If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth, a tall African American woman with a powerful voice, combined calls for abolition with women’s rights and devoted her life to fight for equality. She could neither read nor write but she was a remarkable speaker. Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, she was bought and sold four times. She escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826 and successfully sued a white man to get her son released from slavery, the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
She chose the name Sojourner Truth and dedicated her life to fighting for social justice. Her best-known speech “Ain’t I A Woman?” , regarded as one of the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in American history, was delivered at a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851. In 1864, she was invited to meet President Lincoln to challenge the segregation of streetcars. Frederick Douglas gave her eulogy in Washington DC.
1797-1883, USA
Selected resources
- Sojourner Truth Center for Liberation and Justice, https://sojournertruth.org
- Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman?, https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm
- Robinson, “A Speech by Sojourner Truth at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.” The Anti-Slavery Bugle (June 21, 1851)