Sojourner truth - 1797 to November 26th 1883 - was the self given name from 1843 onwards of Isabella Baumfree an African American Abolitionist and Women Rights Activist. Truth was born into Slavery in Swaitekill, Ulster County, New York but escape with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she became the first Black Woman to win such a case against a white man. Her best known extemporaneous speech on Gender Inequalities " Ant I a woman " was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.During the Civil War Truth recruited Black Troops for the Union Army, after the war she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the Federal Government for former slaves.
Truth was one of ten or twelve children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree. James Baumfree was an African captured from the Gold Coast in modern day Ghana. Elizabeth Banmfree also known as Mau Mau or Betsy to children who knew er, was the daughter of enslaved Africans from the Gulf of Guinea. The Baunfree family were enslaved by Colonel Hardenbergh. The Hardenbergh estates was in a hilly area called by the Dutch name Swartekill just North of present day Rifton in the town of Esopuss, New York 95 miles North of New York City. After the Colonels death, ownership of the slaves passed to his son Charles Hardenbergh, who later sold Truth.
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