Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Event, People

Location

285 Wall St, Kingston, NY 12401, USA

Lat/Long

41.9333787, -74.0197112

Grant Recipient

Ulster County Clerk's Office

In 1828, Sojourner Truth, then known as Isabella Van Wagenen, sued for and won the freedom of her young son, Peter, from bondage. The case marked the first time an African American women won a lawsuit in the United States (African American Odyssey, Library of Congress).

In her lawsuit, Isabella stated that her son Peter was born prior to “the fourth day of July in the year 1799.” This was an important point to establish, as the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, enacted in New York State in 1799, specified that children both to an enslaved mother after July 4, 1799 were declared legally free (Consider the Source, New York State Archives Partnership Trust). While the Final Act of Emancipation set July 4, 1827 as the date of total abolition of slavery in New York State, Isabella further stated that Peter had been taken from New York prior to this date and transported to a Southern state, Alabama, contrary to the laws of New York. (For more information on emancipation in New York State, see When did slavery end in New York?, Historical Society of the New York Courts) The court ruled in her favor. Solomon Gedney was found to have “falsely and unjustly imprisoned” Peter and was ordered to return him immediately to New York.

Isabella took the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 and began touring the county speaking against slavery. She spent most of her life from that time on traveling and speaking on the rights of African Americans and women, including the right to vote (National Park Service).