There have been many women who made a contribution and left their mark on feminism, but one of the few African American women to contribute significantly was a former slave, Sojourner Truth. During the nineteenth century, white middle-class women generally did not care about the rights of freed African American women. But there was one woman who dared enter the white middle class world of feminism and she opened the door for many African American women. Sojourner Truth played a key role in the early feminist movement among African American women. Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree around 1797 in New York and owned by Colonel Hardenbergh. She was torn away from her family at the age of ten, and sold to a man named John Neely.
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She claimed to have visions that told her what God wanted her to do. While she was in Connecticut, she became a Pentecostal preacher. While she was a preacher, she was apart of many moral reform societies which helped bring people to the light from drinking, gambling, and prostitution. It was said that these societies were geared more towards women because they were kind and better at upholding moral and religious foundations in society. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth because when she left the house of bondage i.e. slavery, she wanted to have no ties to the institution. She asked God to give her a new name, and she says “The Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to travel up and down the land showing the people their sins, and being a sign unto them”, and as for her last name, “Afterward I told the Lord I wanted another, cause everyone else had names; and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people”.Truth joined the “Northampton Association” in Massachusetts that was founded on freedom and equality. It was here that she met many people who would fight for the same causes that she would. It was also during this time that she began preaching about abolition. She was at an event preaching to a crowd of men and women, when those of the crowd questioned if “She was a woman or a man in disguise”. To this, she unbuttoned her shirt and showed them her breast. She first made a new for herself at the first Ohio Women’s Rights Convention of 1851. Although not invited to speak, a disturbance in the crowd gave her an opportunity her to speak. She stood at five feet eleven and spoke to the crowd. “Look at me! Look at my arm” she said “I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me — ar’n’t I a woman? The message she repeated was that women were equals to men, because she was a former slave who did the same amount of work as a male. Truth often reminded
She claimed to have visions that told her what God wanted her to do. While she was in Connecticut, she became a Pentecostal preacher. While she was a preacher, she was apart of many moral reform societies which helped bring people to the light from drinking, gambling, and prostitution. It was said that these societies were geared more towards women because they were kind and better at upholding moral and religious foundations in society. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth because when she left the house of bondage i.e. slavery, she wanted to have no ties to the institution. She asked God to give her a new name, and she says “The Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to travel up and down the land showing the people their sins, and being a sign unto them”, and as for her last name, “Afterward I told the Lord I wanted another, cause everyone else had names; and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people”.Truth joined the “Northampton Association” in Massachusetts that was founded on freedom and equality. It was here that she met many people who would fight for the same causes that she would. It was also during this time that she began preaching about abolition. She was at an event preaching to a crowd of men and women, when those of the crowd questioned if “She was a woman or a man in disguise”. To this, she unbuttoned her shirt and showed them her breast. She first made a new for herself at the first Ohio Women’s Rights Convention of 1851. Although not invited to speak, a disturbance in the crowd gave her an opportunity her to speak. She stood at five feet eleven and spoke to the crowd. “Look at me! Look at my arm” she said “I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me — ar’n’t I a woman? The message she repeated was that women were equals to men, because she was a former slave who did the same amount of work as a male. Truth often reminded