Ain't I A Woman... the Conclusion

Thus begins my third and final installment of "Ain't I A Woman".  I'm so very glad to have gotten to know her.  

When we last left her in Part II, Sojourner had begun making an income speaking on causes such as abolition and women's rights.  She had even bought her own home at the age of 54.

In 1956, Sojourner became involved with a group called the Progressive Friends, an offshoot of the Quakers.  The group believed in abolition, women's rights, non-violence, and communicating with spirits.  In 1857, she sold her home in Northampton and bought one in Harmonia, Michigan to live with the community.

 At 61, Sojourner Truth was a six-foot tall woman with a masculine voice. She also possessed a very powerful singing voice, and she sang whenever she spoke to crowds. As a speaker, Sojourner also became known for her quick wit and powerful presence. She would never be intimidated. Because of her powerful speaking ability, independent spirit and her physical presence, she was often accused of being a man in woman's clothing. She ended that in Silver Lake, Indiana when she opened her blouse and exposed her breasts to the audience that accused her.  Ain't I a woman, indeed!

Hoping to visit President Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner, when she was about sixty-seven years old, made a long journey from Michigan to Washington, D.C. After many weeks and some go-betweens, Sojourner succeeded in arranging an appointment.

She later wrote, "Upon entering his reception room we found about a dozen persons in waiting, among them two coloured women. I had quite a pleasant time waiting until he was disengaged, and enjoyed his conversation with others; he showed as much kindness and consideration to the colored persons as to the white. One case was that of a colored woman who was sick and likely to be turned out of her house on account of her inability to pay her rent. The president listened to her with much attention, and spoke to her with kindness and tenderness."

 

In 1870, Sojourner began campaigning for the federal government to provide former slaves with land.  She pursued this for seven years with very little success.  In 1874 she developed ulcers on her leg. She was successfully treated initially but fell ill frequently.  She toured as much as she could and in 1879 she spent a year in Kansas helping refugees and speaking in churches trying to gain support for the "Exodusters" as they tried to build new lives for themselves. 

In 1883, with ulcer-ridden legs, Sojourner made a final trip home in Battle Field, Michigan with her daughters, Diana and Elizabeth, their husbands and children.  She died there on November 26, 1883, at 86 years old surrounded by her family.

Sojourner Truth has been honored in many ways over the years, including a commemorative postage stamp in 1986 and a Mars probe in 1997.

"I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America," said Michelle Obama at the April 28, 2009 commemorative ceremony unveiling the Sojourner Truth bronze bust by sculptor Artis Lane.  "Now many young boys and girls, like my own daughters, will come to Emancipation Hall and see the face of a woman who looks like them."

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read Sojourner's story.  I hope it struck the same chords in you as you read it, as it did in me as I wrote it.  Please stay tuned for the story of another remarkable woman's story in the long history of the fight for equal rights.  It is important in our quest to move forward that we also look back.

Ovaries Unite in November!!

Ain't I A Woman: Part II

Isabella had escaped from a heartless owner into the arms of the Van Wagenens.  She immediately turned her attention to retrieving her young son Peter.  Her previous owner had leased him to another slaveholder, who turned around and illegally sold him to an owner in Alabama.  Peter was five.  She begged Dumont and the other slaveowner to help her without success.  Then her friend told her about the activist Quakers, who helped her file an official complaint.  After many months of legal proceedings, Peter was returned to her, scarred and abused.

In 1929, Isabella left the Van Wagenens with a white evangelical teacher named Miss Gear quickly became know as a very influencial preacher.  She soon met a religious reformer who led a small group of followers.  His name was Elijah Pierson.  Isabella became the group's housekeeper.

Elijah treated her as a spiritual equal.  Unfortunately, a man named Robert Matthias arrived and took over as the group's leader.  The group's activities started becoming increasingly radical.  Soon after, Elijah died.  The group disbanded and Isabella was accused of poisoning Elijah.  She was eventually acquitted.

For a former slave, Isabella had already successfully fought the law and won her son, and defended herself successfully from criminal accusations.

In 1839, Isabella's son, Peter, shipped out on a whaling ship, Zone of Nantucket.  She received a total of five letters from him.  In 1842, the whaler returned with no sign of Peter.  She never heard from him again.

On June 1st, 1843, at 46 years old, 6-foot tall Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth  and resolved to leave New York and make her way as a traveling preacher.  She wandered for a year living off of the kindness of strangers and finally settling down with the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts.  This group of around 200 members lived on 500 acres of farmland, raising livestock and operating a silk factory.  The group was founded by abolitionists.  They were religiously tolerant, women's rights supporters, and pacifist in principles.  While there, she met and worked with William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles.  Unfortunately, the group disbanded in 1846 amid surmounting debt.

Sojourner went to live with one of the group's founders, George Benson and began dictating her memoirs to a woman named Olive Gilbert.  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth:  A Northern Slave was published privately by William Lloyd Garrison in 1850.  Suddenly she had speaking engagements and an income.  She spoke about anti-slavery and women's rights.

Soon thereafter, Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree into slavery on a farm in Hurley, New York in 1797, 54 years prior, was able to buy her own home...

In 1854, at the Ohio Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, she gave her most famous speech:

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.  Nobody ever help me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ain't I a woman?... I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me... and ain't I a woman?  I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well... and ain't I a woman?  I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me... and ain't I a woman?"

Stay tuned for the final installation of Sojourner Truth's story.  It is important that we look back in order to move forward.  Please visit my facebook page called Ovaries for Obama.  Ovaries unite in November!!

Ain't I A Woman! Part I