State buys home that inspired Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’

BETHESDA, Md. – State officials on Monday accepted the deed to the Maryland home of the former slave who inspired author Harriett Beecher Stowe when she wrote the abolitionist novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

The home, located about 12 miles north of Washington, D.C., became available last year, following the death of Hildegarde Mallet-Prevost, 100, who owned the property. The state’s purchase of the three-bedroom, wood-frame house for $1 million could lead to the home being established as an interpretive historical site.

The house was the center of a 3,700-acre tobacco plantation.

Slaves working a 500-acre section of the farm used the adjoining split-log kitchen as sleeping quarters. It was the home of Josiah Henson, whose short autobiography, “The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave,” inspired Stowe’s work.

“This house represents, literally, the flesh-and-blood heritage of a county and a nation,” Montgomery County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen said during a ceremony at the 18th-century farmhouse.

Henson’s book was published in 1849. Three years later Stowe’s novel helped focus world attention on the brutality of slavery.

Stowe in part based her characterization of “Uncle Tom” on experiences Henson described in his narrative.

It detailed his life as a slave in Maryland and Kentucky and his 1830 decision to flee to Canada with his family after his owner refused to honor a commitment to allow him to buy his freedom.

The house was officially deeded to the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. Members of Montgomery County’s delegation to the Maryland General Assembly are seeking bond financing to cover the costs of restoring and preserving the site.