This section provides background information about Isabella Van Wagenen, who was born a slave in or around 1797 and sold several times before ending up at John Dumont’s plantation. There, she stayed for eighteen years. During this time, she had four children with another slave named Thomas. When Dumont died, his son inherited Isabella but refused to free her and her family when New York emancipated its slave population in 1820. She ran away, only to be caught and sold to Isaac Van Wagenen, who freed her and whose last name she took.

At this point in her life, Isabella experienced a profound vision of God. She devoted herself to religion and joined the Methodist Church. She started working for perfectionist James Latourette, and after joining the African Methodist Church in 1831, she was hired by Pierson's household on Bowery Hill. In 1832, after introducing Matthews and Pierson, she too became convinced that Matthews was a prophet. A year later, when Pierson cut Matthews off financially, Isabella followed Matthews to Mount Zion. Here, Ann Folger, the wife of Matthews’s benefactor, and Matthews developed a romantic interest in each other, taking long walks and carriage rides together and play the piano for hours.