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Who was Sojourner Truth? Isabella Baum free also considered Van Wagenen was born in 1797 and died in 1883. She was the first black to speak out to people about slavery and abolitionists. She was said to have a deep manly voice but had a quick wit and inspiring faith (Encyclopedia, 474). It was Truths religious faith that transformed her from Isabella to Sojourner Truth.
What is difficult to tell is her actual birth date because there are two different women with different birth dates such as Isabella's is in the 1790 s and Truths is on June 1, 1843. The parents are also hard to decipher because of slavery spiting up families. Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were the two most famous women of the 19 th century. It was said, New York was Truths Egypt. In a short amount of time Truth became the national symbol for black women (Painter, 5). Truth was a slave in Ulster County, New York but was freed in 1828.
That was the year that she had her command from God, it was he that told her to preach about her beliefs and equality. She told people that God was only looking for people who show love and concern for others and this is why she must continue to preach (Encyclopedia, 474). Isabella was one of 13 children from slave parents and she could only speak Dutch. She lived with her parents until the time she was 11 then she was sent to a new master who mistreated her severely.
This is when she learned how to speak English, but she would still have a Dutch accent the rest of her life. Her third master, the Dumont's, is where she was sent when she was thirteen and stayed for seventeen years. It is also where Isabella married her husband Thomas and continued to have five children with him. The state of New York in 1817 passed a law saying that all blacks are free but not until July 4, 1827. She was waiting for her ten years to be up but she found that Dumont planned to keep her and not let her free at all.
She lived on the farm up until a few months before New York abolished slavery. Since Dumont had promised her, her freedom a year before the state emancipation and broken it she took her infant son and ran away. Truth had then been brought from Dumont and then given freedom by the Van Wagenens. It was then that she said she was directly talking to God and could continue to. In 1828 she was determined to get her illegally sold son back that had been sold to a plantation in Alabama. The new law was that it was illegal to sell a slave outside of the state and any minor under the age of twenty-one was to be free.
At first she did not know that he was sold until some months after. Her son was only five and he was sold to a man named Gedney that had plans on taking him to England. On Gedney's way when he was in New York Gedney found him to small for his services and gave him to his brother and then the boy ended up in Alabama. Truth traveled by foot and alone to find the man who broke the law. The Dumont's were asked to send her child back to her, but she was laughed at since Mrs.
Dumont told her she could barely take care of herself how was she going to take care of her son. Truth answer to her was that god is batter than any home that she could give him and he would take care of her and her son. (Truth, ch. 16) After she did not receive her son she chose to take her request to a higher ground. Truth wanted to do something about it because she knew that she could win and she was determined to win so with the help of a lawyer she took the man to court and became the first women to take a white man to court and win (glass ceiling. com). Truth changed the way that court trials would be won for the rest of history to come. Truth then moved to New York with her son and lived with Mr.
Pierson the man who ran the African Church who later became a prophet. Mr. Pierson was a very strong believer and he said one day that no true Christian shaves his beard o from that day on he traveled to show people his beard. Then Mr. Pierson met a man the notorious Matthias who was as extraordinary as he was brief.
He was a man who was also a strong believer; he was brought up in a religious home and was now forty-seven years of age. The Matthias said he was the messiah. Together they then began a cult called the Kingdom. The two of them became close and they ran the church. After Truth started to grow apart from the cult a few months later she found out that Matthias had murdered Pierson, Sojourner was considered an accomplice. To bring down truth even harder, a white couple, the Folgers who were also involved in the cult were going through hard times and were upset and didnt know whom to blame so they said that truth was involved. (Truth, ch 23) They said that Truth tried to poison them but they said that they had known about it.
Once again, Truth went to court and was then proven innocent. After that she chose to file a lawsuit against the Folgers. In 1835, she had then surpassed another color barrier. She was the first black woman to ever win such a large trial against a white person or persons (glass ceiling. com).
