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Home » Resources » Abolition and the Suffrage Movement » Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth

January 6, 2017 By Alice Janigro

Sojourner Truth c.1797-1883

Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) was both an abolitionist and a st1champion of the women’s rights movement, exposing the important intersection of gender and race.

As one of the only black women of the time who spoke for women’s rights, she is most well known for her “Ain’t I a Woman” speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio: “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?”

By showing her own strength, Truth embodied her feminist message and gained important publicity for the suffrage and abolition movements. Truth used her spiritually influenced oratory skills to give speeches promoting the equality of women as well as the equality of African-Americans, and the issues of temperance, abolition and supporting African-Americans fighting in the Civil War.

st-memorial
sojournertruthmemorial.org

From 1843 to 1857, Truth lived in Florence, Massachusetts where the Sojourner Truth Memorial now stands (photo, right), honoring her work as a woman activist and abolitionist. Upon first arriving in Massachusetts, Truth joined the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, an egalitarian commune designed to help reconcile class conflicts and a place Truth described as being of “liberty of thought and speech.” During her time in Northampton, Truth met reformers, including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and James Boyle, who shared her antislavery feminist ideology. After the Northampton Association dissolved, Truth bought a home in Florence and continued working as a public speaker who challenged and inspired abolitionists and feminists alike.

usns-photos-on-easels
www.facebook.com/SecretaryoftheNavy/

Truth’s work in fighting for human rights has earned her two recent recognitions. In April of 2016, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Truth, alongside Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, will be featured on the back of the new ten-dollar bill design to honor her work for the suffragist movement. On September 19, 2016, during a ceremony at the Boston Public Library (photo, left), Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that two US Navy ships are being replenished and named after Suffragists Sojourner Truth and Lucy Stone.

 

 

Interesting Reads about Sojourner Truth

  1. Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Biography.
  2. “Sojourner Truth and Women’s Suffrage Movement.” New Pittsburgh Courier, City Edition ed.: C. Feb 08 1997. ProQuest. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.
  3. Zackodnik, Teresa C. “”I Don’t Know How You Will Feel When I Get Through”: Racial Difference, Woman’s Rights, and Sojourner Truth.” Feminist Studies 30.1 (2004): 49-73. Web.
By: Alice Janigro, Tufts University student

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Filed Under: Abolition and the Suffrage Movement, Featured Suffragists

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Suffragists Support #StopAsianHate

March 2021

Dear Suffrage100MA Community,

Suffrage100MA stands with the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community and grieves for the eight victims recently murdered in Georgia, six of whom were women of Asian descent.  Carry the victims in your hearts, light candles for them, learn about their lives:  Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Ziaojie Tan, Delaina Yaun and Young Ae Yue.

The words of this song from the 1949 musical “South Pacific” are more applicable than ever:

You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

“You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” was a highly controversial song, but thankfully, ultimately included in the show. The song was written to address racism against Asians and all people.  The character Lt. Cable, a Caucasian man who has fallen in love with an Asian woman, is distressed by the prejudice against interracial couples and racism in general, sang the song after saying the words “…racism is not born in you! It happens after you’re born…”

James Taylor recorded the song in Nov. 2020.

We must work to end the racism that is “…drummed in your dear little ear…”

In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans are up almost 150 percent.  Discrimination against the Asian community has existed in this country since Asians arrived in the late 19th century.  Asians faced discrimination against dignity and equality, and were denied citizenship and the right to vote until the middle of the 20thcentury. After the 19th Amendment was adopted extending the vote to women, discriminatory laws prevented Asian Americans, Native Americans and African Americans from voting for decades and today the crisis for voter accessibility is growing.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “In a backlash to historic voter turnout in the 2020 general election, and grounded in a rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, legislators have introduced well over four times the number of bills to restrict voting access as compared to roughly this time last year. Thirty-three states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states on February 3, 2020).”

Suffrage100MA is committed to increasing accessibility to the ballot and inspiring voters to exercise their right to vote by sharing the history of those who fought bravely, sometimes losing their lives, for decades and across centuries, to secure the vote.  Let us each recognize the power and importance of voting to express one’s voice

On behalf of the Suffrage100MA Board of Directors –
With deep appreciation to all of you for being on this journey with us,

Fredie Kay
Founder & President, Suffrage100MA