I haven’t written about a black icon in ages. You know as a young child, I had heard the name Sojourner Truth in class, but we never quite covered why she was so important in African American history. Today we will talk about this venerable woman and her contributions.
We Know You Did It…
So, Sojourner Truth’s was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Swartekill, New York. At the time Swartekill was one of several little shat holes in what is now Rifton New York. To tell you the truth, Rifton isn’t that big either, with the census putting the population at just 481 in 2020.
At the age of nine she was sold at auction along with a flock of sheep for $100 to John Neely. Now Neely was the kind of dude that you see in slave movies that make you want to whoop nothing but it. You know what I mean, characters like Calvin Candie in Django and Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave or Hammond ” Now Get In There…” Maxwell, who was the enslaver that wanted Mandingo to get in a vat of boiling hot, scalding water after he was blackmailed seduced by his wife. That boiling water was so hot, I thought I saw three witches standing around it, stirring it with paddles. I already knew that after Hammond’s wife gave birth to a black child, that every male nigra in sight was in eminent danger… I even turned off the TV so I wouldn’t be suspected… anyway, Neely was like that… a cruel, violent and smelly so and so, who beat the young girl almost every time he saw her.
Sojourner was eventually sold two more times and finally ended up in West Park, New York where she was enslaved by John and Elizebeth Dumont. She was 13 years old at the time.
When she turned 18, she fell in love with a man who was enslaved on another plantation, however they were not allowed to marry. Instead, “Massa” Dumont made her marry one of his other enslave men. You do know why he did that, don’t you? So that any children born would belong to him and wouldn’t have to share them. She eventually bore five children: James, Diana, Peter, Elizabeth and Sophia.
Now around this time, the abolitionist in New York were getting their thing on and emancipation legislation was enacted that would eventually free all the slaves in the state. Now there were two emancipation acts in New York. They were the “Gradual Emancipation Law of 1799” and the “Gradual Emancipation Law of 1817.” The 1799 law was a bunch of that stuff you find in a cow’s pasture, because under its provisions, you could be a slave all the way up until 1880!! That’s almost a century. The 1817 law was a little more amicable because it said if you were born in 1799 or before, you would be free on July 4, 1827.
Now since Sojourner was born in 1797, she was expected to be freed on the 4th of July in 1827. So, I figured she thought she could hold up until then… but guess what? Massa Dumont started up with his shenanigans and told her he would free her a year earlier on the 4th of July in 1826!! When the time came around, he said he changed his mind. The police suspected Sojourner had something to do with his disappearance, but they could never prove it… okay I’m kidding.
She escaped soon afterwards, taking her youngest child and leaving the other four behind because they were still legally bound to Dumont. It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of her life she later said. She made her way to New Paltz, New York, where she and her daughter were taken in as free people by Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen. Dumont tracked her whereabouts and demanded her return… Dumont: “Nigra… you must be kidding!!!” The Van Wagenen’s offered to pay for Sojourner’s services until the 1817 Emancipation Law took effect on July 4, 1827. They gave him $20 and he agreed.
You Lie!
This next episode in her life is where she first entered the history books. Now even though Dumont took the $20 for Sojourner and her daughter, I think he was still feeling some kind of way. He illegally sold her 5-year-old son Peter. With the help of the Van Wagenen’s, she filed suit in a court of law against Dumont… and won!! The court also gave her custody of her son. She was the first Black woman to sue a white man in a United States court and prevail!! As for her other children who were still enslaved by Dumont… well nobody wanted to talk about that… they would only say, “It’s in the lords’ hands now…” let me stop… as far as I know they were also set free in 1827.
It was under the Van Wagenen’s that she became a fervent Christian. In 1829 she and Peter left the Van Wagenen’s and moved to New York to work as a housekeeper for an evangelist preacher named Elijah Pierson. Three years later she left Pierson to work for another preacher named Robert Matthews. So, remember when I told you she was the first black woman to sue a white man and win? Well, they ain’t forget about that shat, and when Pierson died, her and Peter were accused of poisoning and robbing him. Racist: Ya’ll thought we forgot… put them chains on them sheriff…” They were both later acquitted.
As we said, she was a devout Christian and in 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth on the strength of going forth to spread the word of God.
