73 Facts About Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth continued to fight on behalf of women and African Americans until her death.

Sojourner Truth is the first African American woman to have a statue in the Capitol building.

Sojourner Truth once estimated that she was born between 1797 and 1800.

Sojourner Truth was one of the 10 or 12 children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree.

When Charles Hardenbergh died in 1806, nine-year-old Sojourner Truth, was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100 to John Neely, near Kingston, New York.

Until that time, Sojourner Truth spoke only Dutch, and after learning English, she spoke with a Dutch accent and not a stereotypical dialect.

Sojourner Truth later described Neely as cruel and harsh, relating how he beat her daily and once even with a bundle of rods.

Around 1815, Sojourner Truth met and fell in love with an enslaved man named Robert from a neighboring farm.

Sojourner Truth never saw Robert again after that day and he died a few years later.

Sojourner Truth was infuriated but continued working, spinning 100 pounds of wool, to satisfy her sense of obligation to him.

Late in 1826, Sojourner Truth escaped to freedom with her infant daughter, Sophia.

Sojourner Truth had to leave her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bound servants into their twenties.

Sojourner Truth found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen in New Paltz, who took her and her baby in.

Sojourner Truth lived there until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.

Sojourner Truth learned that her son Peter, then five years old, had been sold by Dumont and then illegally resold to an owner in Alabama.

Sojourner Truth became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win the case.

In 1834, Matthews and Sojourner Truth were charged with the murder of Elijah Pierson, but were acquitted due to lack of evidence and Sojourner Truth's presentation of several letters confirming her reliability as a servant.

Sojourner Truth chose the name because she heard the Spirit of God calling on her to preach the truth.

Sojourner Truth told her friends: "The Spirit calls me, and I must go", and left to make her way traveling and preaching about the abolition of slavery.

At that time, Sojourner Truth began attending Millerite Adventist camp meetings.

Many in the Millerite community greatly appreciated Sojourner Truth's preaching and singing, and she drew large crowds when she spoke.

Sojourner Truth lived and worked in the community and oversaw the laundry, supervising both men and women.

In 1851, Sojourner Truth joined George Thompson, an abolitionist and speaker, on a lecture tour through central and western New York State.

Sojourner Truth's speech demanded equal human rights for all women.

Sojourner Truth spoke as a former enslaved woman, combining calls for abolitionism with women's rights, and drawing from her strength as a laborer to make her equal rights claims.

Different versions of Sojourner Truth's words have been recorded, with the first one published a month later in the Anti-Slavery Bugle by Rev Marius Robinson, the newspaper owner and editor who was in the audience.

In contrast to Robinson's report, Gage's 1863 version included Sojourner Truth saying her 13 children were sold away from her into slavery.

Sojourner Truth is widely believed to have had five children, with one sold away, and was never known to boast more children.

In contemporary reports, Sojourner Truth was warmly received by the convention-goers, the majority of whom were long-standing abolitionists, friendly to progressive ideas of race and civil rights.

In Gage's 1863 version, Sojourner Truth was met with hisses, with voices calling to prevent her from speaking.

From 1851 to 1853, Sojourner Truth worked with Marius Robinson, the editor of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Bugle, and traveled around that state speaking.

Sojourner Truth caught the sense of fear pervading the worshipers and hid behind a trunk in her tent, thinking that since she was the only black person present, the mob would attack her first.

However, she reasoned with herself and resolved to do something: as the noise of the mob increased and a female preacher was "trembling on the preachers' stand", Sojourner Truth went to a small hill and began to sing "in her most fervid manner, with all the strength of her most powerful voice, the hymn on the resurrection of Christ".

Sojourner Truth then goes on to say that, just as women in scripture, women today are fighting for their rights.

Sojourner Truth was received with loud cheers instead of hisses, now that she had a better-formed reputation established.

Sojourner Truth argued that because the push for equal rights had led to black men winning new rights, now was the best time to give black women the rights they deserve too.

Sojourner Truth told her audience that she owned her own house, as did other women, and must, therefore, pay taxes.

Sojourner Truth argues that if these women were able to perform such tasks, then they should be allowed to vote because surely voting is easier than building roads.

Sojourner Truth starts off her speech by giving a little background about her own life.

Sojourner Truth goes on to retell how her masters were not good to her, about how she was whipped for not understanding English, and how she would question God why he had not made her masters be good to her.

Sojourner Truth admits to the audience that she had once hated white people, but she says once she met her final master, Jesus, she was filled with love for everyone.

That last part of Sojourner Truth's speech brings in her main focus.

Sojourner Truth then proposes that black people are given their own land.

Sojourner Truth goes on to suggest that colored people be given land out west to build homes and prosper on.

Sojourner Truth dedicated her life to fighting for a more equal society for African Americans and for women, including abolition, voting rights, and property rights.

Sojourner Truth was at the vanguard of efforts to address intersecting social justice issues.

Sojourner Truth told her own stories, ones that suggested that a women's movement might take another direction, one that championed the broad interests of all humanity.

In 1856, Sojourner Truth bought a neighboring lot in Northampton, but she did not keep the new property for long.

From 1857 to 1867 Sojourner Truth lived in the village of Harmonia, Michigan, a Spiritualist utopia.

Sojourner Truth then moved into nearby Battle Creek, Michigan, living at her home on 38 College St until her death in 1883.

In 1864, Sojourner Truth was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, DC, where she worked diligently to improve conditions for African-Americans.

In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington, Sojourner Truth rode in the streetcars to help force their desegregation.

In 1870, Sojourner Truth tried to secure land grants from the federal government to former enslaved people, a project she pursued for seven years without success.

Sojourner Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment.

Sojourner Truth was cared for by two of her daughters in the last years of her life.

Several days before Sojourner Truth died, a reporter came from the Grand Rapids Eagle to interview her.

Sojourner Truth's eyes were very bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.

Sojourner Truth died early in the morning on November 26,1883, at her Battle Creek home.

The first historical marker honoring Sojourner Truth was established in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1935, when a stone memorial was placed in Stone History Tower, in Monument Park.

In 1983, a plaque honoring Sojourner Truth was unveiled in front of the historic Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston, New York.

In 2015, the Klyne Esopus Museum installed a historical marker in Ulster Park, New York commemorating Sojourner Truth's walk to freedom in 1826.

Sojourner Truth walked about 14 miles from Esopus, up what is Floyd Ackert Road, to Rifton, New York.

Original plans for the memorial included only Stanton and Anthony, but after critics raised objections to the lack of inclusion of women of color, Sojourner Truth was added to the design.

In 2009, a bust of Sojourner Truth was installed in the US Capitol.

Sojourner Truth was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1981.

Sojourner Truth was inducted to the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, in Lansing, Michigan.

Sojourner Truth was part of the inaugural class of inductees when the museum was established in 1983.

Sojourner Truth was included in a monument of "Michigan Legal Milestones" erected by the State Bar of Michigan in 1987, honoring her historic court case.

In 2014, the asteroid 249521 Sojourner Truth was named in her honor.

Sojourner Truth was included in the Smithsonian Institution's list of the "100 Most Significant Americans", published 2014.

The US Treasury Department announced in 2016 that an image of Sojourner Truth will appear on the back of a newly designed $10 bill along with Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession.

In 1862, American sculptor William Wetmore Story completed a marble statue, inspired by Sojourner Truth, named The Libyan Sibyl.

New York Governor Mario Cuomo presented a two-foot statue of Sojourner Truth, made by New York sculptor Ruth Inge Hardison, to Nelson Mandela during his visit to New York City, in 1990.