Ain't I a Woman?

Sojourner Truth (born Isabella (Belle) Baumfree) was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying the hope that was in her". Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title "Ain't I a Woman?," a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect; whereas Sojourner Truth was from New York and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend Olive Gilbert, and in 1850 William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.Source: Wikipedia

Her name, Sojourner, means Traveler, and now that we know that fact, we love her story even more. She became a traveler indeed, right after she walked, literally walked, out of slavery, and then she traveled to spread the word about the mistreatment and the injustices she survived and that were still suffered by thousands of slaves. She was the first free black woman abolitionist to, not only advocate for freedom for the black people but also championed the women's rights movement when women didn't even have the right to vote. Ain't I a woman? is the title of her most famous speech. And oh yes, she was. She was some woman! Read Owned by Several Masters, her account of her life experiences while she was a slave and after, and you will get a new appreciation of what a woman with smarts and perseverance can achieve even when impossible obstacles tried to shackle her down. Owned by Several Masters is a great inspirational story no one should miss.

Unabridged value reproduction of Narrative of Sojourner Truth. She was sold for $100 but grew beyond her place in society to demand rights for women as well as African Americans. This is her story. This is her voice.She is the passionate woman on the Smithsonian Institution’s list of "100 Most Significant Americans." She was the first black woman to win a case against a white man to regain her son. She was important enough in her own time to meet Abraham Lincoln.Read of her inspirational life in this unabridged, affordably printed volume.