Emphasis Preaching Journal

Josiah Henson was a U.S. orator and an ex-slave. Some people think he was the individual on which Harriet Beecher Stowe based her character, Tom, in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Henson was on one occasion introduced to the archbishop of Canterbury. The primate was so impressed by the black American's bearing and speech that he inquired the name of the university at which he had studied. Said Henson, "The university of adversity."