Research Guides: Sojourner Truth: Biography

Sojourner Truth (1797 - November 26, 1883)

Sojourner Truth was a nineteenth-century African American evangelist who embraced abolitionism and Women's Rights. A charismatic speaker, she became one of the best-known abolitionists of her day. Born a slave around 1797 in Ulster County, New York, Isabella Baumfree, as she was originally named, was the second youngest of thirteen children born in Slavery to Elizabeth (called Mau-Mau Bett) and James Bomefree. The other siblings were either sold or given away before her birth. The family was owned by Johannes Hardenbergh, a patron and Revolutionary War patriot, the head of one of the most prominent Dutch families in late eighteenth-century New York. After the colonel’s death, his son Charles Hardenberg inherited hownership of the family’s slaves. Continue . . .

Source: "Truth, Sojourner." Gale Encyclopedia of American Law, edited by Donna Batten, 3rd ed., vol. 10, Gale, 2010, pp. 131-132. From Gale Virtual Reference database.

eBook Collection

Sojourner Truth : Slave, Prophet, Legend

Resources

Who was Sojourner Truth? Information provided by Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth Social reformers--United States--Biography African American abolitionists--Biography Abolitionists--United States--Biography
Sojourner Truth's Plan for the Freed Slaves: Teach 'em to Read, Teach 'em to Work, Send 'em out West Article from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Ar'n't I a Woman? Article from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Representing truth: Sojourner Truth's knowing and becoming known Examines historiographical representations of black preacher, abolitionist, and feminist Sojourner Truth, who changed her name from Isabella Van Wagner after a religious experience in 1843, and looks at how Truth helped shape her own public and historical image. A slave in New York state from her birth in 1797 until 1827, Truth never learned to read and, unlike her more refined male counterpart, Frederick Douglass, she cultivated an image as an uncultured former slave. She learned public speaking through practice, and memorized the Bible by having people read aloud to her. Truth's life and personality, obscured by myths and misrepresentations, left few traces of the usual sorts of historical documentation. The best ways to get at the mystery of Sojourner Truth are to examine surviving photographs of her, which she used to shape her image, and to study the writings of four contemporary white women - Olive Gilbert, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frances Dana Gage, and Frances Titus - who worked with and observed Truth.

From Films On Demand database:

Sojourner Truth: "American Equal Rights Convention: (1867) Sojourner Truth urgently called for parity between black men and black women, and equality among women of all races. She drew parallels between slaveowners and any men who believed in denying women their rights.
Sojourner Truth Evoked by Paulene Myers On this episode of Camera Three, Pauline Myers portrays Sojourner Truth in a one-woman show incorporating famous addresses and quotations. A former slave, Truth joined the abolitionist movement and fought for civil and women's rights.
Abolition Movement Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass were instrumental in the abolition of slavery and for advocating women’s rights. Harriet Tubman expanded the Underground Railroad which was born out of the abolitionist movement.