Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (born around 1797 in Hurley , New York ; † November 26, 1883 in Battle Creek , Michigan ) was an American abolitionist , suffragette and itinerant preacher .
Life
Sojourner Truth was originally called "Isabella" - surnames were not common among slaves . Because her father was only called "Bomefree" everywhere, she was later assigned the name "Isabella Bomefree".
Isabella was believed to be the second of ten children of the enslaved Elisabeth (Ma Ma Bett) and James (Bomefree) to be born on a farm in Ulster County , New York , in 1797 . The "owners" of the family were the Hardenberghs, a family who immigrated from the Netherlands and had acquired considerable land. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Isabella spoke fluent Dutch as a young woman . When Johannes Hardenbergh died in 1799, it was bequeathed to the son of the house, Carles Hardenbergh. Isabella was about nine years old when he died. At that time, her parents had already been released by the Hardenberghs because of their old age - for Isabella, however, the death of her master meant the release for auction.
For $ 100 it became the property of John Neely, a merchant from near Kingston. The Neelys spoke only English, and if Isabella did not understand instructions, she would lash. In 1810 she was sold to John Dumont, a farmer in Ulster County who had few slaves. In contrast to John Neely, Dumont is described as warm-hearted and humane, he did not hit Isabella, but praised Isabella for good work.
Around 1815, Isabella met the slave Robert from a neighboring farm and fell in love with him. Robert's owner Catlin forbade this relationship. He did not want his slave to father children with a slave of another master, since their children would not pass into his possession. As a punishment for the forbidden love affair, Robert was badly mistreated and Isabella never saw him again. Two years later, Isabella was forced by Dumont to marry an older slave named Thomas. Isabella had five children: Diana (* 1815), whose biological father was Robert; from his marriage to Thomas the children Thomas, who died shortly after birth, Peter (* 1821), Elizabeth (* 1825) and Sophia (* approx. 1826).
When John Dumont refused to let her go in 1826, despite a promise to release her, Isabella fled to the Quaker Isaac van Wagenen. He set her off with her daughter Sophia at John Dumont's. As a freelance domestic worker, she could now shape her own life.
A freed slave, she converted to Christianity and moved to New York City with her son as a house maid in 1829. In 1832 she joined the Christian utopian Zion's Hill congregation, whose leader Robert Matthews claimed to be a prophet of God. The community was dissolved in 1834 with great scandal.
After a religious inspiration , Isabella decided on June 1, 1843, to travel the country as a preacher. From now on it was called Sojourner Truth . The reformist members of the Northampton Association of Massachusetts introduced them to progressive abolitionist and feminist ideas.
Her commitment, acumen and the intensity of her public speaking soon made her famous. As the first black activist, she made a connection between women's and slave rights. Her speech “And ain't I a woman ?!” (And am I not a woman?) In 1851 at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio became legendary.
As early as 1850 she had dictated her life story to her friend Olive Gilbert; she couldn't write herself. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, published by William Lloyd Garrison in 1850, had brought her some money so that she could buy a house of her own.
In 1863 Sojourner Truth moved to Washington, DC , where she looked after black soldiers from the Civil War . In addition, she took care of released slaves by arranging housekeeping for them. During this time, she also campaigned against racial segregation on public transport and even called on President Abraham Lincoln about it.
When in 1867, in the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, black and Native American men were given the (limited) right to vote, white suffragettes were furious. Most abolitionists, however, believed that the suffering of previously enslaved black men justified their being given the right to vote before women. Sojourner Truth was one of the few abolitionists and women's rights activists who spoke in favor of black women.
After the American Civil War , Sojourner Truth worked for the Freedman's Relief Association and, in 1867, initiated an African American recruitment agency. During this activity she realized how large the proportion of the black population was in the wealth of the USA and how little recognition of this achievement was.
In the last few years of her life, Sojourner Truth returned to public speaking. She fought for the right to vote for women and for blacks, spoke out against tobacco, alcohol and fashionable clothing, supported independence against excessive dependence on state institutions and advocated the formation of a new colony for freed slaves.
Her death on November 26, 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan, ended a life of public engagement and passionate political beliefs. Born a slave with gloomy prospects, she had become the first advocate for the abolition of slavery and the introduction of women's suffrage.
