yr9_Sojourner_Truth

=Sojourner Truth=

Here are some details about my life
Sojourner Truth is the the self given name that I gave to my self. I was born into slavery in 1797. I was one of the thirteen children born to James and Elisabeth Baumfree, we were all slaves of Colonel Hardenbergh. During my life because of the different regions in which I lived in I learned two languages Dutch and English, and worked as a domestic servant, an abolitionist and author.

In the late 1826 I escaped to freedom with my daughter Sophia leaving behind my older son because he was not legally free in the emancipation order until he had served as bound servants into his twenties. I fund my way to Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen‘s house were I started working legally during years. During that time I had a life change in terms of religious experience until I became a devout Christian. In 1843 I changed my name to Sojourner Truth and left. I made my way until I joined in 1844 the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts formed mainly by abolitionists. We worked livestock, running a sawmill, a gristmill, and a silk factory. While there I met William Lloyd, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles. In 1846, the group disbanded, unable to support itself. In 1850 William Lloyd Garrison published a my book, //The Narratives of Sojourner Truth: a Northern Slave//. In 1851 I left Northampton to join George Thompson, a very famous abolitionist and speaker. Over the next decade I spoke to thousands of people. I delivered my best-known speech in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention //Ain’t I a Women?//

During the civil war I worked for the Union Army and later on at Freedman’ Hospital in Washington. In 1872 I tried to vote in the presidential election, but I was turned away at the polling place, consequently I spoke about abolition, women’s right, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment, not every one welcomed me but I had the support of many influential people like Amy Post, Parker Pillsbury, Frances George, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison and Laura Smith Havilland I died on November 26th 1883, at my home in Battle Creek Michigan.

I think my contributions were particulary important because...
I think that something very important about me is that i have been a slave, that mines that I konw how much slaves sufferd. I wrote a book about my life to explain people what is the real life of a slave like. I talked infront of thousands of people explain them the relity of the slave trade.

//Akron Convention, Akron, Ohio, May 1851// //Ain't I a Women// // "There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting"; and the august teachers of the people were seemingly getting the better of us, while the boys in the galleries, and the sneerers among the pews, were hugely enjoying the discomfiture, as they supposed, of the "strong-minded." Some of the tender-skinned friends were on the point of losing dignity, and the atmosphere betokened a storm. When, slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who, till now, had scarcely lifted her head. "Don't let her speak!" gasped half a dozen in my ear. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front, laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes to me. There was a hissing sound of disapprobation above and below. I rose and announced "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to keep silence for a few moments." // // "The tumult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there was a profound hush. She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house, and away through the throng at the doors and windows. //