Read Part One HERE
In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883.
In 1827, Sojourner became a Christian and participated in the founding of the Methodist Church on Kingston, New York.In 1829, she moved to New York City and joined the John Street Methodist Church (Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church), which allowed her to meet and speak with many Black community leaders. She continued to explore her new religious calling and learned more about the abolitionist movement. She also found new causes to champion, including temperance and women's rights.She took up teaching and preaching in New York's poorest neighbourhoods boldly going places other women activists feared to visit.
For the next eleven years, Sojourner worked as a domestic servant before undergoing a second spiritual transformation. She believed God was calling her to travel and preach about the causes she believed in. To mark the start of this new chapter in her life, she began to use the name who know her so well by: Sojourner Truth.
Sojourner travelled throughout the Northeast, telling her story and working to convince people to end slavery and support women's rights. She had little money, so she often walked from place to place and sometimes slept outdoors. She met abolitionist leaders Like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and David Ruggles along the way. She never shied away from challenging these celebrities in public when she disagreed with them. Sojourner's lack of education and her Dutch accent made her something of an outsider, but the power of her words and her conviction impressed all those around her.
Read Part Fifty-Nine HERE
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