Kelsey+S.+-+RFC+-+SP10

Ulster County, New York Born: 1797 I was born into slavery in 1797 in Ulster County, New York. My parents, James and Elizabeth Baumfree, named me Isabella Baumfree. As a child I spoke only Dutch. After my first master, Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh, died I was sold and owned by four other slave owners until I became a free African-American in 1826. On June 1, 1843 I changed my name to Sojourner Truth, and decided to travel as an itinerant preacher speaking about the truth and working against injustice. I am an abolitionist and a women’s rights activist. I preached about the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, I use personal evidence in my speeches about my experiences from when I was a slave. Although I am unable to read or write I am a very powerful speaker and a motivational figure. My most famous speech is “Ain’t I a Woman?” which I presented in Akron, Ohio at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1854. I met many reformers and abolitionists during my traveling, such as Amy Post, Parker Pillsbury, Frances Dana Gage, Wendell Philips, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others. I also met and worked with abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles. I was employed by the National Freedman’s Relief Association in Washington DC, and I met President Abraham Lincoln. I joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts in 1844, which was an association created by abolitionists to promote cooperative and productive labor. The association strongly supported anti-slavery, religious tolerance, women’s rights, and pacifistic principles. I was employed by the National Freedman’s Relief Association in 1864. My good friend Olive Gilbert wrote a biography about me after I told her about all my memoirs. The biography was called //Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave//. William Lloyd Garrison helped by publishing the book. The biography helped me become more known so I could give more speeches, and it also helped me financially. Without Olive Gilbert I wouldn’t have gotten this far. I met Elijah Pierson, a religious reformer, at the Methodist Church I attended. He introduced me to his house which was sometimes called the “Kingdom.” Elijah encouraged me to preach, he is the one who got me started. "Sojourner Truth A Life and Legacy of Faith." //Sojourner Truth.org Home Page//. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. . "Sojourner Truth biography." //Lakewood// //Public Library (Lakewood, Ohio)//. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. .
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