Sojourner Truth

The autobiography of a Black woman who defied nineteenth-century conventions to become a preacher, popular speaker, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. Sojourner Truth was an incredible, remarkable, epoch-defying woman who escaped from slavery and successfully sued for her son's freedom, in addition to her career as a wildly successful orator and activist--a woman alive to the hypocrisies of her age, and unafraid to talk about them. Her autobiography, which she dictated, is an outstanding historical document. Truth's tale sheds a light on realities of slavery that are still rarely discussed: that she was a slave in upstate New York, not on a Southern plantation; that Dutch was her first language; that the circumstances of her slavery isolated her from a broader Black community; that her experience of religion was a racially integrated one, and became the means of her independence. Ultimately, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is the story of a great American that reveals aspects of slavery and free Black life that are too often overlooked.

One of the most important slave narratives of all time, "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" tells the story of one African American woman who struggles against the bondages of slavery in the mid-1800s. With the strength of her spirituality, Truth overcame many struggles in her life and became a leading abolitionist and champion of women's rights. An important historical document of the time of slavery in the United States, "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" is a must-read for anyone interested in that dark period of time in American history.

One of the most important slave narratives of all time, "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" tells the story of one African American woman who struggles against the bondages of slavery in the mid-1800s. With the strength of her spirituality, Truth overcame many struggles in her life and became a leading abolitionist and champion of women's rights. An important historical document of the time of slavery in the United States, "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" is a must-read for anyone interested in that dark period of time in American history.

Sojourner Truth, one of the most revered figures in American history, explains her road to liberation, spiritual enlightenment and the development of her feminist values. It’s a critical view of her enduring commitment to freedom and equality. In The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, the author delivers an honest look at her eventful life. Starting in New York, where she born to enslaved parents, Sojourner eventually escaped with her daughter in tow. Later, she became the first black woman to sue a white slaveowner for custody of her own child. She won the case, setting a precedent that many African Americans would follow. This narrative also includes her work as a preacher, where she focused on spreading the word of God. Truth became a charismatic orator, seeking liberation and gender equality. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is a harrowing yet inspiring tale of an American hero. It explores how a formerly enslaved woman defied the odds to become a powerful beacon of hope. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is both modern and readable.

'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now'A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of Black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

PREFACE. THE following is the unpretending narrative of the life of a remarkable and meritorious woman--a life which has been checkered by strange vicissitudes, severe hardships, and singular adventures. Born a slave, and held in that brutal condition until the entire abolition of slavery in the State of New York in 1827, she has known what it is to drink to the dregs the bitterest cup of human degradation. That one thus placed on a level with cattle and swine, and for so many years subjected to the most demoralizing influences, should have retained her moral integrity to such an extent, and cherished so successfully the religious sentiment in her soul, shows a mind of no common order, while it heightens the detestation that is felt in every humane bosom, of that system of oppression which seeks to cripple the intellect, impair the understanding, and deprave the hearts of its victims--a system which has subjected to its own foul purposes, in the United States, all that is wealthy, talented, influential, and reputedly pious, in an overwhelming measure O the 'fantastic tricks' which the American people are 'playing before high Heaven ' O their profane use of the sacred name of Liberty O their impious appeals to the God of the oppressed, for his divine benediction, while they are making merchandise of his image Do they not blush? Nay, they glory in their shame Once a year they take special pains to exhibit themselves to the world, in all their republican deformity and Christian barbarity, insanely supposing that they thus excite the envy, admiration and applause of mankind. The nations are looking at the dreadful spectacle with disgust and amazement. However sunken and degraded they may be, they are too elevated, too virtuous, too humane to be guilty of such conduct. Their voice is heard, saying--'Americans we hear your boasts of liberty, your shouts of independence, your declarations of hostility to every form of tyranny, your assertions that all men are created free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty, the merry peal of your bells, and the deafening roar of your artillery; but, mingling with all these, and rising above them all, we also hear the clanking of chains the shrieks and wailings of millions of your own countrymen, whom you wickedly hold in a state of slavery as much more frightful than the oppression which your fathers resisted unto blood, as the tortures of the Inquisition surpass the stings of an insect We see your banner floating proudly in the breeze from every flag-staff and mast-head in the land; but its blood-red stripes are emblematical of your own slave-driving cruelty, as you apply the lash to the flesh of your guiltless victim, even the flesh of a wife and mother, shrieking for the restoration of the babe of her bosom, sold to the remorseless slave speculator We catch the gleam of your illuminated hills, everywhere blazing with bonfires; we mark your gay processions; we note the number of your orators; we listen to the recital of your revolutionary achievements: we see you kneeling at the shrine of Freedom, as her best, her truest, her sincerest worshippers Hypocrites liars adulterers tyrants men-stealers atheists Professing to believe in the natural equality of the human race--yet dooming a sixth portion of your immense population to beastly servitude, and ranking them among your goods and chattels Professing to believe in the existence of a God--yet trading in his image, and selling those in the shambles for whose redemption the Son of God laid down his life Professing to be Christians--yet withholding the Bible, the means of religious instruction, even the knowledge of the alphabet, from a benighted multitude, under terrible penalties Boasting of your democracy--yet determining the rights of men by the texture of their hair and the color of their skin Assuming to be 'the land of the free and the home of the brave....

