Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol

Sojourner Truth first gained prominence at an 1851 Akron, Ohio, women's rights conference, saying, "Dat man over dar say dat woman needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches. . . . Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles . . . and ar'n't I a woman?"

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 personality.

Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black 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 notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.

No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life.

"Painter takes on the difficult task of tracing the life of the woman best known for linking race and gender. With her famous speech, 'Ar'n't I a Woman?' Truth 'inserts blackness into feminism and gender into racial identity.' What Truth is best known for, however, is the conundrum of Painter's effort. As she convincingly shows, the moving words associated with Truth most likely were not spoken by her at all. They were probably the invention of a contemporary abolitionist-feminist, who penned them with an agenda of her own 12 years after the famous convention in 1851.Painter's biography then goes beyond the historical importance of Truth to encompass the myth that surrounds her. The words of a strong black woman allegedly thundering across the gathering in Akron silence dissent. Sojourner Truth defies containment within what can be historically proven about her. Ultimately, we prefer the symbol over the life because it gives us the woman as we would like her to have been." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

A monumental biography of one of the most important black women of the nineteenth century.

In a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black 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. Photos. "Booklist"'s Editors' Choice for 1996.

"An exquisitely detailed study of a brilliant and powerful life". — Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, San Francisco Chronicle

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist of the mid-nineteenth century, a figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher, and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became an early 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 personality.

Now in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black 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.

"Painter's portrait of Truth is a triumph of scholarly maturity, imagination, and narrative art". — Arnold Rampersad

"What Painter does as a first-rate historian is peel away the myths and legends so that we might get at a historical Sojourner Truth. . . . A judicious and balanced biography". — Gerard Early, Chicago Tribune

"A pathbreaking biography. It should command the widest popular attention and profound scholarly attention". — David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography of a Race

Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-343) and index.

Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Sojourner Truth, Southern History Across the Color Line, Creating Black Americans, The History of White People, and Standing at Armageddon. She is currently the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in Newark, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks.