in the Josiah Henson in old age. ground Railroad figure Josiah Henson, author Photo probably taken in tial portrait in Independ- contemporary international Un- Karolyn Smardz Frost, uncovered fascinating the 1870s. ence Hall's collection derground Railroad community. Visualizing Slavery If you know someone who has By Susan Schulten done good work in any of these in statistical cartography: each county not three areas whom you would like The 1860 census was the last time the federal only displays its slave population numerically, to nominate for a prize, let us government took a count of the South’s vast but is shaded (the darker the shading, the encourage you to do so. It's easy. slave population. Several months later, the higher the proportion of slaves) to visualize Go to urrFreePress.com, click on United States Coast Survey — arguably the the concentration of slavery across the re- Prizes, download a nomination most important scientific agency in the na- gion. The counties along the Mississippi River form and email it to us. While tion at the time — issued two maps of slavery and in coastal South Carolina are almost you are there, enjoy having a that drew on the Census data, the first of black, while Kentucky and the Appalachians look at past prize winners and Virginia and the second of slave states as a are nearly white. their accomplishments. whole. Though many Americans knew that dependence on slave labor varied throughout The map reaffirmed the belief of many in the What do you want asked in the South, these maps uniquely captured the Union that secession was driven not by a no- the 2011 Free Press survey? complexity of the institution and struck a tion of “state rights,” but by the defense of a chord with a public hungry for information labor system. A table at the lower edge of Each year, Underground Railroad about the rebellion. the map measured each state’s slave popula- Free Press sponsors a survey of tion, and contemporaries would have imme- the international Underground The map uses what was then a new technique diately noticed that this corresponded closely Railroad community and shares Susan Schulten teaches history at the University to the order of secession. South Carolina, the results with the community, of Denver. This article originally appeared in See Map, page 4, column 2. See page 5 for public officials and others. The The New York Times. Reprinted with permission. the map. surveys include questions carried forward from year to year for A Romance Novel Finds the Underground Railroad trend tracking, new questions on Redfield Farm, Judith R, Coopey. Indi Publishing new developments, and ques- Group, 2010. $14.95. ISBN 978-0-9789247-4-4 fiction had to wait until 2005 for David Durham's tions which our readers suggest. While there has never been much Under- Walk Through Darkness, a ground Railroad fiction, it would be hard to Some of the most valuable les- page-turner reviewed here outdo the first Underground Railroad novel. sons learned from these surveys in May, 2007. Now comes Technically fiction but based on actual fig- since the first in 2007 came from Redfield Farm, Judith Co- ures and events, Harriet Beecher Stowe's reader-suggested questions. Let opey's romance novel cast blockbuster Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best- us know what you think would be in an Underground Rail- seller of its time, changed the course of his- good to ask in the 2011 survey road setting. which will be administered online tory and is still regarded as the most influen- tial book ever written by an American. Other Coopey says that she (continued on page two) than children's books, Underground Railroad See Farm, page 5, column 1
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 2 in May. You will be invited to Hortense Eloise Simmons the Free Press advancement of knowledge, participate in the survey. Survey leadership and preservation prizes, the results will be summarized in our highest honors awarded in the international July issue and, as every year, full Underground Railroad community. results will be posted on our Hortense Eloise Simmons was born July 6, website. 1941, in Miami to Edna and Ira Simmons, Jr., a domestic worker and owner of a radio and television repair business. Three of her grandparents were Bahamian immigrants, the fourth, American Indian. Wanting to experience the nation's capital, she enrolled at Howard University. To afford How to Subscribe Free Press subscriptions are free. To her freshman year, she had saved her subscribe, send email addresses of those earnings as a migrant farmhand working you would like to receive Free Press to fields up and down the east coast during her [email protected]. high school summers, at first overstating her View or Add to Datebook age to get hired. Still short of what she Email us about upcoming events and we needed as her freshman fall semester will add them to our website's Datebook. Click on Datebook at urrFreePress.com to approached, her brother Ira Simmons III gave view a comprehensive calendar of events. his sister his entire earnings from working beside her picking crops that summer. Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads News, letters or articles: Hortense Simmons received her B.A. and [email protected] Ph.D. degrees in English from Howard. Advertising: [email protected] See the notice on our website for Dr. Simmons began her teaching career at Underground Railroad Free Press Prize judge specifications, rates and restrictions. Ohio State University where she founded the Hortense Simmons, who rose from migrant university's first courses in African-American Link Your Web Site or View Lynx child-laborer field hand to multiple Fulbright Visit our website to view Lynx, links to literature. From 1973 until her retirement in Scholar, passed away on November 26 in other Underground Railroad organizations. 2005, she taught American literature and To add your link, email its web address to Atlanta of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou ethnic studies at California State University [email protected]. Gehrig's disease. She was 69. Dr. Simmons Please see Simmons Life, page 3, column 1 Free Press Prize Nominations was a founding judge of the international Click on Prizes at the Free Press website Panel of Judges who select annual winners of to learn more about these annual prizes !"#$%&%'("#)*+,-%'+#).,/0'%1)2%'3$40))))! or to download a nomination form. !!! ! Summer Underground Railroad )))))))))))))))'5)06$)7+8,0+-)*$&,'"9):"4;)! Institute for School Teachers !!!!!!!"##$%#&'(! Colgate University is offering a four-week pro- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"#$%&'(&)*!+%,-./0!&)!1(.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gram from June 26 to July 22 for teachers, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"1%,)23!4$/%56!!1(.!78)5./*/$9)5!!!!
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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 3
They're At It Again last in February, 2010, was to Ukraine bacco. My mother was the property of when she first noticed the affects of her Dr. Josiah McP[herson], but was hired by Is someone in the New York City govern- disease. Her travels made her into a Mr. N., to whom my father belonged. ment getting paid off to ignore history? prolific collector with her home's walls The only incident I can remember, which It looks like it. and shelves full with deftly chosen art of occurred while my mother continued on Manhattan's Hopper-Gibbons House was many cultures. N.'s farm, was the appearance of my fa- ther one day, with his head bloody and an Underground Railroad safe-house and Hortense Simmons was an inbuilt ad- important center of abolitionism when his back lacerated. He was in a state of venturer who once climbed Mount Fuji. A great excitement, and though it was all a owned by Isaac Hopper and his daughter planned autobiography was to have been Abigail Gibbons in the 1850s and 1860s. mystery to me at the age of three or aptly entitled Moving Target. Con- four years, it was explained at a later Despite last year's designation by the dolences have poured in to her family period, and I understood that he had city's Historic Preservation Commission from across the world. been suffering the cruel penalty of the of Hopper-Gibbons House as protected, Surviving are siblings Ira Simmons III of Maryland law for beating a white man. major illegal alterations to the building Venice Beach, California, Earl Simmons His right ear had been cut off close to his continue. Though the city Building De- and Paulette Thweatt of Atlanta, Beverly head, and he had received a hundred partment has issued stop-work orders, its Brown of Pompano Beach, Florida, and lashes on his back. He had beaten the inspectors have failed to halt the work. her nieces and nephews. A sister Edna overseer for a brutal assault on my Many complaints from neighbors, a local Simmons died in 1972. Dr. Simmons was mother, and this was his punishment. Fu- historical group and Free Press have had predeceased by her former husband, Al rious at such treatment, my father be- no effect in prodding the City to action. Thornton of Sacramento. came a different man, and was so mo- rose, disobedient, and intractable, that Neighbors Fern Luskin and Julie Finch Ira Simmons, a nationally known Black Mr. N. determined to sell him. He ac- were the 2009 Free Press Prize for Pres- power political figure from the 1970s, cordingly parted with him, not long af- ervation laureates for their work in mo- directs global relief organization One- ter, to his son, who lived in Alabama; bilizing action against the illegal modifi- world Works. He recalls that Hortense's, and neither my mother nor I, ever heard cations to Hopper-Gibbons House. his and their siblings' favored migrant of him again. He was naturally, as I un- Visit nytimes.com/2011/01/06/arts/ de- labor work as children was in the cool derstood afterwards from my mother and sign/06saved.