In 1826 Sojourner Truth fled from bondage to become a powerful figure in the progressive movement reshaping American society. Her narrative, first published in 1850, provides a window onto the world of Northern slavery. Truth recounts her life as a slave in rural New York, her separation from her family, her religious conversion, and her life as a traveling preacher during the 1840s.

In 1826 Sojourner Truth fled from bondage to become a powerful figure in the progressive movement reshaping American society. Her narrative, first published in 1850, provides a window onto the world of Northern slavery. Truth recounts her life as a slave in rural New York, her separation from her family, her religious conversion, and her life as a traveling preacher during the 1840s.

"If women want rights more than they got, why don't they just take them, and not be talking about it." --- Sojourner Truth The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is the gripping autobiographical account of Sojourner Truths life as a slave in pre-Civil War New York State, and her eventual escape to Freedom. Since Sojourner could neither read or write, she dictated her story to Olive Gilbert after they met at a Women's Rights rally. The Narrative was first published in 1850, and was widely distributed by the Abolitionist Movement. It was one of the catalysts for the rise of anti-slavery public opinion in the years leading up to the Civil War. Though Olive Gilbert's writing about Sojourner takes on a patronizing tone at times (a weakness of some Abolitionists), The Narrative of Sojourner Truth remains a moving and historic document, chronicling the struggles of African-Americans under slavery and the life of a truly remarkable woman.

A fiery speaker, Sojourner Truth was among the foremost women evangelists of nineteenth-century America. This reprint of her original 1878 publication sheds light on the life of this well-known ex-slave and ardent abolitionist.

A powerful memoir about the path to freedom and justice from one of the most important activists in American history, freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Editions line. Born into slavery in New York, Isabella Baumfree became Sojourner Truth, one of the 19th century's most powerful and outspoken advocates for abolition and women's rights. In her remarkable 1850 narrative--dictated to a friend because she could not read or write--she recounts her incredible journey to freedom. This foundational work of American literature offers an intimate and unflinching account of the brutalities of slavery in the North, the spiritual awakening that fueled Truth's activism, and her tireless fight for justice. Both raw and deeply moving, her autobiography is a testament to speaking truth to power.

A collection of Sojourner Truth's iconic words, including her famous speech at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention in Akron, OhioA former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – 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. Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend Olive Gilbert, and in 1850 William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. Ain't I a Woman? (1851) is Truth's best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron. Contents: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth Her Birth and Parentage Accommodations Her Brothers and Sisters Her Religious Instruction The Auction Death of Mau-mau Bett Last Days of Bomefree Death of Bomefree Commencement of Isabella's Trials in Life Trials Continued Her Standing With Her New Master and Mistress Isabella's Marriage Isabella as a Mother Slaveholder's Promises Her Escape Illegal Sale of Her Son It Is Often Darkest Just Before Dawn Death of Mrs. Eliza Fowler Isabella's Religious Experience New Trials My Dear and Beloved Mother Finding a Brother and Sister Gleanings The Matthias Delusion Fasting The Cause of Her Leaving the City The Consequences of Refusing a Traveller a Night's Lodging Some of Her Views and Reasonings The Second Advent Doctrines Another Camp Meeting Her Last Interview With Her Master Certificates of Character Ain't I a Woman?