Join The Gist of Freedom host Preston Washington as we listen to Voting Rights Act Speeches by Fannie Lou Hamer, President Lyndon Johnson and Freedom Rider Congressman John Lewis:   Sojourner Truth and all other New York enslaved Blacks were emancipated on The 4th of July, 1827.   In 1799 the New York Legislature passed "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" with only token opposition. It provided for gradual manumission. The law freed all children born to slave women after July 4, 1799, but not at once. The males became free at 28, the females at 25. Till then, they would be the property of the mother's slaver. Slaves already in servitude before July 4, 1799, remained slaves for life, though they were reclassified as "indentured servants." The law sidestepped all question of legal and civil rights, thus avoiding the objections that had blocked the earlier bill.