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 orchards of upstate New York. other persons, a man of amiable temper, for the New York Times' opinion. Recalls Free Press Publisher Peter H. and of considerable energy of character; but it is not strange that he should be Simmons Life Michael, "This for me is a loss not just of an incisive and enthusiastic prize judge essentially changed by such cruelty and at Sacramento. In 1984, she was named but of a wonderful close 25-year friend. injustice under the sanction of law." as University Fellow by the 24-campus Hortense lit up a room wherever she California State University system, the Dr. Josias Hanson McPherson's grandfa- went. There were no dull moments. In world's largest. Widely published, she ther, Samuel Hanson, was the first her foreign assignments, no American often served as editor, journal referee cousin of President John Hanson. Among could have been a better ambassador or reviewer, sat on the board of the four known marriages between the Han- than was she. Her example and energy Center for African Peace and Conflict son and McPherson families, all between resonate, continuing to bless all whom Resolution, and served as a director of 1754 and 1821, a daughter and a grand- she knew. Rest in peace, Good Friend." the California Literature Project. daughter of Samuel Hanson married Beginning in 2010, the Free Press Prize McPherson men, Benedicta Hanson to Dr. Simmons was honored as a multiple judges renamed one of the prizes the Henry McPherson and Elizabeth Fendall Fulbright Scholar, the first time to Hortense Simmons Prize for the Advance- Hanson to Thomas McPherson, respec- Malaysia and then with several appoint- ment of Knowledge in the Contemporary tively. The fifth of Benedicta and Henry's ments to Ukraine where she became Underground Railroad. children was the Josias Hanson McPher- something of a celebrity. Her first Ful- son of interest here. bright stint there led to her invited role Henson/Hanson as Observer in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange After escaping slavery on the Under- In his autobiography, Henson writes of
Revolution election for which she was ground Railroad in 1829, Josiah Henson his enslaver Josias Hanson McPherson, given the key to the city of Mykolayiv, settled in Canada and became one of “As the first negro child ever born to Ukraine, where she had taught. history's most prominent and articulate him, I was his especial pet. He gave me advocates for emancipation and human his own Christian name, Josiah, and with In recent years, she consulted to the rights. Henson founded the town of that he also gave me my last name, Hen- United States Department of State Dawn, Ontario, where he established the son, after an uncle of his, who was an where she sat on the Fulbright Scholar first school for Underground Railroad officer in the revolutionary war.” The selection panel and trained American freedom seekers. uncle was Major Samuel Hanson McPher- Fulbright Scholars before they took up son. That Josias Hanson McPherson their foreign assignments. Dr. Simmons In his 1849 autobiography, Henson's de- would name his "first negro child" and also taught in Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Viet scription of the mistreatment of his par- "especial pet" Josiah Henson — or per- Nam and the Semester at Sea program. ents is as vivid as it gets in exposing the haps originally Josiah Hanson or Josias horrors of slavery. Hanson — gives rise to the suspicion that Her first Fulbright assignment in Mal- Josias Hanson McPherson fathered Josiah aysia triggered a love of foreign travel In the words of the son, "I was born . . . Henson, an all-too-frequent indignity in- which only grew as she took frequent on a farm belonging to Mr. Francis assignments and vacations abroad. Her N[ewman], about a mile from Port To- See Henson/Hanson, page 4, column 1
