Slavery - Part Two- Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth - 1828

Sojourner Truth was born in a dutch part of New York. Her first language was Dutch, and she continued to speak with a Dutch accent for the rest of her life.

When her owner died in 1806, nine-year-old Truth (known as Belle), was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100. (About $2,500 today)

Her new owners wife didn't speak Dutch but English and when Sojourner was given orders she often didn't understand them. This lead to many punishments.

Sojourner was again sold two more times before she was 13.

When sojourner was 18 she fell in love with a slave on a neighboring farm which had a different owner. When a slave had a child, that child belonged to the man's owner, not the women's. So sojourners owner told her she couldn't marry someone else's slave but had to marry one of his. One night the man she was in love snuck over to see Sojourner. He was discovered and beaten severely.

So she married an older slave who was owned alongside her. Her first child died very young. Her second child was the result of rape. Then she had 3 more children to her husband.

When a slave was no longer useful they were freed and given a small house or shed in the woods. Sojourners parents were allowed to do so. First her mother died, and without anyone to care for him in his old age, her father froze to death the next winter.

This was common. A female slave would often help raise the masters kids as well as her own. They'd often act as wet nurses, breast feeding the masters kids before their own. Once the children were all grown up, the masters kids moved away and her own kids sold away, old slave women would live in a shed in the woods, alone and forgotten.

Slavery in New York was due to be outlawed in 1827. Sojourners master tild her he'd release her a year early if she worked hard enough. So she did, even working with a broken finger for a while. When the time came, her master went back on his word.

Sojourner left her masters farm early in the morning with her infant daughter. She had to leave her other children behind. She walked for miles with the infant in her arms.

She found her way to the house of a sympathetic white couple who took care of her and her infant. When her master came looking for her, she refused to return so the couple paid for her freedom.

Truth learned that her son Peter, then five years old, had been sold by her old master and then illegally resold to an owner in Alabama. With the help of the Van Wagenens, she took the issue to the New York Supreme Court. She filed a suit against Peter's new owner Solomon Gedney. In 1828, after months of legal proceedings, she got back her son, who had been abused by those who were enslaving him. Truth became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win the case.

Later life

Sojourner became a devout Christian and worked as a housekepper at a cult facility in New York city. The head of the cult believed himself to be the reincarnation of Mattias from the bible and shared prophesy with his followers. He was locked up for a time for assaulting his adult daughter.

In 1839, Truth's son Peter, now 16 years old, took a job on a whaling ship called the Zone of Nantucket. From 1840 to 1841, she received three letters from him, though in his third letter he told her he had sent five. Peter said he also never received any of her letters. When the ship returned to port in 1842, Peter would've been 19 years old but he was not on board and Truth never heard from him again.

Truth dedicated her life to fighting for a more equal society for African Americans and for women, including abolition, voting rights, and property rights. She was at the vanguard of efforts to address intersecting social justice issues. she was invited to the White House by President Abraham Lincoln. In 2009, Truth became the first black woman to be honored with a statue in the Capitol building.

https://youtu.be/Ry_i8w2rdQY

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