“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they are asking to do it, the men better let them,”
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth
1797 - 1883
Sojourner Truth was an African American women’s rights activist, abolitionist, author, evangelist, and voice for those around her. After escaping slavery in 1826, she made it her life’s mission to preach about abolitionism and equal rights for all.
Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth) had her life planned out for her. As a young enslaved woman, she was bought and sold three separate times by the age of 13. Her final destination was in West Park, New York, home of John Dumont. By the age of 18, Sojourner had five children with another enslaved man named Thomas. When New York started to work on legislation that would eventually lead to the liberation of enslaved people in the state, Dumont promised Sojourner that she would be set free on July 4, 1826. After Independence Day came and went that year, Sojourner decided to take her future into her hands and leave Dumont, leaving four of her children behind.
When Dumont, illegally sold Sojourner’s son after the New York Anti-Slavery Law was passed, she filed a lawsuit against him. Sojourner Truth was the first African American woman to sue a white man in the U.S. Court of law and win.