February is Black History Month. At nine (9) years of age, Isabella Baumfree, later known as Sojourner Truth (c. 1797- November 26, 1883) was once sold at auction along with a flock of sheep, for $100. In 1815, Truth fell in love with a neighboring slave named Robert. The two had a daughter, Diana. Robert's owner forbade the relationship. The law then provided that Diana and any of Truth’s children would be the property of Truth's owner, Thomas Dumont. Robert and Truth never saw each other again. In 1817, Dumont forced Truth to marry a much older slave named Thomas. They had a son, Peter, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Sophia.
After the cruelly violent Dumont reneged on a promise to emancipate Truth in late 1826, she escaped to freedom with her infant daughter, Sophia leaving her other daughter and son behind. She later learned that her son Peter (age 5), had been illegally sold to a man in Alabama. Truth took the matter to court and eventually secured Peter's return. This case was one of the first times a black woman successfully challenged a white man in a United States court. A success that she would later repeat in a suit for slanderous remarks suggesting she had assisted her employer in the murder of another man.
On June 1, 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and devoted her life to Methodism and the abolition of slavery. The next year she became a member of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Northampton, Massachusetts, a group of abolitionists, who supported a broad reform agenda including women's rights and pacifism. Members lived communally self-sufficient on 500 acres located in its namesake town. In 1850, Truth spoke at the first National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts and published her memoirs titled “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.” Unable to read or write, Truth had dictated the book to her friend, Olive Gilbert. But, Truth is best known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.Even in abolitionist circles, many of Truth's opinions were considered radical. "She sought political equality for all women and chastised the abolitionist community for failing to seek civil rights for black women as well as men." Truth was as one of the primary leaders of the abolition movement and an early advocate of women's rights.
While she did see slavery abolished, it wasn't until 40 years after her death that the 19th Amendment was ratified.
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