Why Is Sojourner Truth Important

Truth was an influential woman whose legacy of feminism and racial equality still resonates today. Three significant themes represent Sojourner Truth's life: abolition, evangelism, and women’s rights activist. Sojourner Truth was born approximately 1797 in Ulster County, New York. The daughter of James and Betsey, her name was initially “Isabella.” She spent the first thirty years of her life as a slave owned by Colonel Ardinbirgh. She suffered immense agony and despair under slavery with numerous owners. She gave birth to her first child as a teenager but had a total of five children. A New York law in 1826 passed to set free all slaves born before 1799 on July 4, 1827. Isabella's fifth owner, John J. Dumont, assured freedom one year early.

The Narrative was a historical and dramatic literary creation based on conversations between Truth and her friend Olive Gilbert. Later editions featured an addendum—the Book of Life—which reproduced correspondence and newspaper articles about Truth, including Gage's text of the Akron joined the antislavery lecture circuit, traveled around the country, and spoke before meetings on abolition, to an account in the Democrat and Chronicle: "Her appearance reminds one vividly of Dinah in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' A white handkerchief was tied closely about her head and she wore spectacles, but this was the only indication of her extreme age. Her voice is strong, has no touch of shrillness, and she walked about as hale and hearty as a person of half her in her quest to bring about change, Truth was often the only black female to speak at she spoke about abolition and woman's rights she addressed audiences that were often mixed in their disposition toward her beliefs and her participation in the

Shadowing the beginnings of the Civil War, Truth became an outspoken advocate for the Union even before the abolition of slavery was clearly stated as a goal of the war. Truth encountered many noteworthy people and kept signatures of “Lucretia Mott, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Abraham Lincoln” (Samra 161). After the Civil War, Truth focused on two main issues: universal suffrage and black resettlement in the west. She remained politically active into the 1880s, and died at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan on November 26, 1883.

Historically, Black women have been fighting for civil rights through their blood, sweat, and tears. They are the structural foundation upon which the United States is built. Women like Sojourner Truth who were part of the Abolitionist Movement exhibited self- sacrifice and resilience during a time when they were slandered through a racist, sexist, and oppressive system. Take for example, slave owners raped many women and had control over Black women’s reproductive