The Truth Teller Named Sojourner (Article 103)
Her birth name was not Sojourner Truth, it was Isabella Baumfree, but most called her Belle; and she was a slave!
Isabella was born in 1797 in Swartekill, a village in upstate New York, to older parents who were slaves owned by a family which primarily spoke Dutch. Her parents also spoke that language; so, Dutch was Isabella’s only language until she was nine years old. During her early years, her parents recounted the agonizing stories of the sale of Isabella’s siblings and instilled in her the understanding (and the fear) that she also might be sold at some point. Then, while still a young girl, her world came crashing down. Both of her parents died, and while still mourning their loss, she was sold to another family. To make matters worse, the new owner only spoke English and she only spoke Dutch, which resulted in harsh discipline when she could not understand their orders. Over the next twenty years, Isabella learned the new language, was sold several more times, was married, and had five children. One of her children was the result of rape by her owner, but she cared for that child with the same affection as her other children. However, to her dismay, during that time, her other children were sold to different slaveholders.
In 1826, with the help of a Quaker active in emancipation, Isabella was able to escape from the farm of her owners, taking with her one young daughter. She later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right." She was fortunate to become the housekeeper for the Van Wagenen family, who were wealthy, and deeply religious. Isaac Van Wagenen was not a slave holder, nor was he a fervent an abolitionist, but he and his wife cared for Isabella and agreed to pay her present owner $20.00. Because most slave-holders would not sell a slave if they understood that the slave would be freed, the Van Wagenens kept their plan secret. However, they treated Isabella as an employee, paying her a small salary, and assured her that she and her children would soon be legally free under a New York anti-slavery law which was to become effective within the next year.
As promised by Mr. Wagenen, Isabella and two of her children were permanently freed under the New York law which had abolished slavery effective July 4, 1827. Two of her children, however, could not yet join her. One child was held back from her because the New York law, due to a compromise with slave-holders, contained stipulations to protect slave-owners from immediate loss of their workforce. The law included a condition which required that some designated slaves must remain as “indentured servants” to their previous owner for five additional years.
Further, another child, her only son, could not be located. With the help of Isaac Van Wagenen, she learned that the boy had been illegally sold out of New York, was sold again at an auction by a slave-broker, and was now a slave on a plantation in Alabama. With the help of local Quakers, she was able to sue in New York Court and won the case that required the Alabama owner to release her son. It was the first such case, and one of only a few, in which a Black woman prevailed in a slavery dispute against a White man.
She now had custody of all of her children and chose to move her family to New York City. There, she became the housekeeper for a Methodist minister, who led a large congregation; and, soon Isabella joined that church and became a devout member. Convinced that she and her family were saved from slavery by Divine means, she became involved in the New York abolitionist organizations. While she had never learned to read and write, others noticed that she had a distinct style of speaking, and, of course, a fascinating story to tell. Soon she was in demand to speak about her experiences at Abolitionist Societies and other churches with an emancipation doctrine. In 1843, after her children were adults and employed, she felt “called” to leave the city where there was already a strong abolitionist movement, and move out to the country-side, where sympathy for universal emancipation was not as common; and where she believed her message could prompt more white citizens to support the abolitionist cause.
As part of her religious emergence, she chose to change her name. She described herself as a simple traveler, telling the truth about the indignities, and horrors, of slavery. So, from then on, she decided that she would be known as Sojourner Truth!
She told her friends and family, "The Spirit calls me, and I must go", and left to make her way traveling and preaching about the abolition of slavery. She put her few possessions in a sack and she traveled north through up-state New York. She was paid for some of her speeches and accepted the hospitality of those in her audiences for meals and accommodations. But most of her income came from a novel source. She understood the power of an image and embraced photography as way to spread her message. She sat for photo portraits and then had the images, which she called her shadows, put on cards, and usually added a short pre-printed message. On one version of the card, under her photograph, she had printed, “I sell this Shadow to support the Substance.”
