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/

Files

419px-Sojourner_Truth_01.jpg
Date Added
June 16, 2014
Collection
Women's Rights
Item Type
Person
Tags
,
Citation
Amy French, “Sojourner Truth,” Women Who Dared, accessed March 19, 2024, https://womenwhodared.omeka.net/items/show/51.