Sojourner Truth

Civil Rights Activist and Women’s Rights Activist (1797-1883)

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York. When she was 29 years old, Truth walked to freedom with her child Sophia. In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and resolved to “speak for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and suffrage, the rights of freedmen, temperance, prison reform and the termination of capital punishment,” according to sojournertruth.org.

  She also published her memoirs “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.”

In May 1851, Truth delivered her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention.

  During her lifetime, Truth traveled around the country advocating for the abolition of slavery. She is regarded as one of the predecessors of the abolition movement and women’s rights movement.

 

“I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.”

Sojourner Truth