American Stories of Faith: Sojourner Truth
I Peter 2:18-21 & Galatians 3: 23-29
Stories of America’s Faith: Sojourner Truth
Sunday July 11, 2010
Rev. Susan Cartmell
The Congregational Church of Needham
During July, we will listen to the life stories of different people in American history. Each week I have tried to choose an American whose faith informed their public and private life. These stories tell of men and women who were leaders in their own time, and whose stories are inspiring even today. Last week I talked about John Adams – the second President of the United States and one of the main framers of the US Constitution and authors of the Declaration of independence. Adams’ impact on our country is so profound that it is hard to calculate. After discussion a prominent founding father, today we will look at a slave who turned into a popular preacher and speaker – Sojourner Truth. Last week, I asked for suggestions of people that you looked up to and would like included in the series. The list of your suggestions I received includes Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Horace Bushnell a founder of the Sunday School movement, Clara Barton, first woman nurse,, Katherine Lee Bates composer of “America the Beautiful”, and Rosa Parks who appeared on several lists – the woman credited with starting the Civil Rights movement. The variety of names combined with your enthusiasm reminded me of the rich heritage of faithful people in this country. I want to research some of your suggestions because I am still thinking of ways to include them.
I chose Sojourner Truth today because when I read her story I came to see her as one of the bravest and most determined people of any race who ever lived. She was born a slave and sold four times as a girl and young adult. Somehow she transcended enormous adversity to become one of the most famous preachers and public speakers of the 1800’s. With her commanding presence, and prophetic message she called for the abolition of slavery, voting rights for women. She addressed controversial subjects with such inspiring words that she regularly brought large crowds of every race to their feet in applause. A modern prophet, Sojourner Truth earned the admiration of Presidents Lincoln and Grant. She stood 6 feet tall and people were drawn to her physical stature and her spiritual strength. With a kind of courage born of suffering and refined by faith, Sojourner Truth started her life very differently.
Isabella Baumfree was born in 1797 on an estate in a Dutch community 95 miles north of New York City. In the 1700’s the area from Poughkeepsie to what is now Albany was Dutch-speaking. Known as Belle, she grew up speaking Dutch and retained a Dutch accent all her life. (Anyone who gives her speeches with a Negro dialect is ill-informed about our history and the diversity of Black experience.) Belle was 9 when her master died and she was sold with a flock of sheep for $100. Belle spoke only Dutch and her new owners in Kingston, New York were English-speaking. So Belle was beaten often and at times severely for failing to understand what was said to her. It was during this abuse that she started to pray; on a visit from her father, she begged for a new home. At 11 she was sold to a tavern keeper for $105. There is evidence that she was sexually harassed there but physically it was better because the tavern keeper was kinder to her. At 13 she was sold again to her fourth master for $175. He was decent but his wife was cruel. When Belle was 18 she met a slave she loved. His owner forbad their relationship because any offspring would belong to Belle’s master. When the two were found together one night, Belle’s lover was beaten to death. She gave birth to a baby girl and then was forced to marry an older slave on her estate. Belle had four children, one fathered by her master.
In the early 1800’s New York State instituted the gradual abolition of slavery. All slaves were to be set free on July 4, 1827. Belle’s master had promised her early freedom if she continued to work hard. But as the time approached he changed his mind. Belle was furious. She continued working until she had done everything to satisfy her sense of obligation to him by spinning 100 pounds of wool. Late in 1826 she escaped with her infant daughter Sophia. She had to leave all her other children because the law did not free them until they had served into their 20’s. She later wrote, “I did not run off for I believed that to be wicked; but I walked off believing that to be all right.” Not knowing where to go, she prayed for guidance and found her way to the home of the Van Waggoners who took her in. when her master found her the Van Waggoners bought her from him for $20. It was a large sum, considering she had only 6 months before New York State’s Emancipation Act took effect. Belle learned that her 5-year old son Peter had been sold illegally to a plantation owner in Alabama. With the help of the Waggoners, Belle took the matter to court and after months of legal proceedings, her son was released to her. He had been badly abused by his new owner, but he returned to live with her. Sojourner Truth was the first black woman to go to court against a white man and win a case.
It was here at the Van Waggoners that Sojourner Truth had a life-changing religious experience. She went to church with them and became a devout Christian. They insisted that she call them by their Christian names; the combination of their nurture and her new faith helped her to grow in confidence. After her children were grown a bit, Belle took a job in New York City to work as a housekeeper for a Christian Evangelist. Her son Peter went on a whaling ship. He wrote faithfully, and then mysteriously disappeared. Belle never heard from him again.
But her life changed in 1843. She felt the Holy Spirit had come upon her in a new way. She was so transformed by this experience of God that she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She felt a call to start traveling and preaching at churches, and then as her reputation grew she spoke at abolition rallies and women’s rights’ gatherings. Sojourner Truth lived in several abolitionist communities. She joined 200 other in the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. They discussed politics and raised livestock, ran a grist mill, sawmill and silk factory. It was there Sojourner Truth met Fredrick Douglas, William Lloyd Garrison.
Sojourner Truth became a housekeeper for one of the Garrisons and he published her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. She owned a home in Northampton but continued to work as a servant. During the Civil War she helped recruit Blacks troops to the Union Army. Her grandson enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. She met with Abraham Lincoln and appreciated the way that he seemed to respect her as much as anyone in the room. She rode the streetcars in Washington to help force desegregation, and joined the Abolitionists Speakers Bureau and lived with the Underground Railroad leader – Amy Post. She knew Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Wendall Phillips, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In her later years she moved to Michigan but travelled continuously to speaking engagements. She met with President Ulysses S. Grant in the White House, and then returned to Michigan to try to vote in the presidential election. She was turned away.
Perhaps best known for her speeches, the story of her most famous speech was delivered at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron Ohio. Sojourner Truth rose to her full 6 feet and said, “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me the best place, and ain’t I a woman? I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns and no man could head 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 borne children and lost some, and cried out my mother’s grief and none but Jesus heard me, - and ain’t I a woman?
How did this woman with so little achieve so much in her lifetime? How did this pauper find herself in the company of Presidents and national leaders? How did this woman slave who had struggled to maintain family ties and yet lost so many loved ones become like a mother to the nation? How did she suffer so much abuse and steadfastly refuse to become a victim but went on to become a modern prophet who could command the respect of thousands and hold them spellbound with her words?
The story of Sojourner Truth reminds us of two things.
1. Faith can change your life. Faith in God may never change your world completely, but it will transform the way you feel about yourself. It can change how you hold your head. Sojourner Truth came into the world with nothing; yet she had a charisma that made people flock to hear her. She claimed a gift no one could take away - her dignity. A servant all her life, she recognized that God loved her and needed her voice. So people felt her strength and recognized her wisdom. Through faith, she found freedom, a life purpose, and her place in the world.
2. You never know the impact of your kindness. When the Van Waggoners took in a runaway slave their faith told them to, but like most of us they never imagined what a difference it could make. Today we read two different views about slavery in the Bible. Many people believed the Bible sanctioned slavery. But other thought God was vehemently against it. As a child Sojourner Truth grew up believing she was a monkey – not a human. The Van Waggoners gave her the gift of freedom but they also helped her claim the gift of her humanity. They changed her life forever. None of us ever knows who will be knocking at our door. None of us can imagine who might need us to believe in them. Most of us live our lives assuming we have not done very much. But who knows – each time someone knocks on our door, we may be offered the chance to change the world.