Sojourner Truth
Interactive Timeline
1797
Sojourner Truth is born Isabella (Bell) Baumfree in Ulster County, New
York. Her exact date of birth is not known because her family was enslaved and close records were
not kept of the birthdays of slaves.
1808- 1810
Isabella (Sojourner Truth) is sold three times. At the age of 9,
Isabella is sold at an auction to John Neely when her previous owner dies; the price of $100
includes a flock of sheep. She is sold to Martin Schryver for $105. She is sold a third time to John
Dumont for over $200.
1815
Isabella falls in love with
an enslaved man named Robert from a nearby farm. She wanted to marry him, but Robert's owner would
not allow it because he did not want her to have children he could not own.
1817
Isabella (Sojourner Truth) enters a marriage arranged by Dumont. She
has five children; four children survive infancy.
1826
Isabella (Sojourner Truth) leaves her owner. When Dumont fails to keep
his promise to free her, Isabella leaves and takes her daughter, Sophia with her. She walks to the
home of Quakers named Van Wagenen. When Dumont goes to get Isabella, the Van Wagenens pay him $25
for Isabella and the baby. She repays the Van Wagenens with work and takes their last name as her
own.
1827
Isabella Van Wagenen (Truth) wins a court Case. Isabella finds out
her son Peter was illegally sold to a plantation owner in the South. Isabella hires a lawyer, goes
to court and wins her son’s freedom. Isabella and her son move to New York City where she starts to
preach while working as a domestic.
1843
Isabella becomes Sojourner Truth. Saying she is "called in spirit,”
Isabella Van Wagenen changes her name to Sojourner Truth. She travels up the East Coast to Springfield MA. She then goes to Northampton MA.
1844
Sojourner Truth becomes an abolitionist. In Northampton, Sojourner
joins the Northampton Association of Education & Industry, a utopian community of abolitionists. She
also meets Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Sojourner gives her first abolitionist
speech in Northampton and begins to travel around the country giving lectures.
1850
"The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" is published. Even though she
cannot read or write, Sojourner publishes her autobiography, thanks to the help of a friend who
wrote down her words. She makes enough money from the sale of her book to pay for a home in
Florence, Massachusetts, a village of Northampton.
1850
Sojourner Truth signed the deed for a house on Park Street in Florence on April 15, 1850, She paid off the mortgage to Samuel Hill in 1854 with proceeds from sales of her books and cartes de visite, photographic portraits she sold at her lectures with the caption, “I sell the shadow to support the substance.”
1851
Sojourner delivered her best known speech on May 29, 1851 at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Twelve years later, a version of the speech written by Frances Gage, became widely known as “Ain’t I A Woman?,” even though she never said those words (1863, New York Independent); that version was included in History of Women’s Suffrage (1881). A more accurate version, by Marius Robinson, appeared shortly after the speech in the Anti-Slavery Bugle (June 21,1851).
1857
Sojourner moves to Battle Creek, Michigan. Sojourner Truth moves to
Battle Creek, Michigan. She continues to travel and give speeches advocating for women's rights and
the end of slavery.
1864
During the Civil War, Truth helped the war effort by recruiting black troops for the Union army and providing them with supplies. In 1864, Truth worked at the National Freedman’s Relief Association in Washington DC to improve conditions for former slaves as well as at the Freedman’s hospital and met with President Abraham Lincoln.While in Washington, DC, she lobbied against segregation and rode public horse-drawn streetcars; when a streetcar conductor tried to violently block her from riding, she ensured his arrest and won her subsequent court case leading to greater integration of the street cars.
1870's
Sojourner Truth creates a petition to Congress Sojourner’s petition calls for public land in the West to be given to formerly enslaved people. She prints fifty petitions with her own money and distributes them widely. She believes land was her people’s entitlement and the key to their economic independence, industry, and mobility. Congress passes civil rights legislation but does not grant land.
1872
Truth continued to travel and work tirelessly for political and social change in her seventies. In addition to women’s rights, she campaigned against capital punishment and in support of temperance. In 1872, along with hundreds of suffragists across the country including Susan B. Anthony, Truth tried to vote but was turned away at the polls.
November 26, 1883
Sojourner Truth dies in Michigan. Sojourner develops an infection from sores on her legs and is treated at the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Despite treatment, she dies at home.
Imagery used with permission:
My Name Is Truth: The Life of Sojourner Truth
by Ann Turner (Author), James Ransome (Illustrator)