Sojourner Truth

Laury took a section of Sojourner Truth’s 1851
speech "Ain’t I A Woman?" Sojourner Truth was accused of being too intelligent and tall to be a woman.

Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born Isabella Bomfree, a slave in Dutch-speaking Ulster County, New York in 1797. In 1827—a year before New York’s law freeing slaves was to take effect—Truth ran away with her infant Sophia to a nearby abolitionist family, the Van Wageners. The family bought her freedom for twenty dollars and helped Truth successfully sue for the return of her five-year-old-son Peter, who was illegally sold into slavery in Alabama. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

By the early 1830s, she participated in the religious revivals that were sweeping the state and became a charismatic speaker. In 1843, she declared that the Spirit called on her to preach the truth, renaming herself Sojourner Truth.

Techniques: Screen printed, machine pieced, hand quilted
Culture: American
Geographic Location: North and Central America - United States
Credit Line: Gift of Joanne M. Landers in memory of Joanne Fisher