{"id":3097,"date":"2022-02-21T15:46:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T20:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/?p=3097"},"modified":"2022-02-22T19:18:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T00:18:21","slug":"slavery-in-ulster-county-a-fuller-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindfulwalker.com\/wordpress\/beyond-gotham\/slavery-in-ulster-county-a-fuller-story","title":{"rendered":"Slavery in Ulster County: A Fuller Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Covid pandemic is exacting a horrible toll, yet history shows us perseverance and purpose. The pandemic has been a brutally difficult time, provoking much suffering and death, and it continues to do so. We each know of precious ones lost; a doctor, nurse, or other health care worker enduring deaths and illnesses among their ranks, and stress; and a child struggling in school or exhibiting issues such as anxiety or depression. It feels like it will never end, while some have declared the pandemic is over.<\/p>\n

History is a critical avenue where we can turn to educate, sustain, and inspire us. From history, we see levels of suffering and depravity that shock, yet many acting with integrity, bravery, and a sense of justice. The efforts to resist and overcome the evils of slavery present a crucial historical example that resonates today and a legacy we must continue to address. People are digging deeper and sharing more so that we can understand the realities and how human beings overcome such massive suffering and evil.<\/p>\n

Events and exhibits during Black History Month, and of course throughout the year, provide ways to face the darkest chapters of our history and be inspired by courage and resilience. Here are three arising from recent revelations and scholarly work about slavery in New York\u2019s Ulster County. A presentation via Zoom<\/a> on a long-ignored part of the history of slavery and slaves\u2019 lives in Ulster County and the Shawangunk Mountain region will be given today, Feb. 21. (For those who missed the presentation, here is a recording<\/a>.) The other two involve a new exhibit and a discovery of historic evidence in the New York State Archives long thought to be lost, both concerning the life of Sojourner Truth.<\/p>\n

Ulster County Courtroom Exhibit<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Within the frames one views on the Ulster County Surrogate Court in Kingston are documents that show a newly freed slave\u2019s legal fight, ultimately successful, to obtain the freedom of her still-enslaved son. A local man had sold the son as property to an enslaver in Alabama, separating mother and son. Thanks to the efforts of Ulster County officials, an exhibit in the Surrogate\u2019s Court makes more plain and powerful the utter horror and dehumanization of Sojourner Truth\u2019s enslavement as a young girl. The exhibit\u2019s other artifacts and documents tell of her battle in the court system to regain custody of her son Peter and end his enslavement. Known then as Isabella Van Wagenen, she become the first Black woman to win a lawsuit against a white man in the United States.<\/p>\n

The exhibit contains an array of documents and images relating to Sojourner Truth\u2019s life. Entitled Sojourner Truth: From Slavery to Activism<\/em>, it is in the Surrogate Court courtroom, on the third floor of the Ulster County Building ar 240 Fair Street, Kingston. It is open for public viewing, by appointment, on Fridays. The sources range from Ulster County\u2019s archival records to the Michigan State archives. Truth was born in Ulster County into a life of enslavement, as slavery was legal in New York State until 1827. She escaped from slavery in 1826, walking away in the pre-dawn hours from the household, after the man who enslaved her reneged on a promise to release Isabella that year.<\/p>\n

The documents and images on view depict the raw, horrific reality of slavery and the actions Sojourner Truth took within two years of escaping her own enslavement. The exhibit includes a Surrogate\u2019s Court document from 1808 that lists the young girl as an asset in the estate of her deceased owner, Charles Hardenbergh; a bond document she filed in 1828 in the lawsuit to obtain custody of her son; two newspaper accounts of Sojourner Truth\u2019s \u201cAin\u2019t I a Woman\u201d speech; and her own probate documents, according to the Daily Freeman<\/em> in its article about the Ulster County exhibit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The exhibit is a cooperative effort of Ulster County Surrogate Judge Sara McGinty, Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupak, and County Archivist Taylor Bruck. \u201cThe archival material in the Clerk\u2019s Office provides a lens into the past and highlights the struggles the Black community has endured for hundreds of years,\u201d said Postupak in the county\u2019s announcement about honoring Black History Month through various ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Recognizance<\/a>