Sophia Pooley

Sophia Burthen Pooley (c. 1772 – 1860) was a formerly enslaved African American in New York before being forcibly brought to the Canadas by Mohawk chief Joseph Brant. Her testimony, documented in American abolitionist Benjamin Drew's 1856 book The Refugee: or Narratives of the Fugitive Slaves in Canada is considered to be one of the only works regarding slavery in Canada which contained first-person accounts from enslaved people.[1]

  1. ^ Elgersman, Maureen (1999). Unyielding Spirits: Black Women and Slavery in Early Canada and Jamaica (1st ed.). New York: Routledge (published 2013). pp. 28–30. ISBN 9781315053066. OCLC 936411541.