Betsey and James, living on a farm in upstate New York, celebrated the birth of their ninth child, Isabella. However, even while happiness enveloped the couple, they were afraid for the new child. They feared because of what the future might hold for the newborn. They feared because they did not know how long they would be able to hold on to young Isabella. You see, Isabella was born to slave parents, and Betsey and James were scared because they had children taken from them and sold to other families. However, as fate would have it, Isabella would remain with her parents for the remainder of their lives.
By the age of nine, Isabella had lost both of her parents to sickness. She was then sold for one hundred dollars to John Nealy. This was problematic because the Nealys spoke only English, and Isabella spoke only Dutch. Countless times Isabella misunderstood what Mrs. Nealy told her to do, and as a result, would get whipped. One particular time she was summoned to the barn where Mr. Nealy was waiting with rods that were heated in a fire. Nealy tied her hands together and whipped her back until it was completely bloody.
Not long after that beating, Isabella was sold to the Scriver family. Mr. Scriver was fisherman and a tavern owner. Isabella was held by the Scrivers for about a year and a half, and then sold to the Dumonts. It was during this time she met and was married to another slave named Thomas. In the years that followed, she would give birth to five children.
In March 1817, New York set in motion the process of freeing all slaves. For Isabella, because she was born before 1799, she was not set to be freed until July 1827. However, her master, Mr. Dumont agreed to free her a year early if she would work hard for the last year. But due to a hand injury, Isabella was not able to meet Mr. Dumont’s expectations, so he refused to free her. Instead of remaining a slave that last year though, Isabella fled and attempted to hide with another family. Dumont found her though, and threatened to take her back. Fortunately for Isabella, the family she was staying with offered to buy her. Dumont accepted the offer and Isabella officially became a free woman.
Shortly after gaining her freedom, Isabella discovered that her son Peter was sold illegally to another owner in Alabama. Isabella set out to get him back. Everything was stacked against her, but Isabella went to court and won Peter back, one of the first black women to win in a court case. A few years later, after serving a number of jail terms, Peter went to work on a whaling ship to, as he put it, help straighten out his life. However, on one particular outing, when the ship returned to port, he was not on board, and was never heard from again. Isabella was deeply saddened by the loss of her son. Then in 1843, things drastically changed.
Feeling a call from God, Isabella left home and became an itinerant preacher. It was also during these days that Isabella changed her name. She would no longer be Isabella Baumfree…she was now Sojourner Truth. When asked why this name, Truth replied, “The Lord gave me Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land showing people their sins and being a sign to them…and Truth because I was to declare the truth unto the people.” She wasted no time in living up to her new name, speaking against slavery, and often crossing paths with the likes of William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and others engaged in the abolition movement. During the years of the Civil War, she helped recruit black soldiers, and fought for improvements in the Freedman’s hospital.
In later years, she joined the suffrage movement, and in 1872, Truth, along with giants such as Susan B. Anthony, attempted to vote. She was turned away at the polls. Truth would not live to see the day when women would get the opportunity to vote, dying in 1883, 37 years before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. But her work was not in vain.
The formation and existence of slavery was, and is, an evil institution. It is inconceivable to have a child ripped from a mother’s arms and sold to another family, most likely resulting in the two never seeing each other again. It is unimaginable to think that someone would be beaten based solely on the color of one’s skin. It was, is, and will aways be a horrific stain on our history.
But the thing that is most remarkable in this account is that Isabella stayed around and fought. Having experienced the worst, she envisioned the best. Not content to just eking out a living as a bystander, Isabella repurposed herself, even going so far as to give herself a new name. Let me correct that. God repurposed her. God had much bigger plans for the woman who had witnessed enough pain and suffering for ten lives. God needed to recruit someone who had “been there, done that.” Isabella had been there, experiencing the brutal beatings, having lost loved ones to slavery, and on the receiving ends of condescending stares. Isabella had done that, risking everything, running from captivity to freedom. And in that moment, hearkening back to the spiritual truths that her mother taught her as a young girl, Sojourner Truth answered the call.
Faith, Leadership, and History 