Women’s History Month: Sojourner Truth and Her Groundbreaking 1828 Court Case

This episode of A New York Minute in History commemorates Women’s History Month by uncovering the groundbreaking 1828 court case of Sojourner Truth, a self-emancipated Black woman who took on a white slave owner to free her young son from bondage.

Interviewees: Barbara Allen, author and Sixth-Great Granddaughter of Sojourner Truth and Taylor Bruck, Ulster County Clerk and the City of Kingston Historian

Marker of Focus: Sojourner Truth, Ulster County

Office of the Ulster County Clerk

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Further Reading:

Barbara Allen, Remembering Great Grandma Sojourner Truth, and Journey with Great Grandma Sojourner Truth

New York State Education Department, “Sojourner Truth’s Historic Supreme Court Documents From the New York State Archives on Display in Kingston”

New York State Archives: People vs. Solomon Gedney

Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 1850.

Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, 1996.

Teacher Resources:

National Park Service: Ain’t I a Woman Lesson Plan

PBS Learning Media: Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Activist

Consider the Source NY: Sojourner Truth's Fight for African American and Women's Rights in 1...