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Henson/Hanson rediscovered in Montgomery County and months of 1864 in the White House pre- flicted on slaves by their enslavers. purchased as a public historic site by the paring the portrait, and on more than Maryland-National Capital Park and Plan- one occasion found Lincoln poring over Henson's describing himself as McPher- ning Commission. This, the actual site of the map. Though the president had son's first negro child could be literal and Uncle Tom's Cabin, is now regarded by abundant maps at his disposal, only this gives rise to deeper speculation. In his many as the single most spectacular re- one allowed him to focus on the Confed- biography, Henson ascribes his father as discovery of the Underground Railroad. eracy’s greatest asset: its labor system. his mother's husband sold south, but also The farmhouse's attached cabin, initially After January 1, 1863 — when the Eman- reveals that this man was kept on the accepted as the actual place of enslave- cipation Proclamation became law — the plantation of his enslaver, Francis New- ment of Josiah Henson and therefore president could use the map to follow man, while his mother was the property "the original Uncle Tom's Cabin" is now Union troops as they liberated slaves and of Josias Hanson McPherson. Though for thought to have been the home's destabilized the rebellion. Lincoln was some period Henson's mother was hired kitchen. enthusiastic about Carpenter’s finished out by McPherson to Newman after portrait, and singled out the map as one Josiah Henson's birth, McPherson would Josiah Henson died May 5, 1883, proba- of its most notable details. have had access to the mother whenever bly in his late eighties, revered in the he wanted before the birth. This combi- United States, Canada and elsewhere. In Slavery also informed the painting in an- nation of circumstances raises the possi- 1909, his great-grandnephew, Matthew other way. Carpenter arranged the Cabi- bility, perhaps likelihood, that Josiah Henson, who accompanied Admiral Rob- net according to his perception of their Henson was actually a McPherson related ert Peary on an expedition to the North sentiment regarding emancipation: its to the Hansons through Josias Hanson Pole, became the first person to set foot two leading proponents, Secretary of the McPherson. at the Pole as he scouted ahead of Peary Treasury Salmon P. Chase — standing — and the exploration party. and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, are Remaining unexplained is the one-letter to Lincoln’s right, while Secretary of difference in the spelling of the sur- A full account of the relationship be- State Seward sits in the foreground. To names Hanson and Henson. This might tween Josiah Henson and John Hanson is Lincoln’s immediate left are the secre- be attributed to Henson's London biogra- included in the forthcoming Remember- tary of the navy, the secretary of the in- pher John Lobb recording the name as he ing John Hanson, a biography by Free terior and the postmaster general stand- thought he heard his illiterate subject Press publisher Peter Michael. ing to the rear, while Attorney General pronounce it. DNA comparison of a Hen- Map Edward Bates sits at the far right of the son descendant and a Hanson descendant which led the rebellion, was one of two portrait. Lincoln sits at the center, as would tell the story if Josiah Henson is states which enslaved a majority of its Carpenter wrote, “nearest that repre- related to the Hansons. population, a fact starkly represented on senting the radical, but the uniting point
the map. of both.” A copy of the anti-slavery New In 1805, Josiah Henson's mother was sold York Tribune lies at Stanton’s feet, while to Isaac Riley, a farmer in Montgomery Conversely, the map illustrated the de- a portrait of Simon Cameron — the prior County, Maryland. In the same auction, gree to which entire regions — like east- secretary of war who urged emancipa- Josiah, then nine or ten years old, was ern Tennessee and western Virginia — tion early in the conflict — is visible be- sold to Adam Robb, a tavern keeper in were virtually devoid of slavery, and yond Stanton’s head. The map lying Rockville near the Riley farm. After the thus potential sources of resistance to across the table behind Seward is the boy fell ill, Josiah Henson was sold in ei- secession. Such a map might have rein- Coast Survey’s 1863 “Map of the State of ther 1805 or 1806 by Robb to Isaac Riley forced President Abraham Lincoln’s be- Virginia,” which included population sta- and began living in the Riley household's lief that secession was animated by a tistics and concentric rings around Rich- slave cabin reunited with his mother. In minority and could be reversed if south- mond to guide Union strategy. an ironic twist of history, this cabin and ern Unionists were given sufficient time the farm where it is located were later and support. It may seem odd that the Coast Survey — owned by President John Hanson's grand- The map quickly caught the public’s at- originally responsible for