January 1843

Isabella Van Wagenen, who had legally emancipated herself in 1827 when New York abolished slavery, renamed herself Sojourner Truth and began traveling as an itinerant preacher and abolitionist speaker. She joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, met Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, and dictated her Narrative (1850) to Olive Gilbert. Her distinctive preaching style — combining scripture, humor, and personal testimony — drew large crowds.

Isabella Van Wagenen, who had legally emancipated herself in New York in 1827, renamed herself Sojourner Truth and began traveling as an itinerant preacher and abolitionist speaker. She joined the Northampton Association, met Douglass and Garrison, and dictated her Narrative (1850). Her style combining scripture, humor, and personal testimony drew large crowds across the North.

Black Ohioans convened a state colored convention in Columbus in January 1843 and sent a formal memorial to the state legislature petitioning for suffrage rights denied to Black men under the 1802 Ohio Constitution. Though unsuccessful, the convention established a tradition of Black political organization in the Old Northwest that fed into the broader antebellum Black convention movement.

Black Ohioans convened a state convention in Columbus in January 1843 and sent a formal memorial to the state legislature petitioning for suffrage rights denied to Black men under the 1802 Ohio Constitution. Though unsuccessful immediately, the convention established a tradition of Black political organization in the Old Northwest feeding into the broader antebellum convention movement.