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| Sojourner Truth | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Domestic servant, Abolitionist, Author |
| Parent(s) | James and Elizabeth Baumfree |
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–November 26, 1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an American abolitionist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York. Her best-known speech, which became known as Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
Early years
Truth was born around 1797 into slavery on the Hardenbergh estate in Swartekill, New York, one of thirteen children, to James and Betsy Baumfree, who were slaves of a Colonel Hardenbergh. She spoke only Dutch until she was "sold." "Ownership" of the family slaves passed to the Colonel's son, Charles Hardenbergh, at the death of the colonel.
In 1806, Truth was "sold" to John Neely, along with a herd of sheep, near Kingston, New York for $100; again in 1808, for $105, to Martinus Schryver of Kingston, New York, where she stayed for 18 months, and once again in 1810, for $175, to John Dumont of New Paltz, New York. She suffered many hardships at the hands of a Mr. Dumont, whom she later described as cruel and harsh.
Around 1815, Truth met and fell in love with a slave named Robert from a neighboring farm. Robert's "owner" forbade the relationship because he did not want his slave having children with a slave he did not "own," because he would therefore not "own" the children. Robert was savagely beaten and never returned. Soon after that, Truth had a daughter, named Diana (1815). In 1817, Truth was forced by Dumont to marry an older slave named Thomas. They had four children, Peter (1822), James (1823), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophia (1826).
Freedom
The state of New York began, in 1799, to legislate the abolition of slavery, which took place on July 4, 1827. Dumont had promised Truth freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he changed his mind, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated. She continued working until she felt she had done enough to satisfy her sense of obligation to him by spinning 100 pounds of wool.
Late in 1826, Truth escaped to freedom with her infant daughter, Sophia. She had to leave her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bound servants into their twenties.
I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.
She found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagener, a Quaker family, who took her and her baby in. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year (until the state's emancipation took effect), which Dumont accepted for $20. She lived there until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.
Truth learned that her son Peter, then 5 years old, had been "sold" illegally by Dumont to an owner in Alabama. With the help of Quaker activists, she took the issue to court and, after months of legal proceedings, got her son back.
Truth had a life-changing religious experience during her stay with the Van Wageners, and became a devout Christian. In 1829 she moved with her son Peter to New York City, where she worked for Elijah Pierson, a Christian Evangelist, as a housekeeper. In 1834, she met Robert Matthews, also known as Matthias Kingdom or Prophet Matthias, and went to work for him as a housekeeper. In a bizarre twist of fate, Elijah Pierson died, and Robert Matthews and Truth were accused of stealing and poisoning Pierson. Both were acquitted and Robert Matthews moved west.
In 1839, Truth's son, Peter, took a job on a whaling ship called the Zone of Nantucket. From 1840 to 1841, she received five letters from him. When the ship returned to port in 1842, Peter was not on board and Truth never heard from him again.
"The Spirit calls me"
On June 1, 1843, Truth changed her name to Sojourner Truth and told friends, "The Spirit calls me, and I must go." She left to make her way traveling and preaching about abolition. In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. Founded by abolitionists, they supported women's rights and religious tolerance, as well as being pacifists. There were 210 members and they lived on 500 acres, raising livestock, running a sawmill, a gristmill, and a silk factory. While there, Truth met William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles (an African-American Printer). In 1846, the group disbanded, unable to support itself. In 1847, she went to work for George Benson as a housekeeper. He was the brother-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1849, she visited John Dumont before he moved west.
Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend, Olive Gilbert, and in 1850, William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. That same year, she purchased a home in Northampton for $300.
In 1851, she left Northampton to join George Thompson, an abolitionist and speaker. In May, 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".
- Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage
- Akron Convention, Akron, Ohio, May 1851
- "There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting"; and the august teachers of the people were seemingly getting the better of us, while the boys in the galleries, and the sneerers among the pews, were hugely enjoying the discomfiture, as they supposed, of the "strong-minded." Some of the tender-skinned friends were on the point of losing dignity, and the atmosphere betokened a storm. When, slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who, till now, had scarcely lifted her head. "Don't let her speak!" gasped half a dozen in my ear. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes to me. There was a hissing sound of disapprobation above and below. I rose and announced "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to keep silence for a few moments."
- "The tumult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and away through the throng at the doors and windows."
From 1851 to 1853, Truth worked with Marius Robinson, the editor of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Bugle, travelling around the state speaking. In 1853, she spoke at a suffragist "mob convention" at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City and she met Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1856, she traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan, to speak to Friends of Human Progress arranged by a Michigan Quaker Henry Willis. And in 1858, someone accused her of being a man while she was speaking in Indiana, so she opened her blouse and revealed her breasts.
