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Sojourner Truth (c.1797-1883)
epitomized the endurance and charisma of this 
extraordinary group of women. Born a slave in New York, she grew up speaking Dutch. She 
escaped from slavery in 1827, settling with a son and daughter in the supportive Dutch- American 
Van Wagener family, for whom she worked as a servant. They helped her win a legal battle for her 
son's freedom, and she took their name. Striking out on her own, she worked with a preacher to 
convert prostitutes to Christianity and lived in a progressive communal home. She was christened 
"Sojourner Truth" for the mystical voices and visions she began to experience. To spread the truth 
of these visionary teachings, she sojourned alone, lecturing, singing gospel songs, and preaching 
abolitionism through many states over three decades. Encouraged by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she 
advocated women's suffrage. Her life is told in the 
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
(1850), an 
autobiographical account transcribed and edited by Olive Gilbert. Illiterate her whole life, she spoke 
Dutch-accented English. Sojourner Truth is said to have bared her breast at a women's rights 
convention when she was accused of really being a man. Her answer to a man who said that women 
were the weaker sex has become legendary:
I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into bars, 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 them 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?
This humorous and irreverent orator has been compared to the great blues singers. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe and many others found wisdom in this visionary black woman, who could declare, 
"Lord, Lord, I can love even de white folk!"