11/08/2023
Thomas Johnson was born on this date in 1836. He was a enslaved, minister and author.
Thomas Lewis Johnson was from Rock Raymon, Virginia; his grandfather had been brought to America from Guinea, Africa. His mother was also a slave but his father was a freeman. At the age of three, his father attempted to buy his wife and son but they were sent to Alexandria, VA. When Johnson was 12 years old he was separated from his mother by being sent to work in Fredericksburg, VA.
In 1852 he was sold to a family in Richmond, which enabled him to meet up with his mother who had already been purchased by a man from that city. After the Civil War, Johnson was freed and moved to Denver where he worked as a minister. In 1876 he went to Africa as a missionary. His book, Twenty-Eight Years a Slave was published in 1909. Johnson’s death is unknown.
