Born into slavery, Sojourner Truth escaped to freedom in 1827 and became a powerful orator against slavery and for women's rights, advocating for racial and gender equality across the North before 1865.
Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in New York to enslaved parents. After suffering abuse and losing her children to slavery, she escaped in 1827 with her infant daughter, eventually gaining freedom through a legal battle that returned one of her sons. She became a devout Christian and adopted the name Sojourner Truth in 1843. She traveled extensively as an abolitionist, speaking alongside figures like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass (though Douglass is excluded from this list). She was also a key figure in the early women's rights movement, delivering her famous 'Ain't I a Woman?' speech in 1851. She served as a recruiter for the Union Army during the Civil War and worked with the National Freedmen's Relief Association.
