Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 – November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women’s rights, and alcohol temperance. She was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

She changed her name to Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside “testifying to the hope that was in her.” Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title “Ain’t I a Woman?”

She worked as an abolitionist championing freedom until the Civil War. During the war, she helped recruit soldiers. She spent the rest of life speaking on equal rights.

She died November 1883 at her home in Battle Creek.