Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 New York. First named Isabella Baumfree, Truth's early years endured a series of abusive owners and a forced marriage that produced five children. When her fifth owner, John Dumont, refused to free "Belle" per an 1826 New York law, Belle walked away to freedom with her infant daughter, knowing she had the law on her side. She found refuge with Quakers and settled in New York City where she became a domestic servant in the Von Wagener home.
Truth had a religious experience during her stay with the Von Wagener family, and became a devout Christian. In 1843 claiming "the Spirit calls me and I must go," she took the name Sojourner Truth. She became a Methodist and made her way traveling and preaching about abolition. Truth gave her most famous speech, "Ain't I a Woman?" in 1854 at the Ohio Woman's Rights Convention.
In 1844 Truth joined an abolitionist commune at Northampton, Mass., that also supported women's rights and religious tolerance. Though she was illiterate, it was here in 1850 that she produced a book, Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. It quickly became a bestseller. (The book had been dictated to a friend and published privately by William Lloyd Garrison. Sales at 25 cents per copy became an important part of her income.)
Garrison, editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, had written an introduction for the first edition of Narrative and encouraged Truth to seek out Harriet Beecher Stowe for comments that might further push book sales. Thus in the autumn of 1853 Truth journeyed to Andover where Stowe was living on the campus of the Theological Seminary and where her husband, Calvin Stowe, taught. At the time, both women were well-known political activists who spoke out passionately against slavery. Stowe was an international star. Truth was 56 and had been on the lecture circuit 10 years by the time she arrived in town.
When Sojourner Truth arrived unexpectedly at Mrs. Stowe's campus home, it is written that Mrs. Stowe was so impressed by Sojourner's personal presence and eloquence that Sojourner stayed for several days as a welcomed guest. Mrs. Stowe then willingly obliged her guest with an introduction to the second edition of Truth's book, published in 1855.
Writing in 1863 about the visit, Stowe related "...her conversation was so strong, simple, shrewd, and with such a droll flavoring of humor, Professor Stowe wont to say of an evening, 'Come, I am dull and bored, can't you send Sojourner up here to talk a little?'"
Through the 1870s, Sojourner Truth continued to travel the country, even meeting three presidents - Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant. Rallying for educational opportunities for blacks and raising funds for the Union during the Civil War, she also fought against discrimination in public transportation, becoming the first "freedom rider" when she desegregated the Washington, D.C. street cars.
After a lifetime of serving others, Sojourner Truth died on Nov. 18, 1883, in Battle Creek, Mich. Nearly 100 years later, in 1981, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2009, the National Congress of Black Women honored Sojourner Truth by making her the first African-American woman to have a memorial bust in the U.S. Capitol.
For all her accomplishments, Truth's legacy might simply be her ability to turn the unkind words of others against them. Facing a heckler who told her he did not care for her anti-slavery talk anymore than he would for the bite of a flea, Truth retorted, "Perhaps not, but Lord willing I'll keep you scratching."
"Andover Stories" is a weekly column about interesting local people and events, started to celebrate the Andover Historical Society's 100 anniversary in 2011.
