Sojourner Truth Essay, Research Paper

Kelsey Cruickshank March 13,

2000

Book report #3 English

?Sojourner Truth, Fearless Crusader,? by Helen Stone Peterson. The

book had two hundred and ninety four pages. I chose this book because

people overlook this woman when thinking about African Americans

who have spread positive ideas.

The main character is Isabella, who later renamed herself Sojourner

Truth. The book begins while she is only nine years old. In the

beginning she is a naive and scared little girl, but as the book

progresses, she becomes a strong and opinionated woman. The other

characters are the people who help her throughout her life, and those

that try and hinder her.

The book is about Sojourner Truth, and the struggles she faced

throughout her life due to her race. It begins with her as a nine year old

girl who is frightened about being seperated from her family, and being

sold to a new family. By the time she is thirteen she had been sold five

times. Shortly after July 4, 1827, Sojourner escaped her former owner,

to begin a life of her own, as a free woman. At the time she was twenty

nine. By leaving her owner, she left her children. To get them back, she

placed a formal complaint with a local courthouse, in Kingston, NY.

The court appealed in her favor, allowing her her son. In 1829, she and

her two children moved to New York City, so that her son and daughter

could have an education. She lived there for three years. In the

beginning of her fourth year, a religious man invited her present

employer to come to his communal country estate, so as to worship God.

While there, Sojourner?s employer died, and she was blamed for his

death. To prove that she was innocent, she went to former employers,

getting letters that praised her highly. Due to this slander of her name,

she took her complaint to court, where in a white jury, she was

pronounced not guilty, and awarded a small sum of money. Shortly

after this, her son Peter presumably died. Feeling guilty that his

childhood only consisted of beatings, Sojourner traveled around New

York, New England and Massachusetts, helping people and spreading

God?s word. In 1850, a book was published about Sojourner?s life. She

was fifty three at the time. She would later attend antislavery meetings,

telling people about her life, and sing the songs her mother taught her.

After an antislavery/woman?s right meeting in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner

then became a fighter for women?s rights. On Thanksgiving in 1862,

Sojourner and her family brought dinner to black soldiers training near

Detroit. At the age of sixty seven, she met with Abraham Lincoln. After

Lincoln?s assassination, she met with President Johnson, and shortly

after, changed laws in Washington that forced streetcar conductors to

stop for black passengers. Sojourner Truth died in 1883 of a fatal

illness.

This book is an incredible relay of what African Americans had to face

before the Civil War, and even what they continue to face now. After

reading this book I came away with an immense knowledge of the

history of NY, as well as the history of a woman who helped pave the

way for abolitionists, and women?s rights movements.

I though this book was interesting, as well as informative. Although the

mood of the book was sometimes a little depressing, the characterization

was good, and the imagery was interesting, as was the symbolism. These

literary techniques helped to enhance the picture of what the people had

to live through. All in all, I really enjoyed reading it.