Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History Virtual Guided Tour

This 75-minute live tour brings the history of the Underground Railroad to life through artifacts, a walking tour of the historical buildings, interactive activities and incredible storytelling. A brief question-and-answer session will follow each tour.

An estimated 30,000 Black refugees from slavery in the United States fled to Canada along the silent tracks of the Underground Railroad – a network of people who aided these refugees as they followed the North Star to freedom. One of these freedom seekers was abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor and former slave Josiah Henson. He became known as Uncle Tom through his connection to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Josiah Henson’s story is told at the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History in Dresden, Ontario. Your live-streaming experience incorporates a tour of the museum and two-hectare (five-acre) property, including the Interpretive Centre, three historical buildings – including the Josiah Henson House – a sawmill, two cemeteries and numerous artifacts that have been preserved as a legacy to those freedom seekers.

Topics discussed include:

• an overview of the trans-Atlantic slave trade

• slavery in Ontario

• a discussion on the life of Josiah Henson

• the Underground Railroad

• early Black settlements in Ontario

• renaming of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site'