Sojourner Truth
November 26, 2018
On Nov. 26, 1883, 135 years ago today, the African American abolitionist Sojourner Truth died at age 86 at her home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Truth, whose given name was Isabella Baumfree, was the first black woman orator to speak out against slavery. She traveled widely through New England and the Midwest on speaking tours. Her deep voice, quick wit, and inspiring faith helped spread her fame.
Sojourner Truth died 135 years ago today on Nov. 26, 1883. Credit: Chicago History Museum
Baumfree was born a slave in Ulster County, New York. She became free in 1827 under a New York law that banned slavery. In 1843, she experienced what she regarded as a command from God to preach. She took the name Sojourner Truth and began lecturing in New York. (Sojourner is a word similar to wanderer or traveler.) Her early speeches were based on the belief that people best show love for God by love and concern for others. She soon began directing her speeches toward the abolition of slavery.
In 1864, Sojourner Truth visited President Abraham Lincoln in the White House. She stayed in Washington, D.C., and worked to improve living conditions for blacks there. She also helped find jobs and homes for slaves who had escaped from the South to Washington. In the 1870′s, she tried to persuade the federal government to set aside undeveloped lands in the West as farms for blacks. But her plan won no government support.
In 1997, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) included a rover named Sojourner in Sojourner Truth’s honor as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission.
