Henrietta Wood Sues For Reparations (1878)
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s April 26th. This day in 1878, a verdict is delivered in a suit brought by the formerly-enslaved woman Henrietta Wood. She sued her former enslaver Zebulon Ward for reparations — and an all-white jury sided with her.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss this largely-forgotten early case for reparations, and why it didn’t set a larger precedent.
For more, be sure to read the book “A Sweet Taste of Liberty.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day, April 17, 1878, 12 white jurors entered a federal courtroom in Cincinnati, Ohio |
| 0:18.8 | to deliver a verdict in a plaintiff in this case, the defendant was a man named Zebulon Ward, the white man who had enslaved |
| 0:36.0 | wood for 25 years before, many of those years after wood had been legally technically freed. |
| 0:44.3 | And now Henrietta Wood was suing Zebulan Ward for $20,000 in reparations. |
| 0:51.0 | So here to discuss the case of Henrietta Wood, the plight of so-called |
| 0:54.8 | fugitive slaves and slaves who were stolen back from freedom and this really fascinating |
| 0:59.4 | very, very early fight for reparations are as always Nicole Hammer of |
| 1:04.2 | Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley host of Oprah Demics gonna keep |
| 1:08.2 | saying that over and over and over until everyone listens to |
| 1:10.4 | Oprah Demics but hello there. |
| 1:11.8 | Hi Jody but hello there. Hi. |
| 1:13.0 | Hi Jody. |
| 1:14.0 | Hey there. |
| 1:16.0 | Wood and Ward, it's going to be a whole thing this episode. |
| 1:19.0 | But yes. |
| 1:20.0 | And we should also say there's a phenomenal book called Sweet Taste of Liberty written by |
| 1:24.5 | Caleb McDaniel that came out what a couple years ago that sort of uncovered this story for |
| 1:30.3 | the first time and that's part of this as well is that basically I think |
| 1:34.0 | someone like told him like hey you should check out this like one line in this one |
| 1:38.4 | newspaper listing in Cincinnati and in the 1878 and he just then went down this rabbit home uncovered |
... |
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