Sojourner Truth
  Name:Isabella Baumfree ( Sojourner Truth)
Birth date: 1797
Birth place: Ulster County, New York
Date of Death: November 26, 1883
Place of Death: Battle Creek, Michigan

    Isabella  was first sold at the age of 9 when her master Charles Hardenbergh died in the 1808. She was then sold to John Neely, with a herd of sheep for $100. In Neely's family, Isabella was beaten up fiercely, due to miscommunication, because Neely's family only spoke English while Isabella only spoke Dutch. Because of this , she began to find refuge in religion, and beginning the habit of praying aloud when scared or hurt. Later on Isabella was old to Martinus Schryver for $105. Even though she still wasn't in good condition, but compared to Neely, it was a safer place for her. But in 1810, Isabella was again sold to John Dumont, where she suffered any hardships, that the historians have conclude might have been sexual abuse or harassments.

    In 1815, she fell in love with another slave named Robert. But Roberts owner forbade their relationship; he did not want his slave having children with a slave thats not his. But secretly they still met, but was caught by the owners son, who later beat him up. Robert never returned. Later , Isabella had a daughter, and in 1878, she was forced to marry an older slave name Thomas, by her owner. They had four children : Peter, Elizabeth, and Sophia, and at last James who dies young.

    In 1799, New York began to legislate the gradual abolition of slaves. Dumont promised to free Isabella “ if she would do well and be faithful.” however Dumont took back his promise saying that she wasn't productive. One day, she escaped with her infant daughter. She said “ I did not run off , for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.” She arrived at the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen , who bought her for $20 from Dumont when he came for her. But they insisted that Truth not call them as master, but by their name. During the time with Isaac and Maria, Isabella had a life changing religious experience. She was “overwhelmed with the greatness of the Divine presence” and inspired to preach. She began attending the Methodist Church 

    In 1829, she left with a white evangelical teacher Miss Gear, and quickly became known as a remarkable preacher. She soon met Elijah Pierson, a religious reformer who advocated strict adherence to Old Testament laws for salvation. He led a small group of followers in his “ kingdom”. Isabella became the housekeeper of the group. She was treated as a spiritual equal. But when Pierson died , his family accused Robert Matthias ( who took over the group's leader ) and Isabella of stealing and poisoning Elijah. So they left.

    Isabella settled in New York City, but she lost everything so she resolved to leave and make her way as a traveling preacher. On June 1, 1843, she took the name Sojourner Truth , because she believed her life's mission was to sojourn or “ travel up and down the land” , preaching the truth. about God at revival meetings. She joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts, founded by abolitionists . They were strongly anti slavery, religiously tolerant, women;s rights supporters. They raise livestock, run grist and saw mills, and operate a silk factory. But the silk making was not profitable enough to support itself and collapse in 1848.

    Sojourner then went to live with George Benson, one of the Association's founder, who established a cotton mill. In 1850, William Lloyd Garrison privately published The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave . This increased her opportunity to speak, and gave her an income by selling copies of the book . She gave testimony about her life as a slave. In 1854, at Ohio Woman;s Rights Convention in Akron Ohio, she gave her most famous speech :

    "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ain't I a woman? ... I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me -- and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well -- and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me -- and ain't I woman?"
" Ain't I a Woman?” became the legendary phrase.

Paragraph.