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Sojourner Truth court documents found 194 years after legal battle to free enslaved son

NPR

Published June 20, 2022 at 1:40 PM EDT

Portrait of African-American orator and civil rights activist Sojourner Truth. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Historian Nell Irvin Painter is calling a new find in the New York state archives dramatic and moving. The documents accidentally uncovered by archivist Jim Folts detail abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth’s legal battle — and victory — to free her 9-year-old enslaved son.

Folts and Irvin Painter join Here & Now’s Robin Young to talk about the unexpected find and its significance.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.