Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) · CatalogSojourner TruthSojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) · CatalogAmerican preacher, abolitionist and women's rights speaker, born into slavery in New York.Author
Sojourner Truth
c. 1797-1883 · American preacher, abolitionist and women's rights speaker, born into slavery in New York
Short biography: Sojourner Truth in Great Lives
About Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883) was born Isabella Bomefree, enslaved, in Ulster County, New York, and spoke Dutch as her first language. In late 1826 she walked away to freedom with her infant daughter, and in 1828 she won a court case to recover her young son, who had been illegally sold to Alabama. She became a Christian in 1827. On Pentecost Sunday 1843 she took the name Sojourner Truth, believing God had called her to travel and preach. She could not read or write, but her Narrative (1850), dictated to Olive Gilbert, and her powerful speaking made her famous in the antislavery and women's rights movements. During the Civil War she helped recruit Black soldiers for the Union army, and in 1864 she met President Lincoln at the White House. She died in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1883.
On this site
Ain't I a Woman?Sojourner Truth
1851 · 19th Century · Oratory
Sojourner Truth spoke without notes at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron on 29 May 1851. The fullest report written at the time is the one printed here, by Marius Robinson, an abolitionist editor who heard the speech and published it in the Anti-Slavery Bugle of Salem, Ohio, on 21 June 1851.