Benjamin Washington was born in 1874 in Charleston, America, ten years after the Civil War.
As a teenager, Benjamin travelled to the UK on his own, on a cattle boat called the “Basil”. He arrived in Cardiff, Wales, where he received 5 shillings for his work on the ship before he was left to fend for himself.
Benjamin decided to go to London, travelling over 150 miles by foot, surviving only by begging for food along the way. Exhausted and hungry he arrived at the Dr. Barnardo’s home in East London in 1891, a time in which black people were still treated as second class citizens in the US. Benjamin was immediately taken into Dr Barnardo’s care and staff at the home tried tirelesly to reunite him with his father in Charleston. However, letters to his family went unanswered.
In 1892, Benjamin decided to leave Dr Barnardo’s care to travel to Canada and train as a farmer at the Manitoba Farm Home.