"Ain't I a Woman?"
Truth gave her well-known speech (alternatively known as Ar'n't I a Woman?) in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention.
The speech has been revised from the 19th century dialect style it is often recorded in and several different versions exist.
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
- --Sojourner Truth
On a mission
Truth sold her home in Northampton in 1857, and bought a house in Harmonia, Michigan, just west of Battle Creek. Her family was listed on 1860 by a Calhoun County, Michigan census as Elizabeth Banks, age 35, grandsons Sammy Banks, age 8 and James "Colvin" (Caldwell), age 16.
During the American Civil War, she helped recruit black troops for the Union. James Caldwell, her grandson, enlisted in the 54th Regiment, Massachusetts. In 1864, she was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C., where she worked diligently to better conditions for African-Americans. In October of that year, she met (then U.S. President) Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., she rode in the streetcars to help force desegregation.
In 1867, she moved from Harmonia to Battle Creek. In 1868, she traveled to western New York and visited with Amy Post, and continued traveling all over the east coast. When she was invited to speak at a meeting in Florence, Massachusetts, she had just returned from a very tiring trip. When she was called upon to speak, she stood up and said,
Children, I have come here like the rest of you, to hear what I have to say."
In 1870, she asked the Federal Government to grant land in the west to former slaves, a project she worked on for seven years, with no results. While in Washington, D.C. she met with President Grant in the White House. In 1872, she returned to Battle Creek and tried to vote in the U.S. Presidential election for Grant, but was turned away at the polling place.
Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and lectures, but she had many friends and staunch support among many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker Pillsbury, Mrs. Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony."
She died on November 26, 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her remains were buried at there at Oak Hill Cemetery beside other family members. Her last words were "be a follower of the Lord Jesus."
Cultural/modern references
- 1862 -- William Story's statue, The Libyan Sibyl", inspired by Sojourner Truth, won an award at the London World Exhibition.
- 1892 -- Albion artist Frank Courter is commissioned to paint the meeting between Truth and President Lincoln.
- 1975 -- Philosopher Peter Singer uses Truth's quotes in his book Animal Liberation
- 1981 -- Truth is inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
- 1983 -- Truth is in the first group of women inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in Lansing.
- 1986 -- U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Sojourner Truth.
- 1997 -- The NASA Mars Pathfinder mission's robotic rover was named "Sojourner" after her.
- The leftist group the Sojourner Truth Organization is named after her.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commemorates her as a renewer of society on March 10, with Harriet Tubman.
Books
- Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave (1850).
- Dover Publications 1997 edition: ISBN 0-486-29899-X
- Penguin Classics 1998 edition: ISBN 0-14-043678-2. Introduction & notes by Nell Irvin Painter.
- University of Pennsylvania online edition (html format, one chapter per page)
- University of Virginia online edition (html format, 207 kB, entire book on one page)
- Carleton Mabee with Susan Mabee Newhouse, Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend (New York and London: New York University Press, 1993) ISBN 0-8147-5525-9
- Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1996) ISBN 0-393-31708-0
- Erlene Stetson and Linda David, Glorying in Tribulation: The Lifework of Sojourner Truth (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-87013-337-3
References
-
Wood, Norman B. White Side of a Black Subject Chicago: American Publishing, 1897. sourced from "Portrait page". UTOPIA.utexas.edu.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Amazing Life page". Sojourner Truth Institute site.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Sojourner Truth page". Women in History site.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Sojourner Truth page". Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Sojourner Truth page". Michigan Womens Hall of Fame.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Virtual Exhibitions - artifacts of the Abolitionist movement page". Daughters of the American Revolution site.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "Sojourner Truth page". Women History.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Sojourner Truth Page". American Suffragist Movement.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Sojourner Truth page". Sojourner Truth Biography.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - "People of Faith: Sojourner Truth". Public Broadcasting Service.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessmonthday=ignored (help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - See What Is Animal Liberation? Excerpts From Philosopher Peter Singer's Groundbreaking Work. Accessed 4 December 2006.
- NASA, NASA Names First Rover to Explore the Surface of Mars. Accessed 4 December 2006.
External links
- Works by Sojourner Truth at Project Gutenberg
- On the trail of Sojourner Truth SUNY New Paltz Sojourner Truth Library
- Sojourner Truth Institute
- Poem form of Ain't I a Woman?
- bio at Indiana University Learning to Give site