Briefly, the woman known today as “Sojourner Truth” was born in upstate New York circa 1797. Hers was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born into slavery, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She died in 1883.

The story of her name change from “Isabella” to “Sojourner” comes from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s article The Libyan Sibyl, and Stowe puts Sojourner’s words into dialect.

“My name was Isabella; but when I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I wa’n’t goin’ to keep nothin’ of Egypt on me, an’ so I went to the Lord an’ asked Him to give me a new name. And the Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to travel up an’ down the land, showing the people their sins, an’ bein’ a sign unto them. Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted another name, ‘cause everybody else had two names; and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people.”

Ain’t I a Woman? is Sojourner’s most famous speech, and the one many people today know her for. It was first delivered in 1851 at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. It is a powerful speech but it was recorded by several different people at the time. The most famous record of it is by Frances Gage, the president of the convention, who was there but didn’t record the speech until 12 years later. She put the speech in southern dialect, but Sojourner never lived in the south and, if anything, would have had a Dutch accent, as Dutch was her first language. A reporter of the time recorded the speech differently.
The following introduction from Legal Encyclopedia gives the context of the speech.

“Sojourner Truth delivered her Ain’t I a Woman? speech in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Her short, simple speech was a powerful rebuke to many antifeminist arguments of the day. It became, and continues to serve, as a classic expression of women’s rights. Truth became, and still is today, a symbol of strong women.”

Ain’t I a Woman? as recounted by Frances Gage in 1863″

“Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

“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? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed 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 a woman?

“Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

“Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

“Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.”

* * *

She delivered that speech (in one form or another) hundreds times throughout the northern states. Standing more than six-foot tall with broad shoulders and a powerful voice, she was indeed a compelling presence.

To learn more about Sojourner Truth, please click here.