“Ar’nt I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth and the Abolitionist Movement | BRIdge from the Past

0:00 Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past art Across US history. I’m your host, Mary, and this series is for students like you to get ahead in your US. History class by using art as a starting point to think about big and often complicated topics. This fall, we’ve been looking at images that connect to founding principles of liberty and equality.

0:24 Today. Today we’re looking at an image of Sojourner Truth, born into slavery in New York, she dedicated her life to abolition and equal rights for women and men. How can we use her image to think about African American women in the abolitionist movement? Let’s jump in and see.

0:44 Here is our image. And we’re using this image to think about African American women in the abolitionist movement. So this image has a title, a. Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln showing Sojourner Truth the Bible presented by colored people of Baltimore. Executive Mansion Washington, DC. October 29, 1864. So a couple of things immediately jump out to me.

1:07 I see Abraham Lincoln. And I can see Lincoln’s face here. He’s very recognizable. This is Sojourner Truth. I’ve seen pictures of Sojourner Truth in many history textbooks, and she’s pretty recognizable as well. And they are looking at a Bible here on the desk. And it looks like Sojourner Truth is gesturing to it. It looks like Abraham Lincoln might be turning a page.

1:30 I can see that this Bible was presented by the colored people of Baltimore. So colored people is a term that we don’t use in the present day, but it was common at the time to refer to African Americans. And I can see that they’re at the executive mansion. So the executive mansion is the White House. So right away, I have a few questions.

1:51 So why is the journal truth at the White House? Did Lincoln invite her there? She must have been pretty well known to get an invite to the White House. That’s something that most people don’t get to do during their lifetime. I can see from the date here this is really nearing the end of the Civil War. Does that have anything to do with why to join our Truth is with Abraham Lincoln?

2:15 So I have an image here as a starting point. I have some initial questions. I think I need a little bit more context before I can understand and go back to our questions. So here are a few things that need to know before we can really dive into this idea of Sojourner Truth in African American

2:37 women in the abolitionist movement, this movement to end slavery. So Sojourner Truth was born enslaved, and her name at birth is Isabella. And she was born and enslaved in Ulster County, New York. So this is really interesting to me because I can see here she’s born after the American Revolution.

2:58 So she’s born in the United States as a new country, and she’s enslaved in New York. So that, right off the bat, shows me that slavery was not just happening in the south. New York is definitely not the south. And I can also see that she was bought and sold several times before running away with one of her infant children. So this, again, is remarkable.

3:19 To run away the danger of what that entails, the bravery to make that choice, to run your own freedom, is something I don’t think we as 21st century people can really fathom. But to do it with one of your infant children just makes it all the more remarkable. So right from this, I can tell that she’s

3:40 really a remarkable woman and a brave woman. And to to have gone through this, I think, is something that, again, shows her her bravery. So in 1843, she adopts the name Sojourner Truth, and she becomes a traveling evangelist. So faith and religion are extremely important to her, and she briefly lives in a utopian community.

4:01 So, utopian communities were an interesting aspect of American life before the Civil War. These are communities that really believed in reform and changing things and ending slavery and having equal rights for women. And by living in this utopian community, she comes in contact with other famous reformers, such as Frederick Douglass

4:23 and William Lloyd Garrison, who actually visit her community. And through these connections, she becomes invited to speak at public events. And in 1851, she delivers her famous Ar’nt I or Ain’t I a woman speech at a convention in Akron, Ohio. So this speech is, again, it’s something that you usually see in your history classroom.

4:43 What’s really interesting about this speech is that there are no transcripts of what she said. Everything comes from other people secondhand after the fact. So what she actually said and how she said it is unknown, which is really interesting if you think about how we always see this speech. She herself was illiterate.

5:05 She didn’t write down what she said. So everything is this actually what she said? Is it close to what she said? That’s a question that historians like us have to grapple with. But I want to read you just a small piece of what she said at this speech because it’s so powerful. Look at me. Look at my arm. And then, according to this transcription, which is twelve years after she gave

5:27 the actual speech, it says that she showed them her muscles. I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could heed me. And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it, and bear the lash as well. And ain’t I a woman? I have born 13 children and seen most all of them sold off to slavery.

5:49 And when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me and ain’t I woman? Incredibly powerful, right of what she’s endured in the system of slavery. To say nothing about 13 children and having your children sold from you. And again, which would have been violation of New York law at the time,

6:11 but it was still happening, I think, is incredibly powerful. And this speech really brings her to the forefront of this abolitionist movement. But that’s not where her story ends. During the Civil War, she advocated for food and clothing for black Union soldiers and plead the cause of freed slaves or contraband slaves that ran away from the south and took refuge in Washington, DC.

6:33 Or other areas occupied by the Union. They ran for their freedom, and they didn’t have food or appropriate housing. So things were dirty and messy, and disease was rampant, and they needed help, and she was championing their causes. And even after the war, she’s still fighting for the African American community, saying, we need land. We need to be self sufficient. You can’t just give us our freedom and then leave.

6:55 So her story is really a lifelong commitment to these principles of liberty, inequality. And because of this, she is invited to meet Abraham Lincoln in the White House. And this is an artist’s rendering of this meeting. And again, it was done in 1893.

7:16 So it’s almost 30 years after the meeting took place in 1893, both Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln have passed away. So is this what it actually looked like? We don’t know. Did they talk about this? It’s likely, because, as I said, faith was an incredibly important part of the journey truth life and abolitionist movement at large.

7:41 So the fact that they have a Bible in there is probably in lip service to that. And another edition of her speech, the Ain’t I a Woman speech, she references the Bible, and she says, I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the Bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin while women upset the world.

8:03 Do give her a chance to set it up right again. So I think her appeal is like she she knew firsthand what these the horrors of slavery were, and she also experienced it as a woman and as certain things that a woman can experience, like having a child. And having that child taken from me was incredibly moving and incredibly powerful.

8:26 And I think it shows that this is a real movement. It wasn’t any one man or woman, but lots of people whose voices brought this stain of slavery and what it means to the attention of people throughout the United States. We started by asking what an image can reveal about the role of African American women in the abolitionist movement.

8:49 We learned that slavery is not only confined to the south, we learned about the remarkable story of Sojourner Truth woman, whose support of abolition in the African American community continued until her very dying day. But as always, there is so much more to the story. And now I’m going to turn it over to you. What do you want to know more about?

9:10 What’s the next question in our discussion? Let us know in the comments section below. Be sure to like this video. Subscribe to our channel and you’ll be in the know about other videos, contests and resources to help you through the school year. I’ll be back soon with another image to help us think about the complex and layered stories that make up US history. Until then, everybody take care.