Sojourner Truth

Learn about Sojourner Truth — born into slavery and later a driving force in abolitionism and women’s rights. Explore her life story, her speeches (including “Ain’t I a Woman?”), her enduring influence, and her memorable words.

Introduction

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) was an African American abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, preacher, and orator. She was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree but escaped to freedom and dedicated the remainder of her life to speaking truth to power. Her name became symbolic of her mission: to “sojourn” (travel) and declare “truth.” Her tireless advocacy, especially in the mid-19th century, helped shape the movements for racial justice, gender equality, and human dignity.

Early Life and Enslavement

Sojourner Truth was born around 1797 in Ulster County, New York (in what was then part of the Dutch-settled Hudson Valley).

From her earliest years, she experienced the brutal realities of slavery. She was bought and sold multiple times, separated from family, and forced to labor under harsh conditions.

In 1815, while still enslaved, she was compelled to marry another enslaved man, Thomas, and together they had children.

As New York moved toward gradual abolition, Sojourner was verbally promised freedom by her enslaver, but when the time arrived, he refused. Sensing that she must act, she left, walking away with her youngest daughter to secure her liberty.

Later, in 1828, she successfully sued to recover her son, becoming one of the first Black women to win a legal case against a white man.

Name, Calling & Activism

In 1843, Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She said that she believed God had called her to leave the city and travel the land proclaiming the truth.

Truth’s activism was deeply intertwined with her faith. She traveled up and down the eastern and midwestern United States preaching, singing, speaking at camp meetings, churches, and public gatherings.

She addressed multiple social causes: abolition of slavery, women’s rights, temperance, and prison reform.

One of her most famous public moments came in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Convention in Akron, where she delivered a speech later widely known as “Ain’t I a Woman?”

It’s worth noting, however, that multiple versions of that speech exist. The earliest printed version (published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle soon after) did not include the repeated rhetorical refrain “Ain’t I a Woman?”, which appeared in later renditions edited by others.

Later Life

After the U.S. Civil War, Sojourner Truth continued to travel, lecture, and advocate. She supported the Union cause, recruited Black troops, and worked for the rights of freed people.

She also worked in the latter years in Michigan, where she eventually passed away on November 26, 1883, in Battle Creek, Michigan.

During her life she also published her Narrative of Sojourner Truth, dictated to Olive Gilbert, which helped circulate her story and ideas.

Legacy and Influence

Sojourner Truth is remembered as one of the most eloquent and forceful voices of 19th-century reform. She challenged not just slavery but the exclusion of Black women from mainstream feminist and civil rights movements.

Her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech became a staple reference in discussions of intersectionality — the idea that race and gender intersect and cannot be understood separately.

She also broke legal and societal barriers by using her voice and presence: she was among the earliest women, especially Black women, to litigate, to lecture publicly, and to claim space in debates of policy and social justice.

Her life reminds us that advocacy often emerges from personal experience, courage, and moral conviction.

Famous Quotes

Here are some of Sojourner Truth’s memorable quotes — incisive, poetic, challenging — that have resonated across generations:

• “If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.”

• “I am not going to die; I’m going home like a shooting star.”

• “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?”

• “Children, who made your skin white? Was it not God? Who made mine black? Was it not the same God? Am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is black?”

• “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.”

• “Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier.”

• “I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.”

These lines reflect her faith, her insistence on dignity, and her refusal to be silenced.

Lessons from Sojourner Truth

From her life and words, we can draw several enduring lessons:

1. Use your story as power. Truth’s own history of suffering and survival became the foundation for her moral authority.

2. Integrate intersecting struggles. She did not treat racial justice and women’s rights as separate; she wove them together.

3. Speak even when it’s unpopular. She chose to use her voice in public arenas often hostile to her.

4. Persist through contradiction. She held faith, activism, and moral conviction together in difficult times.

5. Symbol becomes shape. Over time, Sojourner Truth’s name and legacy have become emblematic of resistance and uncomfortable truth-telling.

Conclusion

Sojourner Truth’s journey—from enslavement to prophetic speaker—embodies resilience, faith, and moral courage. Her name, chosen to reflect a mission to wander and enlighten, remains a beacon for advocates of justice. In her life and her words, we see that the struggles for freedom, equality, and human dignity are not isolated battles but interconnected calls to conscience.