Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"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)
Review
andldquo;In this lavishly illustrated and lucidly writtenand#160;volume, Grigsby trains her inimitable gaze on the photographic self-construction of Sojourner Truth, whose life history resonates as much today as it did for her nineteenth-century audiences. Grounding her study in meticulous archival research, Grigsby weaves a fascinating account of how Truthandrsquo;s circulation of her image in the form ofand#160;cartes deand#160;visiteand#160;not only supported her financially, but also represented an incisive intervention into national discourses around race, gender, copyright law, paper currency, and authorship during and after the Civil War. The result is a highly affecting book that at once reframes questions of black aesthetic agency and sets a new standard for what the art-historical monograph might be.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Grigsbyandrsquo;s marvelous explorationandmdash;a deep, wide, and beautiful inquiry into Sojourner Truthandrsquo;s use of technologyandmdash;features more of her photographs than have ever been collected before. Among its many insights, I especially relished the analysis of Truthandrsquo;s illiteracy. Enduring Truths is art history with a wide-ranging concept of history left in. A terrific book, and one weandrsquo;ve needed for a long time.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Grigsby convincingly demonstrates how Truthandrsquo;s shrewd engagement with the new medium of photography, in tandem with her deliberate efforts to secure legal and monetary control over her portraits, became a platform for the assertion of a former slaveandrsquo;s claims to personhood and self-possession.and#160;Enduring Truthsand#160;is a fundamental contribution to our ongoing efforts to disentangle the historical bonds between visuality, subjectivity, and slavery, and the jarring processes of the institutionandrsquo;s demise.andrdquo;
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
"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
Synopsis
A monumental biography of one of the most important black women of the nineteenth century.
Synopsis
Runaway slave Sojourner Truth gained fame in the nineteenth century as an abolitionist, feminist, and orator and earned a living partly by selling photographic carte de visite portraits of herself at lectures and by mail. Cartes de visite, similar in format to calling cards, were relatively inexpensive collectibles that quickly became a new mode of mass communication. Despite being illiterate, Truth copyrighted her photographs in her name and added the caption andldquo;I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance. Sojourner Truth.andrdquo;
Featuring the largest collection of Truthandrsquo;s photographs ever published,and#160;Enduring Truthsand#160;is the first book to explore how she used her image, the press, the postal service, and copyright laws to support her activism and herself. Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby establishes a range of important contexts for Truthandrsquo;s portraits, including the strategic role of photography and copyright for an illiterate former slave; the shared politics of Truthandrsquo;s cartes de visite and federal banknotes, which were both created to fund the Union cause; and the ways that photochemical limitations complicated the portrayal of different skin tones. Insightful and powerful,and#160;Enduring Truthsand#160;shows how Truth made her photographic portrait worth money in order to end slaveryandmdash;and also became the strategic author of her public self.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-343) and index.
About the Author
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.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Early Cartes de Visite1 Truth in Indiana (1861)
2 Truth as Libyan Sibyl
3 Truth in Michigan (1863)
Part II Shadows and Substance
4 Truthandrsquo;s Captioned Cartes de Visite (after 1864)
5 Shadows and Chemistry
Part III Texts and Circulating Paper
6 Truthandrsquo;s Illiteracy
7 Truthandrsquo;s Copyright
8 Money and the Civil War
Part IV Collecting and the Late Photographs
9 Album Politics
10 Truthandrsquo;s Last Portraits (1881andndash;82)
Notes
Indexand#160;