Sojourner Truth: A Life, a SymbolSojourner Truth first gained prominence at an 1851 Akron, Ohio, women's rights conference, saying, "Dat man over dar say dat woman needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches. . . . Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles . . . and ar'n't I a woman?" Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women--indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality. Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks. No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life. |
Contents
Isabella Sojourner Truth and American Slavery | 3 |
Isabella A Slave | 11 |
Journey Toward Freedom | 21 |
Sanctification | 26 |
Plaintiff and Witch | 32 |
New York Perfectionism | 38 |
In the Kingdom of Matthias | 48 |
Isabellas New York City | 62 |
Arnt I a Woman? | 164 |
Partisan and Aristocrat | 179 |
Truth in Photographs | 185 |
Presidents | 200 |
Washingtons Freedpeople | 209 |
23 | 216 |
Woman Suffrage | 220 |
24 | 231 |
Sojourner Truth A Life | 77 |
Among the Millerites | 79 |
Northampton | 88 |
Douglass Ruggles and Family | 96 |
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth | 103 |
Networks of Antislavery Feminism | 113 |
Akron 1851 | 121 |
Vengeance and Womanhood | 132 |
Spiritualism | 143 |
Sojourner Truth A Symbol | 149 |
The Libyan Sibyl | 151 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionist African American Amy Post Ann Folger Anthony antislavery audience Ayer Company Battle Creek became biography black women Bondswoman of Olden Book Boston Liberator cartes-de-visite Church Civil Colman colored convention daughters early Elizabeth Cady Stanton emancipation feminist Frances Dana Gage Frances Titus Frederick Douglass Freedmen's freedpeople friends Gage's Truth Gilbert and Frances Griffing Harper Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Tubman History of Woman Holy Spirit Ibid Isabella James Jesus John Dumont journer Truth Labors later Latourette Libyan Sibyl Lincoln living Mabee Matthias's meeting Methodist Michigan Millerites mother Narrative of Sojourner Negro nineteenth century Northampton Association numbers Olive Gilbert pentecostal perfectionist person Peter Photo courtesy photographs poor preacher preaching race reform reprint Salem Rochester slave slavery Society Sojourner Truth South speak spoke Stanton Story Stowe's Swisshelm symbol Tappan tion Ulster County University Press Washington Willard Public Library William Lloyd Garrison woman suffrage women's rights York City York National Anti-Slavery