Dr. Michelle Chresfield

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Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be back. The gang is back together.

Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be back. The gang is back together.

That is correct. So the woman that we will come to know as Sojourner was actually born Isabella Bonfrey. And while there is no exact date for her birth, we know that she was born around 1797 in Ulster County, New York, which is a rural area about two hours north of New York City.

That is correct. So the woman that we will come to know as Sojourner was actually born Isabella Bonfrey. And while there is no exact date for her birth, we know that she was born around 1797 in Ulster County, New York, which is a rural area about two hours north of New York City.

Isabella was the youngest of 10 or 12 children born to the enslaved couple James and Elizabeth, and she was nicknamed Belle. And the young bell was enslaved on a northern farm. Unlike the southern plantations that pervade historical lore, northern slavery was much more small scale. Most people owned one or two enslaved people who labored on small scale farming or domestic work.

Isabella was the youngest of 10 or 12 children born to the enslaved couple James and Elizabeth, and she was nicknamed Belle. And the young bell was enslaved on a northern farm. Unlike the southern plantations that pervade historical lore, northern slavery was much more small scale. Most people owned one or two enslaved people who labored on small scale farming or domestic work.

So although slavery was relatively small and small in this area, northern slavery in New York State, slavery in particular, where Isabella will be held, was very central to the international slave trade. So her early life, she's on a farm, she's owned by a family who owns about six or seven people, which makes that family very wealthy and notable for the time.

So although slavery was relatively small and small in this area, northern slavery in New York State, slavery in particular, where Isabella will be held, was very central to the international slave trade. So her early life, she's on a farm, she's owned by a family who owns about six or seven people, which makes that family very wealthy and notable for the time.

So this is like the milieu in which, you know, she begins her life.

So this is like the milieu in which, you know, she begins her life.

Actually, Isabella's birth date is very significant because it's the year that the cotton gin is invented. And it's the cotton gin that really allows Southern slavery to take the shape that it does, because it allows this kind of mass cultivation of cotton, which will revolutionize the industry and require much more human labor to cultivate those crops.

Actually, Isabella's birth date is very significant because it's the year that the cotton gin is invented. And it's the cotton gin that really allows Southern slavery to take the shape that it does, because it allows this kind of mass cultivation of cotton, which will revolutionize the industry and require much more human labor to cultivate those crops.

Northern slavery, by comparison, you do have in the early years of the 1600s, people are definitely growing crops. But by the time that Isabella is born, it's very much shifted to where it's much more skilled labor, where you might see enslaved labor being deployed in homes,

Northern slavery, by comparison, you do have in the early years of the 1600s, people are definitely growing crops. But by the time that Isabella is born, it's very much shifted to where it's much more skilled labor, where you might see enslaved labor being deployed in homes,

You see at the time that she's born a real kind of shift, right, in the kind of power of slavery in the United States, but also the ways in which slavery will become to look very different between the two regions.

You see at the time that she's born a real kind of shift, right, in the kind of power of slavery in the United States, but also the ways in which slavery will become to look very different between the two regions.

So when the colonel was alive, the parents were allowed to basically farm on a small scale in conditions that we would liken to sharecropping, which actually doesn't really take formation until later. But essentially, Elizabeth and James live on their own in a cottage where they farm a small tract of land that was rented from the Hardenbergs.

So when the colonel was alive, the parents were allowed to basically farm on a small scale in conditions that we would liken to sharecropping, which actually doesn't really take formation until later. But essentially, Elizabeth and James live on their own in a cottage where they farm a small tract of land that was rented from the Hardenbergs.