Records show she was age 86, yet her memorial tombstone states she was 105. Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author, born into slavery before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all. She became known for a speech with the famous refrain, “Ain’t I aWoman?”that she was said to have delivered at a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851, although accounts of that speech (and whether Truth ever used that refrain) have since been challenged by historians. Truth continued her crusade throughout her adult life, earning an audience with President Abraham Lincoln and becoming one of the world’s best known human rights crusaders. Sojourner Truth left behind a legacy of courage, faith and fighting for what’s right and honorable, but she also left a legacy of words and songs, including her autobiography, “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” which she dictated in 1850 to Olive Gilbert since she never learned to read or write.Perhaps Truth’s life of Christianity and fighting for equality is best summed up by her own words in 1863: “Children, who made your skin white? Was it not God? Who made mine Black? Was it not the same God? Am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is Black? …. Does not God love colored children as well as white children? And did not the same Savior die to save the one as well as the other?”
