SOJOURNER TRUTH
- Women’s Rights Campaigner -
G'day folks,
Welcome to some interesting facts about yet another black woman who was certainly ahead of her time. Sojourner
Truth (1797–1897) was born into slavery but escaped to freedom and became one
of the most noted African-American women speakers on issues of civil rights and
abolition.
She was deeply
religious and felt a calling from God to travel America speaking on slavery and
other contemporary issues. At 6ft tall, she was a striking presence and used
her powerful oratory to awaken the conscience of America to the injustice of
slavery and discrimination.
Early life
Sojourner
Truth was born to slave parents – James and Elizabeth Baumfree. She was born
around 1797 and, at birth, was named Isabelle or ‘Belle’. Her family, including
10-12 siblings, were kept on an estate in the town of Espouses – 95 miles north
of New York. When her Dutch slave owner, Charles Hardenbergh died in 1806,
Sojourner, aged nine, was sold for $100 to a new owner John Neely, who
frequently beat her.
She was
then sold between slave owners a few times, before moving to John Dumont of
West Park, New York. Unlike previous owners, Dumont was more kindly disposed
and her life improved somewhat, although she was harassed by Dumont’s wife.
Around
1815, Truth began a relationship with a slave from a nearby farm, called Robert.
The relationship was strictly forbidden by Robert’s slave owner Charles Cation
– because Cation would not own any children they had – but they met
anyway. Unfortunately, Cation caught the pair and severely beat his slave,
Robert. The beating was so savage that Robert later died from his injuries. The
painful incident left a lasting legacy, haunting Truth throughout her life.
Later she was told to marry a slave named Thomas, who was 20 years older than
her. She had four children with Thomas and one child with either Robert or John
Dumont.
Freedom
from slavery
New York was
one of the earliest states to begin ending slavery. The process was started in
1799, but slavery wouldn’t officially end until 4 July 1827. However, Truth
became restless for freedom and after Dupont reneged on an offer to grant her
freedom, in 1826, one year before the change in the law, she took her infant
daughter Sophia and left Dumont. She found work as a domestic servant with the
Van Wagenen family.
Despite the
end of slavery in New York, Truth learnt that her five-year-old son, Peter, had
been sold to Alabama where slavery was deeply embedded. With the help of her
new employers, she took Dupont to court to claim he had sold Peter illegally.
Truth won the case against her former slave owner and her son Peter was brought
back from Alabama where he had been badly treated. It was a landmark case and
the first time a black woman had won a court case against a white man.
This was an important
time for Truth, free from the shackles of slavery; she had a religious
conversion, becoming a devout, evangelical Christian.
She spent time
with Elijah Pierson, a Christian Evangelist, and also ‘Prophet Matthias’ who
founded the Matthias Kingdom communal colony. When Pierson died, Truth along
with others was accused of stealing and poisoning him. But the case was thrown
out of court. Later Truth brought a slander suit against those who had made the
false claims (the Folgers) and Truth won her second case.
As well as abolitionist causes, Truth became more active in
supporting women’s rights, religious tolerance, pacifism and prison reform. She
joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Northampton,
Massachusetts, which was committed to promoting the abolition of slavery and
supporting women’s rights. Here she met other prominent abolitionists, such as
William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick
Douglass. Although the group later disbanded she remained close to some of
these prominent men and women.
Truth was also a good singer and sometimes
sang to audiences. At an abolitionist conference in 1840 in Boston, the great
orator Wendell Phillips was marked down to speak after her. Worried she was not
good enough to speak before him, she sang “I am Pleading for my people” to the
tune of Auld Lang Syne.
Throughout the
1850s and 60s, she gave many speeches throughout the state – this was a time
when public speaking was in high demand; in the absence of any radio or modern
media, public speaking was a major source of information. The speaking circuit
was mostly dominated by white men, so the presence of this imposing 6′ black
woman was quite striking; her powerful words carried authenticity because she
spoke from direct experience of slavery. She was also blessed with a powerful,
low, resonant voice. She often travelled with her grandson, Sammy Banks who
could read and write – this was a great help to the illiterate Sojourner.
Still, it was
a challenging role – fighting the double prejudice of the age –
against both women and those of African-American roots. Like other female
speakers such as Harriet
Tubman, sometimes people were even sceptical that they weren’t really men.
One apocryphal story relates that in 1858, someone interrupted a speech Truth
was giving claiming she was a man. Truth responded by revealing her breasts.
Often audiences were quite hostile, with hissing and
booing, even before she started. But Truth was able to adapt her speeches to
the context of the time and was adept at dealing with hostile audiences. As her
reputation grew, her reception became more favourable. She was popular with
like-minded abolitionists, though her insistence on the equality of women was
radical even for some progressives. She also had a strong sense of humour and
was willing to tease those who tended to a more self-righteous activism or were
concerned with frivolous posturing.
Increasingly
frail, Truth died on 26 November 1883, aged around 87. Though she liked to
encourage the myth she was even much older ‘the oldest speaker on the circuit’
– was one phrase used. Her tombstone gives her age as 105.
In 2009, she
became the first black woman honoured with a bust in the U.S. Capitol and in
2014, she was included in the Smithsonian Institutions list of the 100 most
significant Americans.
Clancy's comment: I always admire these women, especially the black women, who often fought for rights against insurmountable odds.
I'm ...
