Sojourner Truth was a very important abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. Her original birth-given name was Isabella. She spent the first 29 years of her life as a slave in New York doing very strenuous physical labor. She married in her teens and had a few children. A law that was passed was supposed to make her free at age 25 but even at age 29 she was still not free.
A neighboring family was able to buy her freedom for $20. After being freed from slavery, she began to embrace religion and greatly involve herself in moral reform along with abolitionist work. She collected supplies for blacks in the civil war as well as advocated for freed people during the reconstruction period. She advocated strongly not only for racial equality but also for feminism.
She became a major role model for both the African American community as well as the women’s rights community. In 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner because she claimed that the spirit called on her and she had to go. She then become and Methodist and began preaching about abolition. She joined an organization, which supported women’s right and religious tolerance.
During her stay there she met many other civil rights activists including William Lloyd Garrison and Fredrick Douglass. After the group fell apart because it was unable to support itself she became a housekeeper for a cousin of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1850 she began sharing her thoughts with a friend and secretly had a book published by Garrison titled The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. In 1851 she joined George Thompson who was a abolitionist and public speaker.
At a women’s rights convention in Ohio she delivered the speech she is best known for titled Ain’t I a Woman. This was a very meaningful speech about women’s rights as well as black women’s rights. She strongly expresses the importance of women and stresses that no men would even be on this earth if it weren’t for women giving birth to them.
She claims that she as a woman has endured just as much if not more than any men and is not asking for or given help from anyone. She asks if somehow she is not a woman just because of the color of her skin. During the Civil War Truth did a lot to recruit black troops to the union army her grandson included in this.
The National Freedman’s Relief Association hired her and while employed there she worked hard to improve conditions for Blacks. While working she occasionally rode in streetcars working to force desegregation. Around 1868 she began to travel the east coast speaking about her beliefs to many people. She wrote a song about her beliefs, which become popular all over the country.
Her biggest desire was her voice to be heard. Truth was the very first African American woman to win a lawsuit in the United States. The first one was in her fight for her son’s freedom after he had been illegally sold in to slavery. She later was successful again when she was accused by a newspaper of being a witch and actually poisoning a leader in a religious group she had been a part of.
She sued the newspaper for slander and was won successfully yet again. After living a long and successful life Sojourner Truth unfortunately passed away at age 84 and had thousands of people in attendance of her funeral. She was a very important symbol for everyone of what an African American woman can do. She opened the door for many to follow in her footsteps and made history as a woman that will never be forgotten. She is one of the countries most important symbols for civil rights. She was an important contributor in the emancipation of slavery.
