Black History Month: People Who Changed the World #10 · 11:29pm Feb 10th, 2018
Welcome to another installment in my Month-Long anthology which depicts specific African-American people who, in one way or another, changed the world. Today's topic is Sojourner Truth.
Bio: Sojourner Truth (born Isabella (Belle) Baumfree; c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying the hope that was in her". Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title "Ain't I a Woman?," a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect; whereas Sojourner Truth was from New York and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.
In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine's list of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time".
My thoughts: Wow! When it comes down to it, I honestly wish I had lived in the tine period in which Sojourner Truth was alive and being her best (but then I'm reminded of 0 inventions of modern technology/internet....yeah no). Nevertheless, Ms. Truth was a powerful (in her own ways) women's rights activist as well as an inspiring abolitionist. Her speeches are as important as any the men who'd speak were. And Now! A quote from Sojourner Truth!:
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
