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Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Born into slavery in Ulster County, New York, Truth escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to "testify the hope that was in me." Truth's best-known speech was famously delivered extemporaneously in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in which she demanded equal human rights for all women as well as for all blacks. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army and began riding in Washington DC's streetcars to force their desegregation. Following the war, Truth lobbied the federal government for seven years attempting to secure land grands for formerly enslaved persons, though this effort was ultimately unsuccessful. A lifelong radical, Truth continued her activism on behalf of women's rights, prison reform, and against capital punishment until the time of her death in 1883.