Sojourner Truth is hardly known in Europe. In the USA, a stamp with a face value of 22 cents commemorates the activist. On April 28, 2009, her bust was unveiled in the Capitol. The first rover to land on Mars in 1997 with the Pathfinder probe was named after her.
It was included in the anthology Daughters of Africa , edited in 1992 by Margaret Busby in London and New York.
Work and influence
In the mid-19th century, Sojourner was one of the first to establish a link between women's rights and the rights of the black population. With her famous question, Ain't I a woman? she called on the white women's rights activists to campaign for the rights of black women.
During the 1860s, Truth was the only audible voice speaking for black women, linking racism and sexism : There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.
Sojourner Truth demanded reparation payments for the blacks a good two decades before the Civil Rights Movement came into being at the beginning of the 20th century : Our nerves and sinews, our tears and blood, have been sacrificed on the altar of this nation's avarice. Our unpaid labor has been a stepping stone to its financial success. Some of its dividends must surely be ours.
During her sermons, Sojourner Truth demonstrated a biblical but feminist attitude with a large portion of acrid humor. So she asked male abolitionists who were demanding the right to vote for black men if they did not believe in Jesus. When they answered with “yes, of course” she said: Well, Jesus is the son of God and Mary. You had nothing to do with it. (Jesus is the son of God and Mary, men had nothing to do with it).
Remembrance day
March 10 on the calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Honors
It found its way into the visual arts of the 20th century. The feminist artist Judy Chicago dedicated one of the 39 place settings at the table to her in her work The Dinner Party . It's the only one dedicated to a black woman.
In 1994 a Venus crater was named after her: Truth . An asteroid was named after her on July 12, 2014: (249521) Truth . On February 1, 2019, she was honored with a doodle by the search engine Google .
literature
- Jacqueline Bernard: Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth. WW Norton & Co., New York, 1990.
- Victoria Ortiz: Sojourner Truth: A Self-Made Woman. Lippincott, New York, 1974.
- Sojourner Truth, Olive Gilbert: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. A Northern Slave , 2004 (orig. 1850).
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Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave (1850).
- Dover Publications 1997 edition: ISBN 0-486-29899-X .
- Penguin Classics 1998 edition: ISBN 0-14-043678-2 . Introduction & notes by Nell Irvin Painter.
- University of Pennsylvania online edition ( HTML format, one chapter per page)
- University of Virginia online edition (HTML format, 207 kB, entire book on one page)
- Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-19-509835-8 .
- Carleton Mabee with Susan Mabee Newhouse, Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend (New York and London: New York University Press, 1993) ISBN 0-8147-5525-9 .
- Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol (New York and London: WW Norton & Co., 1996) ISBN 0-393-31708-0 .
- Erlene Stetson and Linda David, Glorying in Tribulation: The Lifework of Sojourner Truth (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-87013-337-3 .
- William Leete Stone, Matthias and his Impostures- or, The Progress of Fanaticism (New York, 1835) Internet Archive online edition (PDF; 16.9 MB; entire book on one PDF)
- Gilbert Vale, Fanaticism - It's Source and Influence Illustrated by the Simple Narrative of Isabella, in the Case of Matthias, Mr. and Mrs. B. Folger, Mr. Pierson, Mr. Mills, Catherine, Isabella, & c. & c. (New York, 1835) Google Books online edition (PDF; 9.9 MB; entire book on one PDF or one page per page)
- Victor Grossman : Rebel Girls: Portraits of 34 American Women . Papyrossa, Cologne, 2012, pp. 73–79.
Web links
- Sojourner Truth: Online Resources , Library of Congress, Web Guides
Individual evidence
- ^ Sojourner Truth page . In: Women in History site . Retrieved December 28, 2006.
- ↑ March 10 in the ecumenical dictionary of saints
- ↑ Brooklyn Museum page on the artwork, accessed April 15, 2014.
- ↑ Venus Crater Truth in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS (English)
- ↑ The Minor Planet Circulars : p. 89086 (English)
- ↑ Sojourner Truth: Google Doodle in honor of the American suffragette. In: GoogleWatchBlog. February 1, 2019, accessed on February 1, 2019 (German).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Truth, Sojourner |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bomefree, Isabella (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American freedom fighter, suffragette and itinerant preacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1797 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hurley , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 26, 1883 |
| Place of death | Battle Creek , Michigan |