"I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked."(Encyclopedia Britannica; online sources: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk) A great woman, mother, African American, abolitionist, and freedom fighter by the name of Sojourner Truth said this. She helped black Americans and especially black women realize their rights and gain their freedom. She traveled the country, preaching to people about religion and the horrors of slavery. By her ways of educating blacks and whites, Sojourner brought people out of the darkness of slavery. (Naacp.org)
Isabella Baumfree (later Isabella Van Wagener, and Sojourner Truth) was born in Hurly, New York 1797. Sojourner Truth's first language was Dutch. But later with determination she learned how to speak English and taught all her children as well. Sojourner was sold at the young age of ten years old to a very harsh slave master. For many years after all the whippings that she received from that master Sojourner will always bear the scars and remember the pain as she narrated in her book The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. (Encyclopedia Britannica; online sources: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
For twenty-eight years Sojourner was a slave until a law was passed that set her free. She took advantage of her freedom and set out to become a Christian preacher. But before she could, Sojourner's son was taken illegally out of state to become a slave. Sojourner along with the help of fellow friends, Quakers, went to court and became the first black woman to file a lawsuit. Sojourner walked into the courtroom with her willpower and walked out with her son in her care. (Encyclopedia Britannica) According to the NAACP, Sojourner filed another lawsuit about a false accusation in a newspaper about her "poisoning" a religious leader of a group she formally belonged to. She sued the newspaper for the insult and got one hundred and twenty-five dollars in return. (Naacp.org)...