The Life of Sojourner Truth

When I lived in Ghana, a Ghanaian friend named Kofi gave me a book to read.  Kofi was a teacher.  The book was called Sojourner Truth by Vivian Bernstein.  Prior to reading the book, I had heard the name Sojourner Truth, but I didn’t really know who she was.  However, from reading the book, I learned her fascinating and powerful story.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but escaped to become an abolitionist, preacher, and women’s rights activist.  She spoke in more than 20 states and became known around the entire U.S.  She was a powerful leader before, during, and after the American Civil War.  But the interesting facts about her life do not end there.

Here are more notable facts about Sojourner Truth:

• She was taken from her parents when she was 9 years old.
• She learned Dutch before English because her first slave master was Dutch, and she spoke English with a Dutch accent.
• She was a traveling preacher who gave speeches on abolition and women’s voting rights.
• She met two American presidents: Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.  She waited for 3 hours at the White House to meet Lincoln.  He said he had heard of her many times.
• She was almost 6 feet tall.
• She was born into slavery, but became a free woman when she was almost 30.
• At age 46, she changed her name and decided to become a traveling preacher.
• She sang prayers and preached about God.
• Slavemaster John Dumont beat her, raped her, and sold her son Peter.  Dumont promised her that he would free her, but instead made her work for another year.
• She famously won a court case to gain custody of Peter, after he was illegally sold by a slavemaster to Alabama.  She was the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
• When she recovered Peter from Alabama, his face and back were covered in deep scars.
• She found Peter a job on a whaling ship.  When the ship returned, Peter was not on it.  She never knew what happened to him.
• She had less than $1 to her name when she started traveling and preaching, but already dreamed of owning a home.  She sold copies of her book for 50 cents to support herself.  She used the savings from her book sales to buy a small house near Battle Creek, Michigan.
• Her three daughters moved to Battle Creek, which was a dream come true for her.
• She met Frederick Douglas, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• She was 64 when the Civil War started.  She encouraged black men to join the Union army.  Her own grandson joined.
• She helped educate freed slaves after the Civil War and the 13th Amendment.
• She won another lawsuit when a conductor pushed her off a streetcar in Washington D.C.  The guy who did it got fired.