SLAVERY NOT GOOD

Thursday, August 28th, 2025

Chatham/Dresden

It is definitely one of my favourite places on the planet – Josiah Henson Museum of African Canadian History, formerly known as Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  It is located a day’s walk, 30 kilometres from Chatham, where I was born.  Why is this place so personally impactful to me?

The Miniter, Josiah, was born into slavery, but escaped into Canada in the early 1800s.  He eventually secured 300 acres of land to be a base for other black refugees.  That place is here, a place of freedom.  Agricultura began, furniture crafting and just people helping each other.  There were a lot of white folks who assisted black people who fled from torturous slavery.

Along with Rose Ann and my travel companions, I was hearing from a guide about the heroism of the day. 

“Josiah, himself, went back to the US, south, to bring to safety 118 slaves.”  He had four children from Harriet, who passed, and then remarried.  He was a family man, a preacher, a humanist, a saint.

When the guide, who lives next door in town Dresdent, spoke, she did so with a passion.  In fact, she told me as an aside, that she presents the narrative over and over again, but still gets choked up, especially when getting into the details of the treatment of slaves in that period.  Hatred is strong in us humans.  When she was speaking to us in the exhibit gallery, you could hear sniffles from the guests.  I was also trying to hold back tears.

God!  We are so full of hate and so bodily conscious, identifying so much as ‘different’ and therefore ‘enemy’.  Some say slavery has ended.  I don’t think so.  Indeed, another form of slavery is the slavery of the senses.  It’s all bad and very harmful. 

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU!

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