Her chosen name is highly symbolic since, in English, "sojourner" is the agent form of the verb "to sojourn", which means "to reside temporarily". The compound seems to mean then "the truth of the temporary resident".
In 1997, the robotic vehicle for NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission to the planet Mars was named "Sojourner" in honour of Sojourner Truth.
Among the first women abolitionists are:
- Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), a defender of women's rights, a pioneer in the feminist movement that went down in history, among other reasons, for participating in the organization of the Seneca Falls Convention.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), an American suffragist and abolitionist who participated in the Declaration of Seneca Falls. She was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1890 to 1892.
- Maria Weston Chapman (1806-1885) was an American abolitionist. She was elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 and she was the editor of the anti-slavery journal The Non-Resistant.
- Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906), an American feminist suffragette, human rights defender, and writer who played an important role in the struggle for women's rights and the right to vote for women in the 19th century in the United States.
Isabella (Bell) Baumfree
(Sojourner Truth)
Swaterkill, New York 1797 ‖ Battle Creek, Michigan 26-11-1883
Period of activity: From 1820 until 1880
Geographical classification: America > United States
Socio-cultural movements
Late modern period / Contemporary period > Feminism
Late modern period / Contemporary period > Socio-political movements > Civil rights movements
* Multi-secular movements > Antislavery
Groups by dedication
Activists > Feminists (activists)
Activists > Abolitionists
Professionals / Other groups > Slaves
Writers > in > English
Writers > Orators
Writers > Autobiographers
Context of feminine creation
Review
She was an abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her daughter in 1826. After going to court to get her son back, she became the first black woman to win a lawsuit against a white man. She is well known for her speech "Ain't I a Woman?", which was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. During the American Civil War, Truth assisted in the recruitment of black troops for the American Army and later unsuccessfully attempted to secure Federal State land grants for former slaves.
Justifications
Biography
Truth was one of ten or thirteen children born to Elizabeth and James Baumfree. Colonel Hardenbergh bought James and Elizabeth from slave traders and kept them in his family. When Charles Hardenbergh died in 1806, nine-year-old Truth, known as Belle, was auctioned off at a market along with a flock of sheep for $100 to John Neely. She would later describe Neely as cruel and hostile, in relation to how he beat her on a daily basis and even hit her with a bunch of metal rods. Neely sold her in 1808 to Martinus Schryver, a publican, who kept her for eighteen months. Although her fourth owner was kind to her, there was considerable tension between her and Dumont's second wife, Elizabeth Waring Dumont, who harassed her and made her life more difficult.
Around 1815, Truth fell in love with a slave named Robert. Robert's owner banned their relationship and Truth never saw him again. This experience would haunt Truth for the rest of her life. Truth eventually married another older slave named Thomas and gave birth to five children during her lifetime.
During the Civil War she helped recruit black volunteers for the Union Army. In October 1864 she met with Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, while working as a nurse at Freedman's Hospital in Washington D.C., in order to help desegregate, she boarded a streetcar and was injured when she was thrown from the vehicle by the driver because she was black. She filed a complaint and won.
In 1867 she settled in Battle Creek (Michigan). In 1870, she tried to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves, a project she fought for over seven years without success. She was received at the White House by Ulysses S. Grant. In 1872, she tried to vote in the local elections, but her vote was rejected.
Sojourner went on to speak out on the rights of women and African Americans, and on prison reforms, and she also advocated for the suspension of the death penalty in the state of Michigan. She died at her home in Battle Creek on 26 November 1883. Her funeral was held in a Presbyterian church and more than 1,800 people turned out in honour of the great speaker and advocate she was for civil rights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth> (retrieved on 17/06/2023)
Works
Bibliography
Her memoirs are compiled in a book:
Gilbert, Olive (1997). Narrative of Sojourner Truth. USA: Dover Inc. Publications.
Didactic approach
She can be studied in other subjects:
History: American Civil War (1861-1865).
Visual and plastic education: Marie-Guillemine Benoist Portrait of a black woman (Louvre museum).
Ethical values: human rights.