Read Part One HERE
In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883. Around 1815, Sojourner met and fell in love with an enslaved man from a neighbouring farm. Robert's owner forbade their relationship; he did not want the people he enslaved to have children with people he was not enslaving, because he would not own their children. One day Robert sneaked over to see Sojourner. When his owner found him, he was severly beaten. Truth never saw Robert again after that day and he died a few years later. The experience haunted Sojourner throughout her life. She eventually married a older enslaved man named Thomas. She bore five children: James, her firstborn, who died in childbirth, Diana (1815), the result of a rape by John Dumont, and Peter (1821), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophie (ca. 1826), all born after she and Thomas united.
In 1799, the State of New York began to legislate the abolition of slavery, although the process of emancipation of those people enslaved in New York did not complete until July 1827. John Dumont had promised to grant Truth her freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he changed his mind, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated but continued working, spinning 100 lbs (45 kg) of wool, to satisfy her sense of obligation to him.
Read Part Fifty-Seven HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment