Title

Sojourner Truth : a life, a symbol

Description

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women - indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of.historical fact. Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant Pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this.day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the stereotype of "the slave" as male and "the woman" as white - expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.

Identifier

614209

393027392

Creator

Painter, Nell Irvin

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1996

Program air date: December 8, 1996

Publisher

W.W. Norton

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers: b. 1797 d. 26 Nov 83, (86). Children: Elizabeth, Sophia, Jane, Peter Diana. Her husband Thomas. S.T. couldn't read. Three great chapters of Sojourner's life--p. 113 overall scenario. 1. Slavery; 2. Evangelism; 3. Anti-Slavery -1844 first speech. Who is Carl Van Wayenan. Story-Libyan Sibyl v. Gage-ar'n't I a woman (Akron speech). Harriet Beecher Stowe--'Frederick is God dead?'--didn't happen. Statue in the Capitol. May 28, 1851-Stone Church-Akron, OH, Ohio Women's Rights Conventions. The Narrative of S.T. was written at North Hampton. Breast scene p. 139. Black men vs. Black women for suffrage (money). Meetings--with Lincolns p. 200, Andrew Johnson, U.S. Grant. [verso] knowledge triumphs over truth p 280. Children described as disreputable. 270 utopian communities 1987-1919. Notes on half-title: Carte-da-va zeet. 18 Millerite itinerant preachers. American Antiquarian Society--Worcester, MA. Freedman's village. Colonization Plan--Kansas--Truth's idea. Sojourner Truth-one of "invented greats" p. 285. Jesus, Joan of Arc, Parson Weems, Betsey Ross, Chief Seattle. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: birth, early life, family, abolition of slavery in NY, abuse, children, description, religion, abolitionists, life in commune, relationship with Frederick Douglass, David Ruggles, autobiography, involvement with suffrage. Notes: "Truth 1797/Tubman 1821," "preacher," "Isabella Van Wagenen," "June 1, 1843," "Dutch language," "Deep South," "John Jay slaves," "Nancy/Michael kidnapped," "Dumont family; she married had 5 children," "sexual abuse," "ashes in potatoes," "abused child," "libel trial 1830," "married Thomas 1815," "sole romance/Robert," "Robert's beating," "children," "voice masculine," "1826-1827 left her husband turned herself into a free woman," "injured hand," "left slavery, freed herself, found religion, July 1827," "impt date 1799 for slaves," "left the Dumonts 1826 fall," "quit drinking 1820s, smoking 40 later," "John Dumont, God reveals himself," "Peter is sold 1826," "slaves in New York sold to South," "Peter clung to his master," "Peter whipped," "no documentation on leaving Ulster Ct.," "her family, sister Sophia, bro Michael, dead sister Nancy," "dreadful slavery!" "Isabella vain, made good money," "John Newland Maffitt," "U.S. Congress Chaplain," "Elijah Pierson, Harriet Livermore, James Latourettes," "Isabella kissed his feet," "Folgers' estate," "Kingdom of Matthias," "'Father' Matthias," "M. beat Isabella," "Ann got into bed with Isabella," "1835 Matthias trial," "slept with Matthias on Sunday," "Mattias was acquitted--4 months for beating daughter; died 1841," "Perez Whiting, Robert Matthews aka Prophet Father Mathias, widow Elizah Pierson, Benjamin and Ann Folger," "son Peter," "Sojourner--someone not at home," "Millerites," "coop community in Northampton, Mass.," "Utopian communities," "210 members 8 states," "no class," "Community dissolved 1846," "Douglass," "Ruggles blind, ill, destitute," "Ruggles died 1849," "children disreputable," "hostile young man," "her daughters don't care for mother," "credit and debt," "$.25 a copy," "Garrison's endorsement," "1854 57 yrs old mortgaged paid," "skin dark, appeared uncomely," "Salem, Ohio, Marius Robinson," "Marius and Emily Robinson, Amy and Isaac Post, George Thompson, Arthur and Lewis Tappan," "Gage, Jane Swisshelm," "May 28, 1851," "Marius Robinson, Truth's speech," "no dialect," "men=quart, women's pint intelligence," "her humor," "not a hostile crowd," "Uncle Tom's Cabin, 300,000 first year," "Stowe's puff," "Bibles," "killing one's enemies," "New York City's dirt," "get out of the cities," "hate," "Truth a man?" "The breast incident," "Jezebel," "nonviolence, anti-slavery, equality of women," "Harmonia," "Jesus," "William Story's statues in Capitol Bld., Joe Story's son," "Harriet Beecher Stowe not accurate," "Truth sitting in front row," "Wendell Phillips," "Salem, Ohio 1852," "Is God gone?" "Not from Africa," "Carte-de-visite, 19th century parlance=shadows," "4X's bigger performance," "Gage's invention," "Gage has Truth 13 children," "Today's admirers prefer Gage," "her friends were white," "at war's end 186,000 soldiers were black," "1864 she goes to Washington," "age 67, looks young," "14 portraits, 7 sittings," "campaign speeches for Linc., Harriet Tubman," "cost marriage," "Truth 6'; Tubman 5'," "troops pay blacks less," "1864 visit to Lincoln," "waited 3 1/2 hours," "Lincoln's mood changed," "Andrew Johnson," "U.S. Grant," "street car wouldn't stop," "forced on to trolley car, had conductor arrested," "1st stop in D.C. Roosevelt Island," "Freedman's village on Custis-Lee property," "colored men v. masters over women," "1863 black men v. black women," "Lincoln ass 1865," "back to slavery," "Harper," "money," "1867, 1868, 1869 in D.C.," "tragic moment," "Truth voted for US Grant, campaigned for him," "1869 National Women's suffrage Asso., American Women's Suffrage Ass., 1890-Reunited as American etc.," "colonization plan," "Kansas," "1870, 1871," "Byron Smith's Topeka invitation," "no petition to congress," "Exodus to Kansas tapered off in spring," "1827 slavery ended, 1843 S. Truth began, 1850 Narrative, 1863 1st Public illness, quit smoking 1868," "1870's ulcers," "1878 lecture tour," "1879 Kansas," "famous families fade," "Eliz-died June 1893, Sophia died 1901, Diana," "Died 26 Nov 83 at 86 yrs old," "born in Africa, died at 100," "wholly African descent," "Thomas Fortune wrote 'not more than 1 in 10 colored persons knows who she is', 1 in 10," "1875 Narrative," "Abe Linc portrait, Sanitarium 1992 fire," "a speaker," "Indiana, breasts," "Truth did not write her part," "Shirley Chisholm," "highway," "the dialect," "bell hooks," "1986 postage stamp," "Truth in space," "Malcolm X," "Marius Robinson, 1851 Report of S. Truth's comment," "Frances Dana Gage--wrote 12 years later 1863," "6 years work," "Gage waited 12 years," "4 personal experiences," "colossal Sojourner," "heroic Sojourner," "Jesus, Joan of Arc," "Parson Weems story invented," "Betsy Ross fiction," "Chief Seattle," "American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.," "interlibrary loan," "Battle Creek," "knew nothing about popular religion."

Subject

"Truth, Sojourner, d. 1883."

"African American abolitionists--Biography."

"Abolitionists--United States--Biography."

"Women abolitionists--United States--Biography."

"Social reformers--United States--Biography."

"Women social reformers--United States--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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