Henrietta Wood holds a unique place in American history as the formerly enslaved woman who won the largest reparations verdict ever awarded for slavery in the United States.
Born into slavery in Kentucky, Henrietta Wood’s life began in bondage under the Tousey family. Around 1834, following the death of her owner Moses Tousey, she was sold to Henry Forsyth, a merchant from Louisville, for $700 (approximately $25,600 today).
After a few years, Wood was sold again, this time to another Louisville merchant, William Cirode, a French immigrant. Cirode eventually moved her to New Orleans, but he later returned to France in 1844, leaving his wife, Jane Cirode, to manage his property. In 1848, Jane Cirode registered Wood as free in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was a free state.
For a few years, Henrietta Wood lived as a free woman in Cincinnati, supporting herself through domestic work. But in 1853, her former owner’s family conspired to capture her again. William Cirode’s daughter and son-in-law, Josephine and Robert White, saw an opportunity for financial gain and were determined to reclaim and resell their formerly enslaved property by any means necessary.
To do this, the couple hired Zebulon Ward, a Kentucky deputy sheriff, to kidnap Woods. Ward conspired with Wood’s employer to lure her to the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, where he captured her and held her in a slave pen in Lexington.
At this time, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Wood was denied any legal protections that would allow her to prove her freedom, and she couldn’t testify on her own behalf. Despite efforts by a sympathetic innkeeper in Kentucky who filed a lawsuit on her behalf, the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
Following the unsuccessful lawsuit, Wood was sold once again, this time to Gerard Brandon, the son of a former Mississippi governor, and transported to Mississippi in 1855. Here, Wood was forced into brutal conditions on Brandon’s cotton plantations, enduring back-breaking labor and cruel treatment. During this period, she gave birth to a son, Arthur, whom she cared for amid the hardships of plantation life.
While no historical records provide details about Arthur’s father, it was not uncommon for enslaved men and women to be forced into reproduction to ensure a steady labor force.
As the Civil War ended, bringing emancipation to enslaved Africans across the South, Wood remained under her owner’s control. Brandon, like many slave owners, circumvented emancipation by relocating his enslaved properties to Texas, where Union presence was minimal. Wood remained under his control until 1869, when she was finally freed, not through emancipation but by signing a labor contract with the Brandon family.
The Fight for Reparations
Returning to the Cincinnati area with her son Arthur, Wood resumed her life as a free woman. However, she neither forgave nor forgot the injustices she had endured, particularly the kidnapping that led to her second enslavement.
In 1870, Wood initiated a lawsuit against Zebulon Ward, the man responsible for her kidnapping. She sought $20,000 in damages for the years she was forced back into slavery. The case, Wood v. Ward, took years to come to trial. In 1878, it finally came before Judge Philip Swing, with Henrietta Wood seeking $20,000 in damages.
Wood’s lawyer, Harvey Myers, presented her story as a compelling case of betrayal and exploitation, arguing passionately on her behalf. The jury ultimately awarded her $2,500 in damages—a substantial sum for the time, equivalent to around $81,500 today—which she received in 1879. This remains the largest reparations award ever granted to a formerly enslaved individual in the United States.
With the settlement, Wood was able to secure some stability and opportunity, particularly for her son, Arthur. She used the funds to support his education and future, giving him opportunities that helped break the cycle of poverty that many formerly enslaved families who weren’t lucky enough to receive reparations endured. Arthur went on to study law and became a lawyer, which was a very rare achievement for an African American man of his time.
Henrietta Wood died around 1912, and her story might have faded into obscurity if not for the renewed interest it received in 2019, when historian W. Caleb McDaniel published Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution, a 352 page meticulously researched book on Henrietta Wood’s life. The book, which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for History, brought Wood’s story back into public consciousness, reminding modern readers of her remarkable resilience and the significance of her legal victory.
