A hero from Ulster County will soon grace the new $10 bill.
Sojourner Truth was a slave in the town of Esopus before she claimed her freedom in 1826, after her owner went back on his promise to free her. Truth will soon be one of five women who were leaders in the women’s suffrage movement who will appear on the reverse side of the $10 bill.
Truth is most known for her work as an abolitionist, but she also played a critical role in the fight for women’s rights.
"But one of the earliest things that she was involved in was basically the suffragette theme," said Corinne Nyquist, a librarian at Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz. "For example, after the Civil War, they finally decided that African-American men were going to be made citizens [and] going to be able to vote, and her comment was that the women should be able to vote."
The other women who will appear on the bill are Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul.
For more information, log on to the Treasury Department's website.