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Slavery
Sojourner Truth, born as Isabella Bomfree, was worn into a slave county in New York in 1797. She had been bought and sold off numerous times and had to endure lots of violence. I imagine that this is what sparked her journey as an equal rights advocate (Michals, 2015). -
Ministry work
In 1928 she moved to NYC to work as a local minister. This is where she began real advocate work. While in the city she began to participate in revivals and became a main speaker and preacher. This is when she began to speak on the evils of slavery and her faith, and was a key time in her life that influenced her future (Michals, 2015). -
Autobiography
While she couldn’t read or write, Truth dictated an autobiography called "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" to Olive Gilbert (NPS, 2017). This book covered abolition, slavery, advocacy, and women's rights issues. This book was an amazing way for her to reach a whole new crowd, and more people than would’ve likely otherwise been possible. I believe that this was a very big moment in her fight for advocacy because she was able to dictate her feelings in writing to people for years to come. -
"Ain't I a Woman?" Speech
In the 1850's Truth continued giving her national speeches and working to help free slaves. In 1951 she had a tour where she gave the speech "Ain't I a Woman?" challenging notions of racial and gender inequality. She believed and fought for female status, even ended her relationship because he believed men slaves should be freed before women. She was able to speak out about her beliefs through this speech, making her (and the movement) more famous than ever before (Halsall, 1997).