Truth - The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

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Table of Contents

FROM THE PAGES OFNARRATIVEOF SOJOURNER TRUTH

It is now asked to accord a modicum of honor to a woman who labored forty long and weary years a slave; to whom the paths of literature and science were forever closed; one who bore the double burdens of poverty and the ban of caste, yet who, despite all these disabilities, has acquired fame, and gained hosts of friends among the noblest and best of the dominant race.

(page 3)

When he had tied her hands together before her, he gave her the most cruel whipping she was ever tortured with. He whipped her till the flesh was deeply lacerated, and the blood streamed from her wounds.

(page 19)

Oh, I do not want money or clothes now, I only want my son.

(page 37)

She informed Mrs. Whiting, the woman of the house where she was stopping, that her name was no longer Isabella, but SOJOURNER; and that she was going east. And to her inquiry, What are you going east for? her answer was, The Spirit calls me there, and I must go.

(page 73)

Her mission was not merely to travel east, but to lecture, as she designated it; testifying of the hope that was in herexhorting the people to embrace Jesus, and refrain from sin.

(page 74)

What we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord.

(page 92)

Dont let her speak, Mrs. Gage, it will ruin us. Every newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed with abolition and niggers, and we shall be utterly denounced.

(page 99)

Arnt I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! [And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power.] I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head meand arnt I a woman?

(page 100)

She sang with the strong barbaric accent of the native African, and with those indescribable upward turns and those deep gutturals which give such a wild, peculiar power to the negro singingbut above all, with such an overwhelming energy of personal appropriation that the hymn seemed to be fused in the furnace of her feelings and come out recrystallized as a production of her own.

(page 119)

I told him that I had never heard of him before he was talked of for president. He smilingly replied, I had heard of you many times before that.

(page 131)

She is a crazy, ignorant, repelling negress, and her guardians would do a Christian act to restrict her entirely to private life. (page 149)

(page 149)

With all your opportunities for readin and writin, you dont take hold and do anything. My God, I wonder what you are in the world for!

(page 176)

She had not courage to chide people for using spirituous liquors while indulging in the use of tobacco, herself Accordingly she discontinued the habit. She was told it would affect her health. She said, Ill quit if I die. She did quit and lived!

(page 227)

I am pleading for my people,
A poor, down-trodden race,
Who dwell in freedoms boasted land,
With no abiding place.

Yet those oppressors, steeped in guilt
I still would have them live;
For I have learned of Jesus
To suffer and forgive.

(page 261)

Published by Barnes & Noble Books
122 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.barnesandnoble.com/classics
Narrative of Sojourner Truth was first published in 1850. The present text of the
Narrative and the Book of Life is that of the Memorial Edition of 1878.
The text of A Memorial Chapter is taken from the 1884 edition.
Published in 2005 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction,
Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By,
Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.

Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading Copyright 2005 by Imani Perry.

Note on Sojourner Truth, The World of Sojourner Truth and Her Narrative,
Inspired by Narrative of Sojourner Truth, and Comments & Questions

Copyright 2005 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Barnes & Noble Classics and the Barnes & Noble Classics
colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Narrative of Sojourner Truth

ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-293-2
ISBN-10: 1-59308-293-2

eISBN : 978-1-411-43275-8

LC Control Number 2005920892

Produced and published in conjunction with:
Fine Creative Media, Inc.
322 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

Printed in the United States of America

QM

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

FIRST PRINTING

SOJOURNER TRUTH

Around the year 1797, the woman who would later be known as Sojourner Truth was born on a Dutch slave-holding farm in Ulster County, New York, and named Isabella. Her parents were slaves, and Isabellas twelve brothers and sisters were separated from the family when they were sold to other households. As she later recounted in her autobiography, the Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Dutch-speaking Isabella was often whipped and beaten during her years of servitude, particularly by her second master for her initial inability to speak English. After being sold several times and having an offer of freedom rescinded by her owners, she fled to a neighboring house with her daughter, Sophia. The family helped secure her emancipation, but only through legal action did she save another of her children, Peter, from servitude in the slave-holding state of Alabama.

Following her emancipation, Isabella moved to New York City and worked as a domestic servant while also preaching her Methodist faith. More than six feet tall, she was as physically imposing as she was eloquent, and her reputation as a gifted speaker spread quickly. In 1843 she left the city to become a preacher. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth and traveled extensively around the Northeast, preaching in homes and churches. During an inspiring stay at the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, Truth met emancipation activists David Ruggles, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass. With their encouragement and her own determination, she joined forces with other abolitionists and began lecturing about her history as a slave.

Having never learned to read and write, Truth asked a friend from the Northampton Association, Olive Gilbert, to transcribe her life story. In 1850 it was published as the Narrative of Sojourner Truth. It sold steadily at meetings everywhere Truth traveled. The next year, her fame increased even more dramatically when she gave her famous Arnt (or Aint) I a Woman? speech at the Womans Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. An 1863 Atlantic Monthly article by Uncle Toms Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe also acquainted the greater public with Truths remarkable story.

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