Full Name
Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree)[2]
Date of Birth
1797[3]
Date of Death
1883[1]
Place of Birth
Spouse’s Name
- Unknown husband (married in 1817)[5]
Children’s Names
- Diana, Elizabeth, Peter, and Sophia[5]
Known Affiliates Names
- Frederick Douglass (abolitionist leader)[5]
- William Lloyd Garrison (abolitionist leader)[5]
- David Ruggles (abolitionist leader)[5]
Affiliated Organizations’ Names
Legacy
Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and speaker[1]. Born into slavery, she was freed in 1827 by the New York Gradual Abolition Act and worked as a domestic[2]. After her conversion to Christianity, she took the name Sojourner Truth, reflecting her new mission to travel and show people their sins and declare the truth[2]. She became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women’s rights in the nineteenth century[3]. Truth is best known for her famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”, which challenged the audience’s beliefs about women and blacks being inferior[2]. She was the first African American woman to win a lawsuit, fighting for her son’s freedom after he had been illegally sold[2]. In her life, she tirelessly advocated for the rights of African Americans, women, and numerous reform causes, including prison reform and against capital punishment[1]. She is memorialized in countless artworks, murals, and statues, and in 2009, Truth became the first Black woman memorialized with a bust in the U.S. Capitol[1].
Citations: [1] https://www.nps.gov/people/sojourner-truth.htm [2] https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/educate/truth.html [3] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth [5] https://wams.nyhistory.org/a-nation-divided/antebellum/sojourner-truth/