detailing the son, United States Senator Alexander nation’s coastlines and rivers — produced Contee Hanson, Jr., sometime before tention, and was reproduced throughout the war. Its banner headline, “For the a map of slavery in the south. Yet over 1819 when the Senator died. Riley's the preceding two decades its superin- slaves were not included in the sale. benefit of the sick and wounded sol- diers,” also became the slogan of the tendent, Alexander Dallas Bache, had Josiah Henson was in significant part the Union’s most important home-front or- skillfully widened the Survey’s work and basis of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 ganization, the United States Sanitary made it a hub of mapmaking innovation. landmark Uncle Tom's Cabin. At a time Commission. The map gave a clear pic- The Survey experimented with several when a best-seller might sell ten thou- ture of what the Union was up against, new methods of cartographic representa- sand copies in the United States, Stowe's and allowed Northerners to follow the tion, including the use of shading to rep- definitive exposé of slavery quickly sold progress of the war and the liberation of resent the human population. As early as a half million copies at home and, within slave populations. 1858 Bache had directed the Survey to a few years, as many abroad. Uncle produce maps of the rivers and coasts of Tom's Cabin has been translated into We don’t know when Lincoln first en- the South, in anticipation of a conflict. sixty languages, is still regarded as the countered the Coast Survey’s map of But the 1861 map was in a class by itself: most influential book ever written by an slavery. But he became so taken with it a landmark cartographic achievement, a American and has never been out of that Francis Bicknell Carpenter included popular propaganda tool, and an emi- print since its original publication. it in the lower right corner of his paint- nently practical instrument of military ing, “President Lincoln Reading the policy. No wonder Lincoln liked it. In 2006, the Riley farmhouse where Emancipation Proclamation to His Cabi- Josiah Henson had been enslaved was net.” Carpenter spent the first six See the map on the following page.
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Map courtesy of the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. For an interactive version of this map with Susan Schulten's de- tailed descriptions, visit http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/10/opinion/20101210_Disunion_SlaveryMap.html. Farm keep a close eye on the Redfield family a roiling and idealistic race motif. based much of the book's story line and in hope of claiming runaway rewards. setting on her own Quaker family's Un- Coopey's story line is effectively devel- derground Railroad involvement in west- One night, Jesse arrives with Josiah, a oped by use of years as chapter titles, ern Pennsylvania. One finds Redfield runaway from Virginia, both racked with beginning with 1903 and Jesse's passing Farm's towns of Bedford, Alum Bank and fever. Through the winter, Ann nurses at age 77, winding back to his and Ann's Osterburg on today's map, Quaker coun- them back to health, teaching Josiah to childhood in 1837, then moving through try still, where Coopey's ancestors read and write. Proximity leads to trust to 1866 after the passing of the Under- worked as safe-house operators and con- and intimacy. After Josiah reaches safety ground Railroad. ductors. She was inspired to write Red- in Canada that Spring, a child is born un- Redfield Farm is strong in both plot and field Farm while restoring her ancestor's known to him and as shock to Ann's gen- character development. In the first few 1799 cabin which tradition holds was tle widowered father, Amos. pages, antagonist Pru Hartley makes her used by the family as a safe-house. In the midst of a well-researched slavery appearance, ever prowling for ways to The young teen Ann Redfield's suspicions and Underground Railroad narrative, a expose the Redfields in key reappear- that her brother Jesse is secretly harbor- sharply drawn but altogether believable ances which move the story. An unex- ing fugitive slaves prove true when Jesse story of love denied unfolds, rivaling ro- plained gap is the lack of development needs Ann to deflect slave catchers' at- mance novels of today. The other woman of family patriarch Amos Redfield, a bare tention away from him by taking a group who appears, father and son reunited, cipher who would be expected to have of escapees north. Cooperation is gained and the shamed woman who does right had much more influence in an 1850s from local Quakers, but other neighbors and ends up marrying well unfold amidst Quaker family than Coopey allots him.