Join us for a tour of this important museum followed by lunch.
The tour costs $4 for seniors 55 or greater and $5 for adults under 55. The event organizer will collect cash or checks (made out to Josiah Henson Museum & Park) on the day of your program. The admission fee is in addition to the the nonmember fee you pay when registering here.
Parking is available at Wall Local Park - 5900 Executive Blvd, a 1.5-block walk from the site. There is limited accessible parking onsite.
After the tour we will head to lunch at Gregorio's Trattoria at 7745 Tuckerman Lane in Potomac, MD. You can check out the menu at
https://gregoriostrattoria.com/menus.
About the Museum
Josiah Henson Museum & Park is the former plantation property of Isaac Riley where Reverend Josiah Henson was enslaved. This park is a historic resource of local, state, national and international significance because of its association with Reverend Henson, whose 1849 autobiography, The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s landmark novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Park contains the historic Riley/Bolten House (ca. 1800-1815) and its attached log kitchen (ca.1850-51). Ongoing archaeological excavations seek to find where Josiah Henson may have lived on the site. The Josiah Henson Museum & Park is part of the National Park Service.
Henson eventually escaped to Canada in 1830, where he helped established Dawn Settlement, a community inhabited by former American slaves, continued his work in the Methodist ministry, and became an international speaker and abolitionist. Henson led 118 people from enslavement in the United States to freedom in Canada as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Many of Henson’s experiences of life enslaved on the Riley plantation are vividly depicted in his autobiography and later recreated in Stowe’s fictional novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The impact of Stowe’s novel should not be underestimated. Published in 1852, it broke all sales records of the time and sold more than half a million copies by 1857. The book inspired and inflamed the abolitionist movement in the mid-nineteenth century, and many believe the novel helped to propel the American Civil War.
Because of the historical associations of the Josiah Henson Museum & Park, it is among few properties in Montgomery County that conjures up images of slavery and the experience of the enslaved. The museum strives to accurately portray Henson’s life and the Maryland enslaved experience as well as to explore the impact of Stowe’s novel. Josiah Henson was a freedom fighter. His legacy is an important part of African American history.