Sojourner Truth and Sara Lucy Bagby Johnson Western Reserve Historical Society February 8, 2024
There was a special event at the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) on February 8, 2024 to announce the launch of a new program for 4th grade students in Ohio. During the event there were reenactments by two talented women from Women In History Ohio.
Sojourner Truth and Sara Lucy Bagby Johnson actors Robin Echols Cooper and Robin Pease
Sara Lucy Bagby Johnson was a slave who escaped via the Underground Railroad to Cleveland Ohio. Her owners pursued her and captured her and she was the last person in the United States forced to return to slavery in the South under the Fugitive Slave Act. Robin Pease, an actor for Women In History Ohio, performed as Sara Lucy Bagby beginning with singing a verse of the song Wade in the Water and explaining what it meant to slaves trying to escape.
Robin Pease as Sara Lucy Bagby Johnson
Robin Echols Cooper is also an actor for Women In History Ohio. She gave a moving performance as Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She went to court to recover her son in 1828 and won her case. She was an abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women's rights, and alcohol temperance.
The WRHS is in Cleveland just about 40 miles from the site of her best-known speech which was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
Robin Echols Cooper as Sojourner Truth
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