Black History: Sojourner Truth

 

A Biography of Sojourner Truth 
by Cheryl Williams

It was the dawn of a new day. On the cusp of the 19th century, and a young America rose starry-eyed with religious fervor and abolitionism during the Second Great Awakening – and so forth did an unlikely heroine rise to the occasion as well. Isabella Baumfree reinvented herself, Sojourner Truth – the willful, passionate, charismatic, Bible toting ex-slave with a self-proclaimed calling. An ordained mission that came with every good intention to “make the nation rock like a cradle” if mired against her life’s pursuit; pioneering subjugated blacks and women alike out of the antebellum dark ages of slavery and women’s suffrage, into spiritual enlightenment and sovereignty. 

Early Years 

“Extra, extra, read all about it!” The year is 1797, the place is Philadelphia, and the inauguration of the nation’s second President John Adams (including second fiddle Thomas Jefferson as Vice President of the United States) is taking place ceremoniously without a hitch. Nationwide, newspapers are buzzing as bulletins circulate by way of hurried hand or Mother Nature sending them to billow across county lines, down dirt roads or bustling city streets the likes of New York City. Meanwhile, we’re on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. Yet, an enterprising North languishes ethically; torn between Abolitionism and Slavery. Amidst of the irony of socioeconomic confusion and political gaiety – some 189 miles north in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York on a hilly estate owned by “Low Dutch” slave-owner Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh – the distant cry of a newborn slave could be heard. It was shrill and resolute. It was the battle cry of America’s new generation of “rational thinkers” – the black female abolitionist. 

Isabella “Bella” Baumen, was one of “ten or twelve” children born to humble slaves James and Betsey Baumen (Washington, 1993, p. 5). Not long after her birth, Johannes Hardenbergh died rendering her family the legal property of his quasi-benevolent son Charles. Her God-fearing mother affectionately referred to as Mau-mau Bett, was grateful (Washington, 1993, p. 5). Perhaps, hoping he would take mercy and not sell of the remainder of her children. Isabella’s father was a tower of a man “which gave him the name “Bomefree” – low Dutch for tree…and by this name he usually went”. Inherently, this is where Bella received her tall stature, later taken of context in folk tales. 

As luck would have it, she was fortunate to have known six of her brothers and sisters before they were eventually sold into bondage to other slave masters. However, she never knew “…the two that immediately preceded her in age, a boy of five years, and a girl of three” who were also taken from her parents and sold; as she was a mere infant (Washington, 1993, p. 5). On occasion, her parents reminisced on their lost children from within their damp, dark cellar of a home. Her mother would cry yet pull herself together, calling upon the name of the Lord. She instructed Bella and her remaining siblings to kneel and say the Lord’s Prayer. 

Eyes closed, Isabella can only imagine her departed brothers and sisters and like ghosts the family was haunted by their memory. Yet, it was the glimpse of Betsey’s occasional tear stained face and Bomefree’s desolate stare that remained etched in Isabella’s memory. In 1806, Charles died of disease and to her mother’s dismay the remainder of the family was put up for auction. The dreadful day had arrived but seemingly Betsey’s prayers were answered, as they were spared the heartache of separation, and Isabella remained with her parents up until their deaths. 

Coming of Age: Freedom 

No sooner, after the loss of her parents Isabella alone save a herd of sheep was put up for auction and bought by a merciless man for the sum of a hundred bucks. John Neely bought the then nine year Isabella and owned her for two years, in which he beat and molested her. Neely easily grew frustrated with her due to the communication barrier between them, because he only spoke English and she only spoke low Dutch. “About 1815 Isabella married Thomas, a fellow slave, and bore five children -- Diana (b. 1815), Peter (b. 1821), Elizabeth (b.1825), Sophia (b. 1826) and a fifth child who may have died in infancy” (Sojourner Truth Institute). Later, she was sold to four more owners until one fine day in 1826 she walked to freedom in with infant daughter, Sophia in tow. 

