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Barbara's Scripts Every now and then a truly great being walks the planet. A being of light; a being who shows us what a human being can be. Such a person was Sojourner Truth, a remarkable woman known for her wit, her unshakable faith in God, her songs, her great common sense, and her outstanding deeds. Unfortunately, she is not well known because she was black, a woman, illiterate, and a slave for the first thirty or more years of her life. She was born in upper state New York and given the name Isabelle. As a child, she was sold several times, but ended up on the Dumont farm remaining there until as a grown woman and the mother of five, she escaped with her baby daughter to a Quaker family who took her in as a free woman. She left her other four children behind with their father, Mater Dumont. The Quaker family showed her a kindness that she had never experienced with white people. They introduced her to Christianity and allowed her to live with them as paid help. Later they got her a better paying job with a wealthy family in New York City. By this time, all the slaves in New York had been freed, but Sojourner’s children were still in servitude on their father’s estate. One day as Isabelle was scrubbing the kitchen floor, she had a spiritual experience that changed the course of her life. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth, quit her job, and took to the roads as an itinerant preacher. Even though she couldn’t read or write, she had extraordinary intelligence and oratory skills. She preached along side white ministers in tent revivals to mainly white congregations, and she was always the one everyone sought out afterwards. As she preached, she became deeply concerned about the plight of the poor Southern black, still in bondage. Once she became a spokesperson for the abolitionist movement, she became a target of threats and persecution. However, no matter what was done to her, she always returned love. She wept bitterly when the Civil War broke out, but then went to work serving in the Union prison camps and hospitals, where she gave nothing but love to those soldiers who had fought to keep the people of her race in slavery. After the war, at Lincoln’s request, she worked in DC in the Freedmen’s Camps to help the displaced slaves who fled to Washington during and after the War. After she had served there, she went on to work for the rights of newly liberated blacks all over the country, women’s suffrage, the humane treatment of prisoners, and the poor. This simple woman was sought after by presidents, authors, politicians, and leaders of her day. THE LIBYAN SIBYL chronicles this remarkable life from age five until her death in 1883.
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