This inspiring memoir, first published in 1850, recounts the struggles of a distinguished African-American abolitionist and champion of women's rights. Sojourner Truth tells of her life in slavery, her self-liberation, and her travels across America in pursuit of racial and sexual equality. Essential reading for students of American history.

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Dover Thrift Editions: Black History)

Biographies & Memoirs

SOJOURNER TRUTH

Community & Culture

Dover Publications, Incorporated

Narrative of Sojourner Truth is one of the most important documents of slavery ever written, as well as being a partial autobiography of the woman who became a pioneer in the struggles for racial and sexual equality. With an eloquence that resonates more than a century after its original publication in 1850, the narrative bears witness to Sojourner Truth's thirty years of bondage in upstate New York and to the mystical revelations that turned her into a passionate and indefatigable abolitionist. In this new edition, which has been edited and extensively annotated by the distinguished scholar and biographer of Sojourner Truth, Margaret Washington, Truth's testimony takes on added dimensions: as a lens into the little-known world of northern slavery; as a chronicle of spiritual conversion; and as an inspiring account of a black woman striving for personal and political empowerment.

Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

PREFACE. THE following is the unpretending narrative of the life of a remarkable and meritorious woman--a life which has been checkered by strange vicissitudes, severe hardships, and singular adventures. Born a slave, and held in that brutal condition until the entire abolition of slavery in the State of New York in 1827, she has known what it is to drink to the dregs the bitterest cup of human degradation. That one thus placed on a level with cattle and swine, and for so many years subjected to the most demoralizing influences, should have retained her moral integrity to such an extent, and cherished so successfully the religious sentiment in her soul, shows a mind of no common order, while it heightens the detestation that is felt in every humane bosom, of that system of oppression which seeks to cripple the intellect, impair the understanding, and deprave the hearts of its victims--a system which has subjected to its own foul purposes, in the United States, all that is wealthy, talented, influential, and reputedly pious, in an overwhelming measure! O the 'fantastic tricks' which the American people are 'playing before high Heaven!' O their profane use of the sacred name of Liberty! O their impious appeals to the God of the oppressed, for his divine benediction, while they are making merchandise of his image! Do they not blush? Nay, they glory in their shame! Once a year they take special pains to exhibit themselves to the world, in all their republican deformity and Christian barbarity, insanely supposing that they thus excite the envy, admiration and applause of mankind. The nations are looking at the dreadful spectacle with disgust and amazement. However sunken and degraded they may be, they are too elevated, too virtuous, too humane to be guilty of such conduct. Their voice is heard, saying--'Americans! we hear your boasts of liberty, your shouts of independence, your declarations of hostility to every form of tyranny, your assertions that all men are created free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty, the merry peal of your bells, and the deafening roar of your artillery; but, mingling with all these, and rising above them all, we also hear the clanking of chains! the shrieks and wailings of millions of your own countrymen, whom you wickedly hold in a state of slavery as much more frightful than the oppression which your fathers resisted unto blood, as the tortures of the Inquisition surpass the stings of an insect! We see your banner floating proudly in the breeze from every flag-staff and mast-head in the land; but its blood-red stripes are emblematical of your own slave-driving cruelty, as you apply the lash to the flesh of your guiltless victim, even the flesh of a wife and mother, shrieking for the restoration of the babe of her bosom, sold to the remorseless slave speculator! We catch the gleam of your illuminated hills, everywhere blazing with bonfires; we mark your gay processions; we note the number of your orators; we listen to the recital of your revolutionary achievements: we see you kneeling at the shrine of Freedom, as her best, her truest, her sincerest worshippers! Hypocrites! liars! adulterers! tyrants! men-stealers! atheists! Professing to believe in the natural equality of the human race--yet dooming a sixth portion of your immense population to beastly servitude, and ranking them among your goods and chattels! Professing to believe in the existence of a God--yet trading in his image, and selling those in the shambles for whose redemption the Son of God laid down his life! Professing to be Christians--yet withholding the Bible, the means of religious instruction, even the knowledge of the alphabet, from a benighted multitude, under terrible penalties! Boasting of your democracy--yet determining the rights of men by the texture of their hair and the color of their skin! Assuming to be 'the land of the free and the home of the brave....

Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a bondswoman of olden time, emancipated, with a history, ... drawn from her Book of Life (Ebony Classics)

Olive, Gilbert

Johnson Pub. Co

The Narrative Of Sojourner Truth

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Gilbert, Olive

Sojourner Truth, Truth

Kessinger Publishing

History

Americas

Hard Press

Kessinger Pub

Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Legislature against capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and lectures, but she had many friends and staunch support among many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend Olive Gilbert, and in 1850 William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.

Narrative Of Sojourner Truth

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Narrative of Sojourner Truth: By Sojourner Truth - Illustrated

Literature & Fiction

Classics

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader better understand Sojourner's unique place in history. Born a slave in New York State around 1797 and given the name Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth soon believed that God wanted her to be a traveling preacher who always spoke the Truth. She was sold three times early in her life; her third owner promised her freedom, but then went back on his word. A short time after this incident, Sojourner simply walked away to freedom. She followed her calling and traveled the country, speaking to large, and sometimes hostile crowds. After years of giving speeches, she had become one of the most influential African-American women of the nineteenth century, but unable to write her memoirs herself, Sojourner dictated her Narrative to Olive Gilbert, a white abolitionist. They were published in 1850 and are an inspirational account of this extraordinary woman's journey through life. Sojourner Truth became a passionate leader and legendary figure in American history by challenging the social and legal barriers that oppressed both women and African-Americans at that time. Although she was illiterate, she used her innate intelligence, faith in God, and sheer determination to fight against slavery and to promote women's rights.

Narrative of Sojourner Truth - Literary Touchstone Classic

Prestwick House, Inc.

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