After Truth became emancipated she began walking through Rhode Island and Connecticut to speak about her relationship with God and her life experiences. Sojourners touching stories started to attract more and more people. One day after a few months of traveling her friends convinced her to speak at the Northapmton Association, which at the time was where people such as Fredrick Douglass gave speeches on abolition, equality and betterment of human life (whois. html). At the Northhapmton Association she also discussed issues of the day along with leading abolitionists and womens rights leaders of her time. As a result of these discussions she became one of the first people in the country to link the oppression of black slaves with the oppression of women (notre.
html). Sojourner Truth became widely known for her quick wit and powerful deep voice. She never became intimidated. She had powerful speaking ability, an open mind and six-foot frame as a result she was often accused of being a man. It was during one of her speeches at Silver Lake when more people were accusing her of being a man so she ripped open her shirt and bared her breasts to the crowd and then there was no longer rumors of her being a man. (notre. html) It was in 1851 when the famous novel called Uncle Toms cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Truth had a major impact on the creation of the book. It was written after Stowe had heard what Truth had to say about slavery. She had a positive effect on people knowing she had made people realize what was really happening and made them open their eyes and see the horror that they live amongst. It was 1846 when Sojourner truth finally owned her own house by getting a loan from Samuel Hill. Even though she was illiterate that did not stop her. She was able to write a book because Olive Gilbert dictated it and it was published in 1850, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.
For the next decade she traveled and continued with her speeches including her famous speech Aint I a Women? given at the womens rights convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851 (whois. html). Sojourner moved to Michigan with all of the money that she had earned from sales of her popular autobiography and then was able to afford to buy a house in Battle Creek, Michigan. She then continued to preach her belief. During the Civil War, she visited troops that were stationed in Michigan and encouraged them to fight for their country.
She would come and visit them and make food for them to eat when they were hungry. It was soon after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued that she moved to Washington, DC. Truth met with President Lincoln, where he told her he had heard her speeches long before and was very impressed and was amazed to see a woman with such ambition. She stayed in the D. C area to help in hospitals and counsel freed slaves (whois. html).
Afterwards she continued to help and consul freed slaves in Virginia. She refused to follow the Jim Crow segregation laws on street cars and had the Jim Crow car removed from the Washington D. C. system. Sojourner Truth brought a local streetcar to a stop when a driver refused to let her board. The driver forcibly grabbed her arm and dislocated her arm.
With the support of the crowd she forced the driver to carry her. Then a lawsuit started with the segregation laws and the streetcar driver. She then won the case. Next she started a campaign for a certain amount of land to be given and set aside for blacks that were poor.
She then had to return home in Battle Creek because she was ill. She then died on November 26, 1883 (glass ceiling. com). Sojourner Truth was not only a wonderful person with a kind heart but she was also a great role model.
She teaches us all that there is reason to hope, to strive, to believe in freedom for all people. I think that she had a major impact on the United States today in breaking color barriers and setting a line between right and wrong as evidence by her great achievements in the courtroom and by the great influence she had on the book Uncle Toms Cabin. I also find that she set back the time of when the civil war happened because of her having such a major part in being an abolitionist. I also find that she had a part in the civil war happening quicker because of her efforts. My opinion is that Lincolns participation greatly helped the abolitionist movement not only by signing the Emancipation Proclamation but also in gaining support in the upcoming election. I feel that he basically wanted the black power because he knew that he could win the election if he set the slaves free, but he also believe very much in what he did he just benefited from it all.
All of this information would be nothing except for the fact that it would not have been achieved without her courageous mind and strong ambition made it so that people even today know how blacks felt about the way white people treated them. During her legendary life, she challenged injustice wherever she saw it. Works Cited Painter, Nell. Sojourner Truth. A Life, A Symbol. W.
W Norton & Company, New York: 1996 (Painter, page) The glass ceiling biographies. Sojourner Truth biography. On-line posting. web (23 Oct. 2001), (glass ceiling.
com) Nancy, Felton, Monica, Green. Who was Sojourner Truth? . On-line posting, web (19 Oct. 2001), (not. com) The World Book Encyclopedia.
Sojourner Truth. 1991 (pg 474), (encyclopedia, 474) Sojourner Truth. African American historical figure. On-line posting web (25 Oct. 2001), (notre. html) Truth, Sojourner, Gilbert, Olive. A Narrative of Sojourner Truth. 1850 (Truth, ch. )
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