Yours faithfully, for Africa, Thomas L. Johnson, Henrietta T. Johnson, Calvin H. Richardson, Issadorah T....

Thomas L. Johnson (1836-1921), author of 'Twenty-eight years a slave: or, The story of my life in three continents', 1882. He and his brother-in-law Rev Calvin H. Richardson worked as missionaries in Africa. According to his mother, Johnson was born August 7, 1836 in Rock Raymond, Virginia. The names of Johnson's parents are unknown; his father was a free octoroon—a person with one great grandparent of African descent—and his mother was a slave. Johnson spent the first twenty-eight years of his life—until the end of the American Civil War—in Virginia, in slavery to a family named Brent. With his newfound freedom, Johnson became a Baptist minister and dedicated his life to spreading Christianity throughout Africa.