Jane Cirode News Today

A Black woman named Henrietta Wood was born into slavery in Kentucky between 1818 and 1820, bur she sued one of her enslavers and won.

Henrietta Wood was born into slavery. After she was freed, she sued her enslaver for $20,000 — $500 for every year she was enslaved.

After the Civil War, Henrietta Wood made history by pursuing an audacious lawsuit against the man who’d kidnapped her back into slavery. Yet the story was lost to her own family.

She sued her enslaver for reparations and won. Her descendants never knew. Sydney Trent, The Washington Post Feb. 24, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail 5 1of5Danielle Blackman, a descendant of Henrietta Wood, holds a photo of Arthur Simms Jr and his sister Neata, Woods grandchildren.photo for The Washington Post by Julie Bennett.Show MoreShow Less 2of5Gerard Brandon, one of the largest slaveholders in the South, bought Henrietta Wood and took her to his house, Brandon Hall, on the Natchez ...