Get to know Henry Dangerfield Lawson, one of Wellington County’s earliest Black settlers, and his escape to Upper Canada. CONTENT WARNING – Video contains graphic violence towards the Black community. Henry Dangerfield Lawson was born in 1806 in Ghana, West Africa, where he was captured and taken to Virginia as an enslaved person. At 16 years of age, Henry escaped from his slaveholder’s horse and wagon.
He was chased down and whipped, but overpowered the man, strangling him with the whip and running away. Henry followed the North Star and met abolitionists who helped him escape via the Underground Railroad into Upper Canada, now known as Ontario. Henry was 24 when British Authorities sent him to work in Queen’s Bush, now known as the Glen Allan area. In 1844, Henry moved to Peel township, where he married Molly Ann Lawson.
They had 3 children, Henry II, William, and Elizabeth, who later moved to Guelph, ON. Henry Dangerfield Lawson died in 1861 and is known as an early Black settler in Wellington County as well as a known ancestor of Ms Melba Jewell, an extremely influential person to what we know of Wellington County Black History.
