Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery and didn’t gain her freedom until During her lifetime she helped change the beliefs and prejudices long held by our nation. This is her story.

Isabella Baumfree was born a slave in 1797 in Ulster County, New York. She was able to escape with her infant daughter to freedom in She went to court to recover her son, and became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

After working as a domestic for several years, she began to give speeches on behalf of abolition and the rights of women.

In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth, believing this to be on the instructions of the Holy Spirit and she became a traveling preacher (the meaning of her new name). In the late 1840s she connected with the abolitionist movement, becoming a popular speaker.

In 1850, she also began speaking on woman suffrage. Her most famous speech, Ain't I a Woman?, was given in 1851 at a women's rights convention in Ohio.

If the first woman God made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women all together ought to be able to turn it right side up again. Sojourner Truth

The convention participants did not want her there. They were afraid that their cause, the rights of women, would be hurt if it were associated with the rights of blacks.

Just a few minutes into the meeting an argument broke out between the women and some men in the audience. Sojourner Truth went up to the platform to speak. When she was introduced the audience hissed at her.

Sojourner Truth fixed her eyes on the crowd and began to speak. Her vivid, moving words had a “magical” effect on the crowd.

Ain’t I a Woman?

Frances Gage writes, “Her strong words carried us safely over the difficulty and turned the tide in our favor.”

During the Civil War Sojourner Truth raised food and clothing contributions for black regiments, and she met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in While at the White House she tried to challenge the discrimination that segregated street cars by race.

After the Civil War ended, Sojourner Truth again spoke widely. She spoke mainly to white audiences, and mostly on religion, “Negro” and women's rights, and on temperance. She also tried to organize efforts to provide jobs for black refugees after the Civil War.

Sojourner Truth continued speaking out against human rights injustices until When her health began to deteriorate she returned to Battle Creek, Michigan where she died in 1883.

SOJOURNER TRUTH