Editing Sojourner Truth (section)

==Early years==
[[File:1903 HardenberghHouseBk.jpg|thumb|right|240px|House of Col. Johannes Hardenbergh]]

Sojourner Truth once estimated that she was born between 1797 and 1800.<ref>Olive Gilbert's ''Narrative of Sojourner Truth'', p. 13.</ref> Truth was one of the 10 or 12<ref>The "ten or twelve" figure is from the section "Her brothers and sisters" in the ''Narrative'' (p. 10 in the 1998 Penguin Classics edition edited by [[Nell Irvin Painter]]); it is also used in Painter's biography, ''Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol'' (Norton, 1996), p. 11; and in Carleton Mabee with Susan Mabee Newhouse's biography, ''Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend'' (New York University Press, 1993), p. 3.</ref> children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree (or Bomefree). Her father was a slave captured from what became [[Ghana]], while her mother – nicknamed "Mau-Mau Bet" – was the daughter of slaves captured from the area of  [[Guinea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nyslavery.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/07/04/sojourner-truth-identifying-her_family-and-slave-owners/|title=Sojourner Truth – Identifying Her Family and Owners|first=Ned|last=Benton|date=2017|work=New York Slavery Records Index|publisher=City University of New York|access-date=December 27, 2023}}</ref> Her father was nicknamed "Bomefree" (Dutch for "tree") due to his tall stature.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Stuhlmiller |first=Sita |date=Summer 2017 |title=Remembering Sojourner Truth 19th Century Pioneer for Human Rights |journal=Light of Consciousness: Journal of Spiritual Awakening |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=42–45 |via=Wikipedia Library}}</ref> Colonel Hardenbergh bought James and Elizabeth Baumfree from slave traders and kept their family at his estate in a big hilly area called by the Dutch name [[Swartekill, New York|Swartekill]] (just north of modern [[Rifton, New York|Rifton]]), in the town of [[Esopus, New York]], {{convert|95|mi}} north of New York City.<ref name="book">{{cite book|last= Whalin |first= W. Terry |title= Sojourner Truth |publisher= Barbour Publishing, Inc.|year= 1997 |isbn= 978-1-59310-629-4}}</ref> When she was an infant, her five year old brother and three year old sister were sold to a different estate.<ref name=":4" /> Her family would recount memories of the children sold into slavery, and her mother taught the children to [[Prayer|pray]].<ref name=":4" /> Her first language was Dutch, and she continued to speak with a Dutch accent for the rest of her life.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://sojournertruthacademy.org/about-us/our-namesake | title=Sojourner Truth Academy &#124; Our Namesake }}</ref> Charles Hardenbergh inherited his father's estate and continued to own slaves as a part of that estate's property.<ref name="Sojourner TruthInstitute">{{cite web|url=http://www.sojournertruth.org/History/Biography/NY.htm|title=Amazing Life page|work=Sojourner Truth Institute site|access-date=December 28, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812075501/http://www.sojournertruth.org/History/Biography/NY.htm|archive-date=August 12, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

When Charles Hardenbergh died in 1806, nine-year-old Truth (known as Belle), was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=100|start_year=1806}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to John Neely, near [[Kingston, New York]]. Until that time, Truth spoke only Dutch,<ref name="WiH">{{cite web|url=http://www.womeninhistoryohio.com/sojourner-truth-isabella-baumfree.html|title=Women in History – Sojourner Truth|date=February 27, 2013|work=Women in History Ohio|access-date=March 10, 2017}}</ref> and after learning English, she spoke with a Dutch accent and not a stereotypical dialect.<ref>{{cite journal
|title=Black America's Neglected Origin Stories
|first=Annette
|last=Gordon-Reed
|date=June 2021
|journal=[[The Atlantic]]
|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/06/estebanico-first-africans-america/618714/}}</ref> She later described Neely as cruel and harsh, relating how he beat her daily and once even with a bundle of rods. In 1808 Neely sold her for $105 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=105|start_year=1808}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to tavern keeper Martinus Schryver of [[Port Ewen, New York]], who owned her for 18 months. Schryver then sold Truth in 1810 to John Dumont of [[West Park, New York]].<ref name="suny">{{cite web |url=http://www.newpaltz.edu/sojourner_truth/ |title=State University of New York at New Paltz |work=On the trail of Sojourner Truth in Ulster County, New York by Corinne Nyquist Librarian, Sojourner Truth Library |access-date=March 6, 2008}}</ref> 

Dumont raped her repeatedly, and considerable tension existed between Truth and Dumont's wife, Elizabeth Waring Dumont, who harassed her and made her life more difficult.<ref name="Washington">{{Cite book
|title = Sojourner Truth's America
|last = Washington
|first = Margaret
|publisher = [[University of Illinois Press]]
 |year = 2009|isbn = 978-0252034190|location = [[Urbana, Illinois]]
|pages = 39–53|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QYf7wggeliAC}}</ref> Around 1815, Truth met and fell in love with a slave named Robert from a neighboring farm. Robert's owner ([[Charles Catton the younger|Charles Catton, Jr.]], a landscape painter) forbade their relationship; he did not want the slaves he owned to have children with people he did not own because he would not own the children. One day Robert sneaked over to see Truth. When Catton and his son found him, they savagely beat Robert until Dumont finally intervened. Truth never saw Robert again after that day and he died a few years later.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html |title=The Narrative of Sojourner Truth |publisher=Digital.library.upenn.edu |access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> The experience haunted Truth throughout her life. Truth eventually married an older enslaved man named Thomas. She bore five children: James, her firstborn, who died in childhood; Diana (1815), the result of a rape by John Dumont; and Peter (1821), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophia ({{circa|1826}}), all born after she and Thomas united.<ref>[[Nell Irvin Painter]], ''Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol'' (Norton, 1996), p. 19, and Margaret Washington, ''Sojourner Truth's America'' (Illinois, 2009), 51–52.</ref>