Isabella Baumfree was Born into slavery around 1787. She was one of twelve children that James and Elizabeth Baumfree had and she was very religious. She was born in the town of Swartekill, in Ulster County, New York. Her and her family were owed by a Colonel named Hardenbergh, and lived at the colonel's estate out side of New York City. Isabella lived isolated from other African Americans, and she suffered from physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her masters When the Colonel died his son was put in charge. But when the son died the family was sold and Isabella Baumfre was sold for $100 when she was nine. Her new owner sold was abusive and harsh. She was later sold two more times and during this time she learned English. She later had a Child with a slave named Robert from a neighboring farm. They had a daughter but their master forbade them …show more content…
She later changed her religion Christianity and brought her son back from the south. She then worked for a couple of different people as a housekeeper for them. she lived with her son until he grew up and worked on a whaling ship but when the whaling ship came back he was not on board and she never heard from him again.
On June 1, 1843, Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth and devoting the rest of her life to the abolition of slavery and to Methodism. One year after that she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Northampton Massachusetts. They lived on a five hundred acres as a self-sufficient community. This Organization was started by abolitionists and they supported a broad reform agenda including pacifism and women's rights. While she was there she met leaders of the abolitionist like Frederick Douglass, David Ruggles and William Lloyd Garrison. The organization later disbanded, but this was just the beginning for Sojourner Truth. During that same year she spoke at the first National Women's Rights Convention in