by Rebecca Weinstein, Vassar College ’25
Slavery in the North is often viewed as something fundamentally different from slavery in the South. Sojourner Truth’s experiences in Ulster County, New York offer a powerful lens into the hardships and injustices endured by enslaved people, regardless of region. Because she left behind a detailed account of her early life in Ulster County, her experience provides valuable insight into what slavery was like in the Hudson Valley in the early nineteenth century.
For a link to the map of Sojourner Truth’s life in Ulster County, click here.
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Baumfree. Her enslaver, Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh, was a wealthy landowner with a massive estate in Swartekill, a Dutch settlement in Ulster County. Hardenbergh was a slave holder who held seven or more enslaved people at various times. Following his death, when Isabella was still a baby, she and her parents became the property of Johannes’s son, Charles. She remained in Swartekill until Charles’s death when she was nine. She was then separated from her family and sold to John Nealy for 100 dollars.
Nealy owned a store not far from Kingston. Only able to speak Dutch, Truth was beaten harshly for not understanding English. After several months with the Nealys, she had a visit from her father, whom she asked to find her a new home. On her father’s recommendation, she was sold for 105 dollars to a fisherman in Ulster County named Schryver.
Schryver lived in Port Ewen, about five or six miles from the Nealys. He owned a tavern and a farm where Truth lived for a year and a half before being sold to John J. Dumont in 1810 for 175 dollars. The Dumonts lived in West Park, formerly a part of New Paltz. Sojourner Truth was enslaved by them from the time she was about 13 until 1826 when she was approximately 29. While on the Dumont Farm, she fell in love with an enslaved person named Robert, who was held by a man named Catlin. After Robert defied instructions to stay away from Truth, Catlin found him visiting her. He was beaten severely. Dumont stopped the beating and followed them back to Catlin’s home to ensure Robert’s safety. Following this encounter, Robert and Sojourner never met again. Truth was coupled with Thomas, an enslaved person owned by the Dumonts, with whom she had five children.
Dumont promised to free the couple on the fourth of July in 1826, a year before New York would legally emancipate all enslaved adults within the state. He revoked his promise because of an injury to Truth’s hand that limited how much work she could do. She then decided to walk away from the Dumont farm with her infant Sophia, leaving behind three other children (one had died in infancy). Thomas remained with the Dumonts.
After leaving the Dumonts in 1826, Truth walked to Popletown where Quaker, Levi Rowe, lived. Taken in by him and his wife, they assisted Truth in finding a place to live.
She moved to the home of the Van Wagenens, an abolitionist couple. The day she arrived in their home, John Dumont arrived at the door expecting to bring Truth back to his farm. He threatened her with jail for not complying. Instead, the Van Wagenens purchased Truth and her daughter, Sophia, from Dumont for 25 dollars. She then took the Van Wagenen name,becoming Isabella Van Wagenen for a time.
About a year later, in 1827, Dumont sold Truth’s five year old son, Peter, to Dr. Gedney, an Englishman who was temporarily in New York. Dr. Gedney transferred Peter to his brother, Solomon, who passed him along to his brother-in-law, a planter in Alabama. Under New York law at that time, the sale was illegal as enslaved people were prohibited from being sold outside the state. After hearing that her son had been sold, Truth walked to New Paltz to find the man who had sold him. Local Quakers assisted her. They provided her with housing and brought her to the Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston. Sojourner Truth sued Solomon Gedney for the return of her son. This was one of the first times in American history where a Black woman sued a white man and won the case.
In 1843, Isabella Van Wagenen officially changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Following a religious call to speak out against oppression and vocally support abolition, she chose the name to signify her dedication to the cause of freedom, justice, and human rights.
Citations:
Levine, David. “A History of Sojourner Truth’s Life and Roots in the Hudson Valley.” Hudson Valley Magazine, 16 May 2023, hvmag.com/life-style/sojourner-truth-hudson-valley/.
Nyquist, Corinne. “On the Trail of Sojourner Truth in Ulster County, New York.” Sojourner Truth in Ulster County, www2.newpaltz.edu/sojourner_truth/.
Truth, Sojourner. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Great Neck Publishing.
Washington, Margaret. Sojourner Truth’s America. University of Illinois Press, 2011. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/tag/johannes-g-hardenbergh
“Sojourner Truth’s Birthplace: Sojourner Truth’s Time in Esopus.” Town of Esopus, 21 Oct. 2020, www.esopus.com/visit/sojourner-truths-time-in-esopus-ny/.
“Ulster County Archives.” To Build A Courthouse (On Display at the Ulster County Courthouse) | Ulster County Clerk, clerk.ulstercountyny.gov/archives/exhibits/current/build-courthouse. Accessed 2 May 2025.
