Transcription
[Music] Sojourer Truth was born around 1797 in Olter County, New York. Originally named Isabella Bombfrey, Truth was sold at 11 years old along with a flock of sheep for $100. Sojourer Truth wrote about her life as a child in slavery and she talked about experiencing sexual abuse and continued beatings and whipping by her slave owner.
Truth fled her master in 1826, one year before the abolition of slavery in New York, and eventually became a freed slave. After Truth became a free woman, she had the courage to go to court to challenge the legality of her son being sold into slavery. She was successful against so many odds, which is what makes that court case so amazing.
Inspired by religion, she changed her name to Sojourer Truth in 1843. The following year, she joined forces with abolitionists such as Frederick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison. Sojourer Truth became a traveling preacher, but also she was an early women's rights advocate and so she spoke very forcefully for that as well.
In 1850, she published her memoirs and the following year, Truth delivered her famous speech at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. The speech was later retitled Ain't I a Woman? And it was so powerful in part because it talked about the equality of work that was executed by black people in general, that people who were free and unfree worked just as hard whether they were men or women.
Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Truth recruited troops for the Union Army and met with President Lincoln in 1864, who gave her permission to become a counselor at Freiedman's Village. So, Jourer Truth made a singular contribution during the Civil War. She agitated for black people to be able to fight for their own freedom.
Truth continued to campaign for abolition and women's rights until her death on November 26th, 1883. In 2009, a statue of Sojourer Truth was unveiled at the US capital commemorating her legacy. Sojourer Truth was one of the gutsiest women in American history, black or white.