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Sojouner Truth

Sojourner Truth: How An Enslaved Dutch Speaker Became A Black Liberation Icon

March 20, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Map of the Mid-Hudson ValleyOn March 31st, 1817 the New York State Legislature decided that enslavement within its borders had to come to an end. Final emancipation would occur on July 4th, 1827. Coincidentally, the date of choice was almost exactly two centuries after the Dutch West India Company’s yacht Bruynvisch arrived at Manhattan on August 29th, 1627. [Read more…] about Sojourner Truth: How An Enslaved Dutch Speaker Became A Black Liberation Icon

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil Rights, Civil War, Dutch History, Hurley, Legal History, New Netherland, Political History, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Suffrage Movement, Ulster County, womens history

State Museum Acquires Women’s Rights Pioneers Central Park Monument Model

March 14, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Rendering of the statue to be built in New Yorks Central ParkThe New York State Museum in Albany has acquired the Women’s Rights Pioneers Central Park Monument model. The statue features three nationally recognized leaders of the women’s rights movement, all hailing from New York State: Sojourner Truth (Ulster County), Susan B. Anthony (Rochester), and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Johnstown, Seneca Falls, and NYC). It will be included as part of the Museum’s new exhibition, “Women Who Lead.” [Read more…] about State Museum Acquires Women’s Rights Pioneers Central Park Monument Model

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Albany, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Monumental Women, Monuments, New York State Museum, sculpture, Sojouner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, womens history

Preview The New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston on Sunday

November 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sojourner Truth State Park 1Decades before she took her fabled name, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth was born enslaved in Ulster County, NY under the name Isabella.

Covering more than 500 acres and a mile of Hudson River shoreline, the future Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston, NY, was once an industrial site for production of cement, quarry stone, and ice harvesting. Sojourner Truth State Park will be first new State Park since 2019. [Read more…] about Preview The New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston on Sunday

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abolition, Highland, Hudson River, Kingston, Palisades Parks Conservancy, Sojouner Truth, Sojourner Truth State Park, Ulster County, womens history

Sojourner Truth Documents Going On View In Kingston

June 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Decades before she took her fabled name, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth was born enslaved in Ulster County, NY under the name Isabella. It was as Isabella that the young Truth took action to secure the return of her five-year son Peter, who had been illegally sold to in plantation in Alabama.

With the help of local attorneys, Isabella filed a Habeas Corpus Petition in the Ulster County Courthouse in March of 1828. And it was this Isabella that prevailed on that Petition for her son’s freedom, marking the first time in American history that a Black woman sued a white man – and won. (You can read about that here). [Read more…] about Sojourner Truth Documents Going On View In Kingston

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Sojouner Truth

Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

March 15, 2022 by Alan J. Singer 1 Comment

Sojourner TruthIn February 2022, the New York State Archives announced that archivists had uncovered court records detailing the 1828 legal battle by Sojourner Truth to secure her enslaved son Peter’s freedom. According to archivist Jim Folts, this case was the first time in United States history that a Black woman successfully sued a White man for a family member’s freedom.

After passage of the New York State Gradual Emancipation Act in 1799, some slaveholders illegally sold enslaved Africans to Southern planters for the expanding cotton industry. When Sojourner Truth, then known as Isabella Van Wagenen, escaped from enslavement in 1826, her former “owner,” John J. Dumont of New Paltz, Ulster County, NY, sold her five-year old son Peter to Eleazer Gedney who planned to take the boy with him to England.

When this plan fell through, Eleazer Gedney sold Peter to his brother, Solomon Gedney, who resold Peter to their sister’s husband, a man named Fowler, who was a wealthy Alabama planter. [Read more…] about Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abolition, Archives, Black History, Legal History, New Paltz, New York State Archives, Political History, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Ulster County, womens history

New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

March 4, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sojourner Truth State ParkGovernor Hochul has announced that a new State Park to open to the public later this spring in Kingston, Ulster County, NY will be named for 19th century African American abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth.

Covering more than 500 acres and a mile of Hudson River shoreline, this park was once an industrial site for production of cement, quarry stone, and ice harvesting. Sojourner Truth State Park will be first new State Park since 2019. [Read more…] about New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, empire state trail, Kingston, OPRHP, Political History, Scenic Hudson, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, State Parks, Ulster County, Underground Railroad, womens history

#MonumentalWomen Project (Podcast)

March 23, 2020 by Clare Sheridan Leave a Comment

crossroads of rockland historyThe March 2020 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History” focused on the #MonumentalWomen Project.

Pam Elam (President, Monumental Women) and Meredith Bergmann (Sculptor), appeared to speak about the all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization, created in 2014 with the initial goal of breaking the bronze ceiling and creating the first statue of real women in Central Park’s 166-year history. [Read more…] about #MonumentalWomen Project (Podcast)

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Historical Society of Rockland County, Podcasts, Political History, Rockland County, Sojouner Truth, Suffrage Movement, Susan B. Anthony, Underground Railroad, womens history

Central Park Women’s Rights Statue Unveiling Date Set

January 22, 2020 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

Rendering of the statue to be built in New Yorks Central ParkMonumental Women has set a date for the unveiling of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument on the Mall in the City of New York’s Central Park. The statue is the first statue depicting a real woman in the Park’s 167-year History.

The original statue of women’s rights pioneers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony was redesigned to include Sojourner Truth after criticism that the original design excluded the contributions of people of color. It’s being sculpted by Meredith Bergmann. [Read more…] about Central Park Women’s Rights Statue Unveiling Date Set

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Central Park, Civil Rights, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, NYC, Political History, Public History, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Suffrage Movement, Susan B. Anthony, Underground Railroad, womens history

The Prophet Matthias and Elijah the Tishbite

December 23, 2019 by Miguel Hernandez 7 Comments

MatthiasLong before the fictional and shocking “Peyton Place” of TV and film fame came along in the late 1950s, and early 1960s there was an actual suburban community where its residents were roiled by rampant scandal, moral and religious hypocrisy and a sensational a murder in their midst. [Read more…] about The Prophet Matthias and Elijah the Tishbite

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Abolition, African American History, Black History, Crime and Justice, Gender History, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Legal History, Manhattan, New York City, Political History, Religion, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Underground Railroad, Washington County, Westchester County, womens history

Central Park Statue Redesigned To Include Sojouner Truth

August 12, 2019 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The Monumental Women’s Statue Fund announced a redesigned statue to honor pioneering women’s rights advocates – the first statue depicting real women in the 165-year history of New York City’s Central Park.

The redesign comes on the heals of criticism that the original design excluded the contributions of people of color.

The amended design, which still includes Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but now adds Sojourner Truth, is expected to be released on Women’s Equality Day, August 26th. [Read more…] about Central Park Statue Redesigned To Include Sojouner Truth

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Black History, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Historic Preservation, New York City, NYC, Political History, Sojouner Truth, Suffrage Movement, Underground Railroad, womens history

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