Sojourner Truth

The International High School at Lafayette

American History
Unit 7 - Civil Rights
Mr. Joel
Juan, Marie, Ying

Sojourner Truth
Life Dates:
Born: 1797 in Swartekill, New York
Died: 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan
-Truth was born into slavery.

Sojourner Truth
Life Facts:
-She was one of 13 children.
-She could trace her history to Ghana, Africa.
-She grew up speaking Dutch.
-She had many children, most sold as slaves.
-She was emancipated in 1827, and she
eventually moved to New York City.
-She changed her name from Isabella
Baumfree to Sojourner Truth in 1843.

Sojourner Truth
Civil Rights Activist:
-She joined and lived with a pacifist group in
Massachusetts in 1844.
-Was a friend of William Lloyd Garrison, a
famous abolitionist who wrote her biography.
-She spoke at the first National Womens
Rights Convention in 1851.

Sojourner Truth
Quotation:
That man over there says that woman needs to
be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches
Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles or gives me any best place. And
ant I a woman?
Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and planted,
and gathered into barns, and no man could
head me! And ant I a woman?
I would work as much and eat as much as a
man, when I could get it, and bear the lash as
well. And ant I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children and seen most all
sold off to slavery, and when I cried out [no
one] heard me. And ant I a woman?

Sojourner Truth
Civil Rights Activist:
-During the Civil War, she helped recruit black
soldiers for the North.
-After the war, she worked at the Freedmans
Hospital, offering care to former slaves.
-By riding the train cars in Washington D.C.,
she helped desegregate public transportation
in the nations capital.

Sojourner Truth
Connection to Unit:
Although Truth herself faced discrimination
for being both black and a woman, she
fought for the civil rights of all people.
Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights,
prison reform, and preached against capital
punishment well into old age.
She became an inspiration to many civil and
womens rights leaders in the 20th century.

Sojourner Truth
Class Question:
Think of Sojourner Truths life.
What do you think was the most
difficult struggle that she
overcame?