Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of an American abolitionist born into slavery from Hurley, New York. (Her original name was Isabella Baumfree, some sources list her name as Isabella Van Wagener.) The year of her birth is uncertain, but is usually taken to be in 1797.She was forced to have five children while in slavery with a man named Thomas Jeffery Harvey. Her youngest child was named sophie, with whom she fled.
She escaped to Canada in 1827; after New York state abolished slavery, she returned there in 1829, working as a domestic servant for over a decade and joining Elijah Pierson in evangelical preaching on street-corners.
Later in life she became a noted speaker for both the Abolitionist movement and the women’s rights movement. Truth’s most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?,” is a short but well pointed commentary.
In 1841, she went to Northampton, Massachusetts to join a utopian community, the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. When the association disbanded in 1846, she remained in Florence, Massachusetts, where she worked with a neighbor, Olive Gilbert, to produce a biography in 1850, the Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.
In 1857, Truth moved to Michigan, where she continued her advocacy. During the American Civil War, she organized collection of supplies for the Union, and moved to Washington, D.C., after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued to work with former slaves. She also met President Abraham Lincoln.
She returned to Michigan in 1867 and died at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan, on November 26, 1883. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek. In 1983, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
In 1997 the NASA Mars Pathfinder mission’s robotic rover was named “Sojourner” after Sojourner Truth.
She was quoted by animal-rights philosopher Peter Singer in Animal Liberation (1975) to support his argument that, if supposedly possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not justify the abuse by one gender or race of another, then it also cannot entitle human beings to exploit non-human animals:
They talk about this thing in the head; what do they call it? [“Intellect,” whispered someone nearby.] That’s it. 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? (Singer, 1975, taken from Tanner, 1970)
Source: Wikipedia contributors (2006). Sojourner Truth. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:37, May 16, 2006.
