Sojourner Truth
Title
Sojourner Truth
Subject
Abolitionism and women's rights
Description
Former slave who fought for suffrage and abolition
Creator
Amy French
Source
Image: Wiki Commons
Birth Date
1797
Birthplace
Swartekill, New York, USA
Death Date
1883
Occupation
Abolitionist, women's rights activist
Biographical Text
Truth was born Isabella Baumfree, but changed her name in 1843. She was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Sojourner escaped from slavery in 1826 with an infant child in tow. She also fought the illegal sale of her son through the court system. In 1851, she gave her famous speech, “Ain’t I A Woman?” at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. From her speech: “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.” Her speeches spoke to the inequitable status of women in American society, but also to the disadvantaged status of black women within woman's sphere.
Bibliography
Mabee, Carleton and Susan Mabee Newhouse. Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend. (New York University Press, 1993).
Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. (W.W. Norton & Co., 1996).
Piepmeier, Alison. Out in Public: Configurations of Women's Bodies in Nineteenth-Century America. (University of North Carolina, Press, 2004).
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850): http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html#16
Online Resources of Sojourner Truth, Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/truth/
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