The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave reminds us that slavery at one time existed throughout the United States. Isabella Baumfree was born to a Dutch-speaking slave family 95 miles north of New York City.  Her narrative describes the world of northern slavery: squalid living conditions, disruption of families, sale at auction, and cruel treatment.  In 1826 she escaped to freedom. Soon after she became a devout Christian. In 1843, she became a Methodist, changed her name to Sojourner Truth, and was “called by the spirit” to preach the abolition of slavery. She took to the road as a preacher and social reformer. Her memoirs, dictated to her friend Olive Gilbert, were published in 1850. In that same year she spoke at the first National Women’s Rights Convention and bought a home in Northampton.

Truth was a mesmerizing pubic speaker.  She traveled constantly and delivered hundreds of speeches advocating equal rights for blacks and women. She gained national recognition for a speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851 that came to be known as “Ain’t I a Woman?’. During the Civil War she helped recruit black soldiers for the Union Army and met with President Lincoln. In 1870 she started a movement to obtain land grants for former slaves and met with President U. S. Grant.

Her accomplishments have achieved increasing recognition over the years. Honors range from a U.S. postage stamp and a bust in the Capitol to the naming of Interstate Highway 194 and Asteroid 249521. The Smithsonian Institution named her to their list of 100 Most Significant Americans in 2014 and she was chosen by the U.S. Treasury in 2016 as one of five women to appear on the back of the $10 bill.

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