In 1844 she was in her stride as she joined an abolitionist organization named the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. There she met Fredrick Douglass, one of the greatest abolitionists of all times. Douglass was a beast, and the racist would have freed all the slaves just to get their hands on him. Lincoln: “I’ll give you Douglass if you…” Racist: “Deal!!!” So yeah, they wanted him. Anywho, Sojourner profile was raised after that, and she was invited to give a speech at the Ohio’s Women’s Convention in 1851. It was there that she gave the powerful speech, “Aren’t I A Woman.” Although, an account of the speech has been given by a woman named Frances Gage, who was president of the Convention, its accuracy has been in doubt by historian. Unfortunately, the exact text of the speech has been lost to history. However, it is widely known that the speech she delivered was about equal rights for Black women with the refrain, ” Aren’t I A Woman,” sprinkled liberally throughout it. Chase recollection had her speaking in tongues and saying she had 13 children, when everybody knew she only had five. So as far as her recollection went, we don’t know what was in her Kool Aid, but most sane people gave her a hard no for truthfulness.
Ain’t You Nice
Sojourner Truth was a gifted speaker and put her right up there with other leading abolitionist of the day, like Elizibeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony. Stanton and Anthony were not only abolitionists but fought for women suffrage. I don’t know why they just don’t say the right to vote instead of suffrage. Folks are always throwing shat in the game…. Anyway, as an aside, after black women suffrage activist helped to get the vote for women, they were abandoned by their white counterparts. Not one of them stepped up to help African American women realized the vote in the Jim Crow South.
Like Harriet Tubman, another escaped enslave woman and abolitionist, Sojourner Truth help recruit black men to fight in the Civil War. She worked in Washington, D.C., for the National Freedman’s Relief Association and rallied people to donate food, clothes and other supplies to Black refugees. Now, when the Civil War broke out in 1860, if you were enslaved in Washington DC, yo azz might as well be down in Mississippi or Alabama. Although they were fighting against the confederacy at that time, enslaved people in DC weren’t free until April 16, 1862, when the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act went into effect. Most negrologist would recognize that the word compensation came before the word emancipation. Yes, before you were free, yo Massa had to be compensated. The federal government paid them $300 for each enslaved person. Anyway, Sojourner Truth became widely respected for her work on behalf of the Civil War and women’s rights. So much so, that in October 1864, President Lincoln invited her to the White House and show her a bible given to him by African Americans in Baltimore. They should have given that Moe a piece of their mind instead of a bible. Maryland was known as a border state. It was on the side of the Union but was still a slave state. The reasoning was that they didn’t want DC surrounded by confederate states, so they gave Maryland, West Virginia a free hand. Missouri and Kentucky were mostly strategic. Ya’ll can keep ya’ll slaves as long as you don’t put up arms against the Union. Slavery wasn’t abolished in Maryland until November 1, 1864. That was just five months before the dang war ended! Slavery wasn’t abolished in West Virginia until February 3, 1865, which was two months before the war ended. I guess they were waiting to see which side won. But to be transparent, both West Virginia and Maryland did send troops to fight with the Union… however, some West Virginian and Maryland troops also fought with the Confederates… but we ain’t gonna talk about that right now… cause we trying to be righteous. So yeah, she met with Lincoln.
Is God Dead?
So we hear about Rosa Parks and how she defied the segregationist by riding in the front of the bus, but did you know that Sojourner Truth did it first? Yep, she showed all it by riding on white only street cars. Now mind you, there was no front or back as far as Nigras were concerned. You was violating just by getting on the streetcar!! Racist: Nigra!! Have you lost yo mind!!”
In 1867, she moved to Battle creek Michigan, to be cared for by her daughters. Her life was coming to an end. She died early on the morning on November 26, 1883. Her funeral was held at the Congregational-Presbyterian Church, where over one thousand people attend her burial. Frederick Douglass gave her a eulogy from Washington DC saying:
“Venerable for age, distinguished for insight into human nature, remarkable for independence and courageous self-assertion, devoted to the welfare of her race, she has been for the last forty years an object of respect and admiration to social reformers everywhere.”
Sojourner Truth is buried at Oak Hill Cemetary in Battle Creek Michigan. Engraved on her tombstone are the words, “Is God Dead?” a question she once asked a despondent Frederick Douglass to remind him to have faith.
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