Existing comment:
Freedom Day for Henson Descendants on the Eve of the Civil War, Henson Family Freedom Papers:
On Tuesday, October 25, 1859, several of Tobias Henson's descendants went to downtown Washington for their free papers. They might have donned their best clothes, piled into a cart or ridden smart-looking horses to go downtown. Registering at the US District Court, they declared that they had been born free because decades earlier Tobias Henson had achieved his goal of obtaining freedom for himself and his family. Tobias Henson's descendants lived at "The Ridge" for several generations as free people. |