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Example research essay topic: Grew Tired Strong Woman - 1,167 words

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Isabelle was born a slave in Ulster County, New York. There are many discrepancies in the year that she was born, but it was commonly believed to be somewhere around 1797. As a baby, she was given the name Isabelle Hardenbergh. Her last name came from her owner, Colonel Hardenbergh. At the age of three, Colonel Hardenbergh died, leaving Isabelle and her parents as the property of his son Charles. They lived in deplorable conditions there, sharing a common living area with twelve other slaves.

After Charles' death in 1808, Isabelle and her younger brother were auctioned off. Throughout her years in slavery, Isabelle had many owners, some harsh and some kind. Who they were is inconsequential; what is important to who Isabelle became through her years of bondage. She grew to become a strong woman, both mentally and physically.

Through her beatings, she learned determination. Through the loss of her parents, she suffered great heartbreak, but learned to place that aside when it came time to work. Her experiences as a slave helped her to become a strong woman with the combination of wit, wisdom, wild enthusiasm, and flint-like common sense (video). Isabelle has been described as a "woman of remarkable intelligence despite her illiteracy." She stood a tall 5 ' 11 '', and had a masculine, yet beautifully powerful voice. With both her body and mind, she represented enslaved women everywhere. In our society's remembrance of her, she is seen as a natural, uncomplicated presence in our national life.

Rather than just another person in history, she is a symbol (Painter, 3 - 4). Year after year, for thirty years, she spoke publicly, making herself a strong, influential force in several American reform movements. Throughout her missions, her aim became increasingly secular, and from the late 1840 's through the late 1870 's, she traveled America denouncing slavery and slavers, advocating freedom, women's rights, woman suffrage, and temperance (Painter, 4). Harriet Beecher Stowe reconstructed conversations with her colleagues and Isabelle where Isabelle tells them of when she found Jesus.

Isabelle was with her mother, and her mother was crying over her lost children who were sold to other masters. Her mother, referred to by some as Ma-Ma Betts, explained to Isabelle that one day she too would be sold away from her mother, and that if she ever needed help, to ask God. Isabelle asked her mother who God is, and her mother said to her, "Why, chile, you jes' look up dar! (referring to the stars) It's Him that made all dem!" (Stowe). Isabelle didn't pay much attention to God at that point in her life. Later though, when she was sold away from her mother to a harsh master, she began to pray to God. She asked for his help to escape from her master, and she claims that the Lord told her to get up two or three hours before daylight and start walking.

She did as she was told, and began to ask the Lord where she was going. Isabelle claimed that He brought her to a house, late at night, to a family of Quakers (Stowe). Different books have different accounts of this experience. Jacqueline Barnard extends on this occurrence, stating that Isabelle's master, Dumont, found Isabelle here, and was ready to take her back. The Quaker's, seeing this, bought Isabelle and her daughter from Dumont.

Isabelle, while turning toward her new owner and referring to him as master, was stopped in mid-sentence. This man, Isaac Van Wagenen held up his hand and stated, "There is but one Master here. He who is thy Master is my Master" (Bernard, 61). Isabelle stayed with the Van Wagenen's for some time, and quite quickly forgot all about God. One day, as Isabelle was leaving the house, she met God.

She said that she turned right back around and had to sit down. She claimed that she felt as if she were going to burn up, "I could feel it burnin', burnin', burnin' all around me, an' goin' through me; an' I saw I was so wicked" (Stowe). She prayed for help, and she believed that something came between her and God, something of an umbrella, somebody, "somebody that stood between me an' God; an' it felt cool, like a shade" She asked who it was, and she received an answer, "This Is Jesus!" (Stowe). She claims that she felt love as she had never felt it before, love to all creatures, "even de white folks. " Isabelle wanted to learn more about God. She began by asking ministers wherever she could find them and also asking any adult who would sit down and read to her the bible. She grew tired of this very quickly.

She wished to hear the scriptures without comment, but the adults would invariably explain them. As a result, Isabelle went to children. She could ask them to re-read passages as often as she wished, and they would not comment. This enabled her to understand for herself the bible, and not be predisposed to another's disposition.

She believed it was important to develop her own understanding of the bible (Washington, 87). It did not take long before Isabelle would begin to search for congregations to join. This was a hard task for her. She refused to sit in church with segregated prayer rooms, and therefore was left little option but to join a black church known as the Zion African Church. This church encouraged it's congregation to testify about their religious feelings, and Isabelle soon became well known for her dynamic expressions of her faith (Krass, 48). I believe that this experience in her life gave her the foundation she would need later in life as she began to minister around the country.

Isabelle soon grew tired of the church, she felt that they were not doing anything to relieve that pain and suffering of the poor in the area. This is when she began to go out and find those who needed her wisdom. She embraced a new religion in America, Spiritualism, brought to her by Isaac and Amy Post. She first appreciated them more for their racial tolerance than their spiritualistic beliefs. Spiritualism soon became comfortable to Isabelle, for the Holy Spirit was a prominent figure in her religion.

It is an optimistic and tolerant faith of individualism and autonomy (Painter, 145). Isabelle wished to start a new life. She realized that through her experiences "as a slave, a mother, and devout Christian", as Peter Krass put it, she had developed a perspective on human rights and spiritual well-being that she felt she needed to share with others. In her own mind, she heard the powerful voice of God telling her that she had a mission to help the needy and the oppressed (Krass, 57). As Isabelle grew closer to God, she began to travel more, "I must be about my Father's business", she claimed. As "voices" had enlightened her in 1843, she became "an instr...


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