Read Part One HERE
In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883. Late in 1826, Sojourner escaped to freedom with her infant daughter Sophia. She had to leave her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bond servants into their twenties. She later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right."
Sojourner found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen, in New Paltz, who took her and her baby in. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year (until the state's emancipation took effect) which John Dumont accepted for $20. She lived there until the New York State Emancipation act was approved a year later on.
Sojourner learned that her son Peter, then five years old, had been sold by John Dumont and then illegally resold to an owner in Alabama. With the help of the Van Wagenens, she took the issue to the New York Supreme Court. Using the name Isabella Van Wagenen, she filed a suit against Peter's new owner Solomon Gedney. In 1828, after months of legal proceedings, she got back her son, who had been abused by those who were enslaving him. Sojourner became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win the case.
Read Part Fifty-Eight HERE
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