Sojourner Truth.

In recognition of Juneteenth, I want to share the story of a remarkable woman – Sojourner Truth (1797-1887), a runaway enslaved person, an abolitionist, suffragist, preacher, and social reformer. Sojourner caught the attention of many political leaders, and even President Abraham Lincoln was one of her admirers.

Slave.

Sojourner Truth, or Isabella, was born into slavery and remembered hearing her mother cry long into the night as she mourned the loss of her children sold and taken away from her. Isabella’s mother reminded her remaining children, “Oh my children, there is a God who hears and sees you. He lives in the sky, and when you are beaten or cruelly treated or fall into any trouble, you must ask Him to help because he always hears you.”

Isabella was sold, taken from her parents, and “married” to an enslaved person on her plantation at 17. After giving birth to five children, Isabella decided to run away, convinced that God affirmed freedom for the slave. A Quaker couple hired Sojourner as a house servant, and, for the first time, she earned money for her labor.

She changed her name from Isabella to Sojourner Truth, explaining, “My name was Isabella, but when I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I wasn’t goin’ to keep nothin’ of Egypt on me, and so I went to the Lord and asked him to give me a new name. And the Lord gave me Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land, showin’ the people their sins, and being a sign unto them. Afterward, I told the Lord I wanted another name ’cause everybody else had two.”