There was an elegance about Sojourner that was not always present in those who spoke about their experiences as slaves. First, her accent was more Northeastern than the heavy southern dialect spoken by many former slaves and she worked hard on her elocution. She also made progress with reading and writing and began to leave records of some of her speeches as well as well as songs and poems. She made sure she was well dressed, spoke firmly, but politely, and invoked renewal, more than outrage, and dignity more than fiery rhetoric. She was in stark contrast to some former slaves who, as abolition speakers, ripped their clothing to show scars from beatings or screamed out for retribution. That just was not the way Sojourner wanted to present her message.
Over time, she met abolitionist leaders William Lloyd Garrison, David Ruggles, and former slave Frederick Douglass who all promoted her speaking opportunities. Garrison requested and received permission to publish her memoir and in 1850 he issued the book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, which provided her a substantial (for the times) income. With her new book, Sojourner was in even greater demand as a speaker and in 1851, delivered her most famous presentation.
It became known as the “Ain’t I a Woman” speech!
It was given at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, and, in it, she championed women's rights, but also equal human rights for all Blacks. In that period (1850s), it was controversial to advocate for women’s rights, but even more so to advocate for rights for Blacks, whether free or enslaved. But reports from the time indicate that she took to the stage and in a powerful voice, spoke extemporaneously. There were many men in the audience and some began to heckle her, but she was undeterred. To one group of men who were challenging whether she was even a female, she shouted back, “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, …Nobody helps me…Ain't I a Woman?"
Because she spoke without notes, no exact copy of the speech in her own words has survived; however, reporters created summaries for their newspapers and several versions were widely printed. Fortunately, Sojourner was later able to clarify some of her remarks and her re-edited speech has been preserved and has been included in numerous books. As time went on, she still faced challengers as she spoke to groups and, at another speech, someone actually yelled out that she was a man, not a woman. Sojourner simply opened her blouse, exposed her breasts, then closed her blouse, and went back to her speech without missing a beat. She must have astounded the heckler (and the rest of her audience) as she proved him wrong.
She rarely had a break from speaking engagement and even when she was not a scheduled speaker at an abolitionist event, if she was in attendance, she was usually called upon for a few remarks. On one such occasion, she rose from her seat and said, “Children, I have come here like the rest of you, to hear what I have to say.”
During the Civil War, Sojourner assisted in the recruitment of Black troops, both free-men and former slaves, for the Union Army. At that time, she may have been the most recognized, and popular, Black women in the country; and her appeals were effective.
And, in part because of her recruiting efforts, in 1864, she met with Abraham Lincoln at the White House. During their meeting, she asked if he would sign the small book she carried. He agreed and, she later wrote in a letter that, “I presented him with one of my shadows and a song. I am proud to say that I was never treated with more kindness, and cordiality than I was by the great and good man, Abraham Lincoln….He took my little book, and with the same hand that signed the death warrant of slavery, he wrote, ‘For Auntie Sojourner Truth, October 29, 1864, A. Lincoln.’ I then took my leave… and now I shall feel (even) more in duty bound.”
The death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 was devastating for Sojourner and she wrote, “The great man is dead. I mourn him as I would my child.” Although she had moved to Michigan before the War, she spent a great deal of time in Washington DC over the next five years to lobby Congress, and even President Grant, to secure land grants for former slaves. She was unsuccessful, perhaps the only failed mission of her life.
She continued traveling on speaking tours until 1880 at the age of 83, when she decided to spend the rest of her days with her family in Battle Creek, Michigan. She remained involved in community affairs, suffragette causes, and religious activities until her death in 1883.
At her funeral, over one-thousand mourners heard her eulogized by prominent clergymen, women from her various causes, and by Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave and by then one of the most eloquent orators and writers of the day. He said, "Venerable for age, distinguished for insight into human nature, remarkable for independence and courageous self-assertion, devoted to the welfare of her race, she has been for the last forty years an object of respect and admiration to social reformers everywhere.”
Sojourner Truth had lived up to her name.