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She’d been sold off many times – once for as little as $100 and a flock of sheep. But she always knew her life was worth much more.
So Sojourner Truth freed herself and her daughter, walking away from enslavement in broad daylight, and committed herself to an audacious life.
One thing about her: she never minced words, and she always stood up for Black women. When she wasn’t invited to a Women’s Rights Convention in Ohio, Truth showed up anyway.
But she wasn’t the only one to show up unannounced.
A group of ministers invaded the convention, arguing that women were meant only for childbearing, homemaking, and subservience!
Truth listened as they preached patriarchy from the pulpit, but she didn’t come to play. She didn’t just show up. She SPOKE up.
She rose, and her now-famous speech ensued: “Ain’t I a Woman?” Some historians report that Truth’s speech used this phrase to protest the way Black women are often ignored by both white feminism AND sexism – a double erasure that continues today.
Others say her speech didn’t include the famous phrase at all. Regardless of her exact words, it’s a fact that Sojourner was spilling truths about intersectionality from the start.
Despite the inconsistencies in her legend, Sojourner Truth was a woman who spoke and knew the truth: there is no Black liberation without the liberation of Black women!