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Women From American History Everybody Should Know About But Don’t
Despite amazing accomplishments some peoples’ legacies sadly don’t endure the test of time
It’s often been said that well-behaved women rarely make history. This is especially true of the following three women, who made incredibly important contributions to humanity but have largely slipped from the consciousness of ensuing generations even though they really should be known by everybody.
Henrietta Wood: Born around 1819 in Kentucky into slavery, Wood endured the doubly cruel experience of being freed as an adult in 1848 after her owner brought her to Cincinnati (located in a free state) but then being kidnapped in 1853 and sold back into bondage. The kidnappers were actually the prior salve owner’s daughter and son-in-law, who saw an opportunity to make money and hired a deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward to secret her across state lines so she could be sold to someone else in Kentucky.
Wood was imprisoned in a slave pen in Lexington Kentucky for more than a year before a local innkeeper became aware of her plight and filed a lawsuit on her behalf under the guise of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Because she was Black, she was not permitted to testify on her own behalf, and even though the case slogged along for over two…
