USH - Sojourner Truth - Church

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York around 1797 (exact date unknown) as Isabella Baumfree. (She gave herself the name “Sojourner Truth” in 1843). She died on November 26, 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Although the state of New York began to legislate the abolition of slavery in 1799, but the process wasn’t complete until July 4, 1827. She escaped her master late in 1826 with her infant daughter, Sophia, but she was forced to leave her other four children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bound servants into their twenties.

On June 1, 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and then left to make her way traveling and preaching about abolition. In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of education and Industry in Massachusetts, an organization that “supported women’s rights and religious tolerance as well as pacifism.”

In May of 1851, “she attended the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio where she delivered her famous speech Ain’t I a Woman, a slogan she adopted from one of the most famous abolitionist images, that of a kneeling female slave with the caption ‘Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?’” By frequently asking the question “Ain’t I a Woman?”, she placed brought attention that there were U.S. citizens who suffered dual persecutions, both for being black and for being a woman. This speech was also a landmark achievement for a woman who could not read or write. (She had previously secured help from Olive Gilbert to help her write her own autobiography).

Over the next decade, she spoke before dozens, perhaps hundreds, of audiences. She spoke about abolition, women’s rights, prison reform, and preached against capital punishment. “During the Civil war, she spoke on the Union’s behalf, as well as for enlisting black troops for the cause and freeing slaves.” She used humor, biblical references, and controversy to reach the audience and really emphasize her points.