A Story with Uncle Tom and His Cabin

(image AP)

This log cabin on Old Georgetown Road in Northern Bethesda was believed to be the real Uncle Tom's Cabin: the dwelling of Josiah Henson, who had been the inspiration for the title character in the famous novel (actually it's more complicated: Josiah Henson was the model for two very different characters in the novel: Uncle Tom, the dutiful long-suffering Black servant faithful to his White masters no matter what, and George Harris, the young Black courageously fighting against the injustice of the system and escaping from slavery along with his wife and child; and the autobiography of Josiah Henson served as inspiration for Harriet Beecher-Stowe in writing her book).

Based on this assumption Montgomery County bought the place, only to discover later that the oral tradition was not corresponding to the facts: the cabin had been actually used as a kitchen in those times, while the slaves had been living in some other part of the property. The slaves quarters are long gone.

Se non è vero, è ben trovato, as Italians say. So it goes, as Americans would add.

You can read the whole story in today's W Post...

(Bethesda)