Sojourner Truth

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.

First Sentence

SOJOURNER TRUTH, born Isabella, is one of the two most famous African-American women of the nineteenth century.

Excerpt

SOJOURNER TRUTH, born Isabella, is one of the two most famous African-American women of the nineteenth century.

Subjects

Genres

• Biography.

Other Editions

• Sojourner Truth: a life, a symbolW.W. Norton1996-01-01
• Sojourner Truth: A Life, A SymbolPaperbackW.W. Norton & Company1996-01-01
• Sojourner TruthNorton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.1997-01-01
• Sojourner TruthW. W. Norton & Company1997-10-01
• Sojourner TruthHardcoverW. W. Norton & Company1997-10-01
• Sojourner TruthW. W. Norton & Company1997-10-01