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FROM: Women's Studies RE: Celebrating Brave, Bold Women: Evangelist, activist, abolitionist, author
Sent:
3/5/2020 2:32:25 PM
To: Students, Faculty, Staff

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Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and author who lived a miserable life as a slave. She served several masters throughout New York before she was able to escape to freedom in 1826. Once Truth finally gained her freedom, she became a Christian and, at what she believed was God’s calling, preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all. This was highlighted in her stirring, “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, delivered at a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851. In fact, she continued her crusade for the rest of her life, earning an audience with President Abraham Lincoln and becoming one of the world’s best-known human rights crusaders.

Sojourner Truth was not born with the name she was later given. She was born, Isabella Baumfree in 1797, to James and Elizabeth Baumfree, slave parents in Ulster County, New York. At around the age of 9, she was sold at a slave auction to John Neely for $100, along with a flock of sheep. This would not be the last slave owner that she was sold to because unfortunately, Neely was a cruel and violent slave master who would beat Truth (Baumfree at the time) regularly. She was sold two more times by the age of 13 and ultimately ended up at the West Park, New York, home of John Dumont and his second wife Elizabeth. Around the age of 18, Isabella fell in love with a slave named Robert from a nearby farm.

I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.

                                                                        -Sojourner Truth

To learn more about Sojourner Truth, visit:

History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Sojourner Truth. Retrieved from

                https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sojourner-truth