Heartbroken but looking for a new start she had to leave her other three children behind. They were not legally freed under the emancipation order until they had served as slaves into their twenties. However, in 1827-28 she lost her son Peter to an illegal transaction that sold him into slavery in Alabama. She won him back in an unprecedented lawsuit in, converted to Christianity, and settled her family in New York City until 1843. Isabella proclaimed she had been touched my God to do divine work and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. From that point on her life took a drastic change. She was no longer a martyr but the master of her own destiny as she set out cross country as a traveling preacher, telling the truth and working against injustices. According, the timeline (below) provided by the Sojourner Truth Institute website, Truth began ministry work soon after winning her son Peter back (who was illegally sold) in a lawsuit:

1829 - moves to New York City with her son Peter

1831 - works for Elijah Pierson, a Christian evangelist, as a domestic

1832 - meets Robert Matthews, known as the Prophet Matthias, when he visits Pierson's home and starts housekeeping for him

1833 - joins the Matthias Kingdom communal colony, established under the leadership of Prophet Matthias, in New York City and later in Sing Sing, NY

1834-35 - Kingdom dissolved after Prophet Matthias arrested and tried for death of Pierson, Isabella wins slander suit

1836-38 - Isabella back in New York City, trying to keep son Peter out of trouble

1839 - Peter ships out on whaling ship, Zone of Nantucket

1840-41 - Isabella receives a total of five letters from Peter

1842 - whaler Zone of Nantucket returns to port with no sign of Peter -- Isabella never hears from him again
1843 - at age 46, Isabella adopts the name Sojourner Truth, leaves New York and travels to Springfield, Mass. -- grandson James Caldwell born

1844-45 - joins the utopian Northampton Association in Northampton, Mass., where she meets the anti-slavery reformers Giles Stebbins, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pillsbury, Frederick Douglass and the health reformer Sylvester Graham -- meets Olive Gilbert, an abolitionist- feminist who later wrote the Narrative of Sojourner Truth

1846 - Northampton Association disbanded

1847 - works as housekeeper for George Benson, brother-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison, in Northampton

1849 - visits former owner John Dumont just before he travels west

1850 - Benson's cotton mill fails and he leaves Northhampton -- Isabella Van Wagenen, "sometimes called Sojourner Truth," purchases home for $300 mortgage – Narrative published by Olive Gilbert with preface by William Lloyd Garrison -- attends women's rights convention in Worcester, Mass.

1851 - leaves Northampton to join abolitionist George Thompson's speaker's bureau, traveling to Rochester, NY, where she stays with Underground Railroad leader, Amy Post -- in May, attends women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, where she delivers the famous "Ain't I a Woman" speech, later recorded by Frances Gage

1851-53 - in Salem, Ohio, works with Anti-Slavery Bugle editor Marius Robinson -- travels state as anti-slavery speaker

1852 - in August, attends abolitionist meeting in Salem, Ohio, where she confronts Frederick Douglass, asking "Is God gone?"

1853 - in October, speaks at suffragist "mob convention" at Broadway Tabernacle, New York city -- visits Harriet Beecher Stowe in Andover, Mass.

1855 - second edition of Narrative published, with introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe

1856 - comes to Battle Creek, Michigan, to address Friends of Human Progress convention, through efforts of Michigan Quaker, Henry Willis

Fig. 1 Sojourner Truth Institute

At this point in her life, Truth had already made a household name and met with many prominent figures in the anti-slavery and woman’s suffrage woman. Notably, her famous “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech set a precedent in the woman’s movement of her day and generations forward. Truth went onto receive several awards both during her living years and posthumously including the first African-American woman to be honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol (2008). She lived out the rest of her life at her home until her death at age 86 (even though year tombstone reads 105). Reportedly, her funeral was attended by a thousand attendees at the Congressional-Presbyterian Church in Battlecreek, Michigan.

References

Fig. 1. Sojourner Truth Institute.  Part 2 Sojourner's Amazing Life ... And Beyond The Sojourner Truth Biography: Taking the Name Sojourner Truth.  Retrieved from http://www.sojournertruth.org/History/Biography/NY.htm

Sojourner Truth Institute. Sojourner’s Amazing Life…And Beyond. Michigan Humanities Council. Retrieved from http://www.sojournertruth.org/History/Default.htm

Washington, M. (1993). Narrative of Sojourner Truth. New York, NY: Random House.