Born: ca. 1797, Ulster County, NY

Education: Nonliterate

Died: November 26, 1883, Battle Creek, MI

Born Isabella Baumfree, enslaved by a Dutch family, Truth was sold several times, beginning at age eleven. One master claimed that she worked “better than a man ... for she will do a good family's washing in the night, and be ready in the morning to go to into the field.” Another owner flogged her repeatedly until she cohabited with his bondman.

Truth not only birthed five children but also became an activist of singular importance. In 1825 Quakers helped to rescue her son from Alabama, where slave traders took him. She also converted to Methodism and escaped carrying an infant. Freed by state law in 1827, she settled in New York City, did domestic work, and spoke at Methodist services. Between 1832 and 1846 she joined religious communes in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. As an evangelist for the antislavery Northampton Association, she adopted the name Sojourner Truth, preaching and promoting slavery abolition, women's rights, and the Union. Her inspirational speeches on Christ, emancipation, and the equality of women drew large biracial audiences. She organized relief efforts on behalf of Washington, DC freedmen during the Civil War. Postwar, she fought for ex-slave homesteads on public lands in the West.