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Why do we love Sojourner?
Born into slavery in upstate New York in 1797, Isabella Baumfree spoke only Dutch during her childhood. In an all-too-common story, she was sold several times, forced to marry and reproduce and was treated cruelly by her masters. Unable to stand it any longer, she ran away in 1826. She sought refuge with a Quaker family, who helped her buy her freedom for $25 right before slavery was outlawed in New York state. Never able to read or write, that did not stop her from taking up the cause to end slavery and seek equal rights for women of all races. She said God told her to change her name to Sojourner Truth and bade her to travel the country speaking his word. She began her travels on foot with twenty-five cents in her pocket. All those who witnessed her powerful speeches were awed, and many wrote of the stunning power of her six-foot-tall presence and the wit and force of her words. Despite her lack of formal education, she enthralled religious leaders, prominent citizens, and even President Lincoln.
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Biography:
Born - c. 1797
Hurley, New York
Died - November 26, 1883
Battle Creek, MI
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In her own words -- And ain't I a woman?:
"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 helps me any best place. And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm. I have plowed, I have planted and I have 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 man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and seen most of them sold into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?"
"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!" |
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| "I am above eighty years old; it is about time for me to be going. I have been forty years a slave and forty years free and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. I suppose I am kept here because something remains for me to do; I suppose I am yet to help to break the chain. I have done a great deal of work; as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay; so with the German women. They work in the field and do as much work, but do not get the pay. We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much." |
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