Life, Family and Religion
Isabella better known as Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 in a small village called Hurley located in New York. Prior to becoming born again and transitions from Isabella to Sojourner Truth, Truth nor her slave master new her exact date of birth. However, she officially became Sojourner Truth June 1st 1843.Although Truth knew very little about her parents, she knew that their names were James and Betsy and that they were the property of a plantation a few miles from hers. Sojourner Truth was the youngest of twelve children, only one in which she knew due to the fact the rest of them either died or were traded to other plantations. When Isabella was just nine years old she was sold to new owners that spoke English rather than Dutch, her first language. She was taken from her family and removed from her comfort zone for just $100.
Like most slaves Isabella had little to no education and was forced to speak the language of her owners. In 1815 Truth married a man named Thomas that she met on her same plantation and they had five children together, “Diana (b. 1815), Peter (b.1821), Elizabeth (b.1825), Sophia (b.1826), and the fifth child that died at birth. As a young child Truth was abused so often when her work was not done right that she had man sleepless nights, trying to make sure her work was done proper.
Career Life
With four small children and an infant Sojourner Truth “Walked to freedom” in 1876. In 1873 shortly after changing her name to Sojourner Truth she made a decision to travel preaching “against injustice”. A few years into her ministry Truth began selling pictures of herself that read “I sell the shadow to support the substance” across the bottom. These portraits were not only a tactic to get people to understand what she was preaching; they were also a significant portion of income for her. In 1846, a year after Fredrick Douglas published his autobiography, Sojourner Truth had Olive Albert began writing hers Titled “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth”. Douglass’s success motivated her to write down everything that she had gone through and been trying to preach. “If women want rights more than they got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it”. “I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail”. “I’m not going to die; I’m going home like a shooting start”.
Controversies
There has always been an assumption that once Truth was sold to John Dumont she was sexually abused by him although she never stated it directly, “master slave sex was a standard part of the abolitionist bill”. Although Truth openly spoke out about every inch of her life as a slave, there was a puzzle that had to be put together about if the sexual abuse she went through was being done by John Dumont or her mistress Sally Dumont. People often mistook Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman for being the same person in a sense that they were preaching the same message. However, they had different views on “Lincoln’s intentions toward black people”.
Death, Wave of feminism, and current connections Truth was laid to rest on November 26, 1883 at the “Oak hill cemetery” in Battle Creek. Due to the fact Truth lived and trusteed in her career between 1843 and 1883 she would fall under the first wave of feminism. Sojourner Truth was a heavy advocate against injustice because she was deeply scared by continuous white male privilege with all of the people that owned her.