Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol
By Nell Irwin Painter
Why this book?
In the photograph chosen for the cover of this book, Sojourner Truth’s simple but elegant dress, white shawl, and close-fitting headdress, the knitting needles in her hands, and the ball of yarn on her lap tell a story quite different from the one told by the direct gaze of her bespeckled eyes. Isabella, the slave born in Ulster County, New York in the late 1790s and whose first words were in Dutch, walked away from the abuses of slavery in 1826, learned to speak English, and in 1843, became Sojourner Truth, the preacher, orator, abolitionist, and feminist who travelled the nation. Painter’s well-researched and well-told biography brings together the whole story of this self-defined, indomitable, inspirational woman.
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