Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree was the first of 13 siblings to be sold at auction at age nine. There would be four more owners over the next two decades.

Finally, after an owner reneged on a promise to free her in exchange for hard work, Baumfree escaped with her infant child in 1826. By 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and preached about women’s rights and abolition.

Today, Truth’s bronze portrait is shown on the right side of the Statue of Freedom model inside the U.S. Capitol visitors center’s Emancipation Hall. She is the first African-American woman’s sculpture in the Capitol.