Abolitionist Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) could neither read nor write. Yet she was perhaps the most influential African-American woman in the 19th century.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of her meeting with President Abraham Lincoln.
Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Ulster County, New York, Truth was the eleventh of twelve children of James and Elizabeth Baumfree. They were slaves of a Colonel Hardenbergh.
At the age of nine, Truth — known as Belle at the time — was sold at auction with a flock of sheep for $100. She was sold three more times, the last to John Dumont at West Park, N.Y.
Belle married a slave on Dumont’s plantation. She had five children.
Cheated out of freedom
When Dumont cheated her out of her freedom, she escaped with baby Sophia and lived with the Van Wagenens, a Quaker abolitionist family.
While staying with them she experienced a spiritual conversion. Overwhelmed with the presence of God’s greatness, she said, “God revealed Himself to me with all of the suddenness of lightning.”
She then said He pervaded the universe: “There was no place where God was not.” She became instantly conscious of her great sin.
After her conversion, Belle started preaching. She knew the Bible because she had memorized much of it while listening to it being read.
Since she was a free woman, she wanted a new name. Based on Psalm 39:12 and John 8:32, she took the name Sojourner Truth.
In 1843, Truth left New York City after 14 years there and became an itinerant preacher in the Northeast and Midwest.
In 1850, she dictated her memoirs to friend Olive Gilbert. After abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison published her memoirs as “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” she became widely known.
Moved to Michigan
In 1857, she moved to Battle Creek, Michigan.
Truth became involved in several social movements, including the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and suffrage, temperance and prison reform.
On Oct. 29, 1864, Truth went to Washington D.C. and had an audience with President Lincoln.
She told Lincoln, “I never heard of you before you were put in for president.”
Lincoln laughed and replied, “I heard of you years and years before I ever thought of being president. Your name is well-known in the Midwest.”
Lincoln showed her a Bible that a group of Baltimore black people had given him. Truth thanked Lincoln for his efforts to help black Americans. He thanked her for her encouragement. She asked him to sign her “Book of Life,” her scrapbook/autograph book. Lincoln wrote, “For Aunty Sojourner Truth, A. Lincoln, October 29, 1864.”
She stayed in Washington to help freed slaves at Freedman’s Village. She was there when Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.
She and grandson Sammy walked through the East Room of the White House where Lincoln’s body lay in state.
Legacy lives on
Truth died on November 26, 1883, in Battle Creek. Her funeral service, attended by approximately 1,000 people, was held at the Congregational-Presbyterian Church. She is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Her legacy lives on today. A bronze portrait bust, the first honoring an African-American woman, was unveiled on April 28, 2009, in the United States Capitol.
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