Sojourner
Truth (originally
named Isabella
Baumfree), was born a slave in Ulster County, New York State, in about
1797. At the age of nine she was auctioned off to an Englishman named
John Nealey. Over the next few years she was owned by a fisherman
in Kingston and then by John Dumont, a plantation owner from New York
County. Between 1810 and 1827 she had five children with a fellow
slave. She was dismayed when one of her sons was sold to a plantation
owner in Alabama.
After New York State abolished slavery in 1827, Quaker
friends helped her win back her son through the courts. She moved
to New York City and obtained worked as a servant. She became friends
with Elijah Pierson, a religious missionary, and eventually moved
into his home.
In 1843 Isabella took the name Sojourner Truth. With the help of a
white friend, Olive Gilbert, she published
her book, The
Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
In an introduction to the book, William
Lloyd Garrison wrote that he believed it would "stimulate
renewed efforts to liberate all those still in slavery in America".
Over the next few years Truth toured the country making speeches on
slavery. After meeting Lucretia
Mott, she also spoke at meetings in favour of woman's
suffrage. When a white man told her that her speeches were no
more important than a fleabite, she replied, "Maybe not, but
the Lord willing, I'll keep you scratching."
At the beginning of the American Civil War,
she helped recruit black men to help the war effort. In 1864 she moved
to Washington where she organised a campaign against the policy of
not allowing blacks to sit with whites on trains. As a result of this,
she was received in the White House by President
Abraham Lincoln. Sojourner
Truth
died at Battle Creek, Michigan, on 26th November, 1883.
(1)
Olive Gilbert, Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1843)
The subject of this biography, Sojourner Truth, as she now calls herself,
but whose name originally was Isabella, was the daughter of James
and Betsey, slaves of one Colonel Ardinburgh, Hurley, Ulster County,
New York. Sojourner does not know in what year she was born, but knows
she was liberated under the act of 1817, which freed all slaves who
were forty years old and upward. Ten thousand slaves were then set
at liberty. Those under forty years of age were retained in servitude
ten years longer, when all were emancipated.
(2)
Olive Gilbert, Narrative
of Sojourner Truth (1843)
At length, the never to be forgotten day of the terrible auction arrived,
when the "slaves, horse, and the other cattle" of Charles
Ardinburgh, deceased, were to be put under the hammer. Isabella was
sold for the sum of one hundred dollars, to one John Nealey, of Ulster
County, New York. She was now nine years of age, and her trials in
life may be dated from this period.
During the winter her feet were badly frozen, for want of proper covering.
They gave her plenty to eat, and also plenty of whippings. One Sunday
morning, in particular, she was told to go to the barn; on going there,
she found her master with a bundle of rods, prepared in the embers,
and bound together with cords. When he had tied her hands together
before her, she gave her the most cruel whipping she was tortured
with. He whipped her till the flesh was deeply lacerated, and the
blood streaming from her wounds - and the scars remain to the present
day, to testify to the fact.
(3)
Frances Gage, president of the Convention Women's
Convention in Akron, Ohio (1851)
Several ministers attended the second day of the Woman's Rights Convention,
and were not shy in voicing their opinion of man's superiority over
women. One claimed "superior intellect", one spoke of the
"manhood of Christ," and still another referred to the "sin
of our first mother." Suddenly, Sojourner Truth rose from her
seat in the corner of the church.
"For God's sake, Mrs. Gage, don't let her speak!" half a
dozen women whispered loudly, fearing that their cause would be mixed
up with Abolition.
Sojourner walked to the podium and slowly took off her sunbonnet.
Her six-foot frame towered over the audience. She began to speak in
her deep, resonant voice: "Well, children, where there is so
much racket, there must be something out of kilter, I think between
the Negroes of the South and the women of the North - all talking
about rights - the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's
all this talking about?"
(4)
Sojourner Truth, speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio (1851)
I want women to have their
rights. In the courts women have no right, no voice; nobody speaks
for them. I wish woman to have her voice there among the pettifoggers.
If it is not a fit place
for women, it is unfit for men to be there.
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. We
do as much, we eat as much, we want as much. I suppose I am about
the only colored woman that goes about to speak for the rights of
the colored women. I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the
ice is cracked. What we want is a little money. You men know that
you get as much again as women, when you write, or for what you do.
When we get our rights, we shall not have to come to you for money,
for then we shall have money enough in our own pockets; and maybe
you will ask us for
money. But help us now until we get it. It is a good consolation to
know that when we have got this battle once fought we shall not be
coming to you any more.
I am glad to see that
men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and
while the water is stirring I will step into the pool. Now that there
is a great stir about colored men's getting their rights is the time
for women to step in and have theirs. I am sometimes told that "Women
ain't fit to vote. What, don't you know that a woman had seven devils
in her: and do you suppose a woman is fit to rule the nation?"
Seven devils ain't no account; a man had a legion in him. The devils
didn't know where to go; and so they asked that they might go into
the swine. They thought that was as good a place as they came out
from. They didn't ask to go into the sheep - no, into the hog; that
was the selfish beast; and man is so selfish that he has got women's
rights and his own too, and yet he won't give women their rights.
He keeps them all to himself.
(5)
Sojourner Truth, speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio (1851)
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something
out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the
women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be
in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
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 ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles,
or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look
at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and 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 a man
- when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery,
and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard
me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's
this they call it? (member of audience whispers, "intellect")
That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes'
rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart,
wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then 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.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world
upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn
it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to
do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing
more to say.
(6) Anti-Slavery
Bugle, Ohio (21st June, 1851)
One of the most unique and interesting speeches of the Convention
was made by Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave. It is impossible
to transfer it to paper, or convey any adequate idea of the effect
it produced upon the audience. Those only can appreciate it who saw
her powerful form, her whole-souled, earnest gesture, and listened
to her strong and truthful tones.
She came forward to the platform and addressing the President (Frances
Gage) said with great simplicity: May I say a few words? Receiving
an affirmative answer, she proceeded; I want to say a few words about
this matter. I am for woman's rights. I have as much muscle as any
man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped
and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?
I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much
as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong
as any man that is now.
As for intellect, all I can say is, if woman have a pint and a man
a quart - why can't she have her little pint full? You need not be
afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much - for
we won't take more than our pint will hold.
The poor men seem to be all in confusion and don't know what to do.
Why children, if you have woman's rights give it to her and you will
feel better. You will have your own rights, and there won't be so
much trouble.
(7)
Sojourner Truth, letter to a friend about her meeting with President
Abraham Lincoln (17th November, 1864)
Upon entering his reception room we found about a dozen persons in
waiting, among them two coloured women. I had quite a pleasant time
waiting until he was disengaged, and enjoyed his conversation with
others; he showed as much kindness and consideration to the colored
persons as to the white. One case was that of a colored woman who
was sick and likely to be turned out of her house on account of her
inability to pay her rent. The president listened to her with much
attention, and spoke to her with kindness and tenderness.
He then congratulated me on my having been spared. Then I said, I
appreciate you, for you are the best president who has ever taken
the seat. He replied: "I expect you have reference to my having
emancipated the slaves in my proclamation". But, said he, mentioning
the names of several of his predecessors, "they were all just
as good, and would have done just as I have done if the time had come."
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