Sojourner Truth Biography

Sojourner Truth was an African American abolitionist who became the first black woman to successfully sue and win the case against a white man to recover her son who had been illegally sold into slavery. She was also a well known women’s rights activist who rose to prominence with her ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ speech delivered at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. Born as Isabella Baumfree, she took up the name Sojourner Truth when she had a spiritual revelation about the purpose of her life and started traveling and preaching about abolition of slavery. She herself had been born into slavery and was later forcibly married off to another slave. She became the mother of five children, two of whom she was able to save from slavery; her other children however could not be rescued before they were legally freed. She later joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Northampton, Massachusetts which had been founded by the major abolitionists of those times. Here she became acquainted with William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles. After the group disbanded, she joined the abolitionist George Benson and along with him started attending conventions and delivering speeches on anti-slavery issues, women’s rights, prison reforms, etc. She was a highly respected orator much admired by abolitionists and women’s rights activists for her works.