The long and storied life of abolitionist, civil rights activist, and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth (pictured) began some time in 1797 under harsh conditions. Born in to slavery, Truth was formerly named Isabella Baumfree as she grew up in the Hudson Valley region of New York before taking her self-given name in 1843. Truth accomplished much in her 86 years of life, including becoming one of the first Black women to legally challenge and defeat a White person in court over the ownership of her son. On this day in 1883, Truth passed away but not without blazing a mighty trail behind her.
Truth was one of 12 children born to her Ghanaian parents and was owned by a Dutch family. Suffering cruelty and abuse, she would be forced to marry another slave and produce five children – later escaping with an infant daughter in 1826. Although the early seeds of emancipation were taking root during this time, Truth and her baby were not yet considered free.
Isaac and Maria Van Wagener took in Truth and her daughter, and she worked for the family as a domestic servant until emancipation in New York took place. Truth then moved to New York City in 1829, and was by then a devout Christian.
In June of 1843, the name Sojourner Truth came to the budding abolitionist in a moment of spiritual clarity. In the following year, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry and met other like minds, such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and David Ruggles. Her link with Garrison proved to be fruitful, as the journalist privately published a dictated memoir of Truth’s life titled “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave 1850.”
In 1851, while at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, Truth would deliver her famous off-the-cuff speech, “Ain’t I A Woman,” which cemented her place as a leading voice in the growing women’s rights movement.
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