Buy new:
-25% $14.30
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$14.30 with 25 percent savings
List Price: $18.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 12 hrs 32 mins
In Stock
$$14.30 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.30
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$8.47
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Nice clean copy with no highlighting or writing. We take pride in our accurate descriptions. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Nice clean copy with no highlighting or writing. We take pride in our accurate descriptions. Satisfaction Guaranteed. See less
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 12 hrs 32 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$14.30 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$14.30
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Nell Irvin Painter
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol Paperback – October 17, 1997

by Nell Irvin Painter (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 199 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$14.30","priceAmount":14.30,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"14","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"30","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"8UsPmg4icVznoRZw%2Bs%2Fqs07BPFVWJN%2FlFA1bbzUQP%2BJkdNdS3h7%2BloWevXHIK95FwUf%2FuA%2FGH31CqJStJc2KJ1j6goXMnzaT7rE4NLQV3MPHlmvc21CExBwFnpYjLal%2BuCHaBi8roKs%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.47","priceAmount":8.47,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"47","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"8UsPmg4icVznoRZw%2Bs%2Fqs07BPFVWJN%2FlJC09b6zK%2FnfSsO%2F2aUoickK8Y1cFnEWqHm0gDIrd2rSMPy283RwtqUVy8n%2BkUsdsciKrI%2FWmLRxqGuaVdYepOO2Ueah1Ltr%2FbrJcGYubFMotIlodZ8hhTGHh9w9xTEPBorvnJKNWUo%2BPHhXq6x9PBvRqwDOblK6T","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A monumental biography of one of the most important black women of the nineteenth century.

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women―indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality.

Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.

No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life.

Photographs
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    October 17, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    5.6 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393317080
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393317084
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol
$14.30
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America (A Samuel and Althea Stroum Book)
$24.35
Get it May 17 - 24
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by Happy Trade Store.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A pathbreaking biography. It should command the widest popular attention and profound scholarly attention. -- David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography of a Race

An exquisitely detailed study of a brilliant and powerful life. -- Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, San Francisco Chronicle

Painter's portrait of Truth is a triumph of scholarly maturity, imagination, and narrative art. -- Arnold Rampersad

What Painter does as a first-rate historian is peel away the myths and legends so that we might get at a historical Sojourner Truth. . . . A judicious and balanced biography. -- Gerard Early, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Standing at Armageddon and The History of White People. She is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in East Orange, New Jersey, and the Adirondacks.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (October 17, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393317080
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393317084
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 199 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Nell Irvin Painter

Nell Irvin Painter

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author of many books, including Sojourner Truth, Southern History Across the Color Line, Creating Black Americans, The History of White People, and Standing at Armageddon. She is currently the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University and lives in Newark, New Jersey.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
199 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Katherine Spada Basto
5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive View of a Long and Amazing Life!
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
This was an outstanding book that thoroughly covered the long life of Sojourner Truth. Part academic chronicle, part narrative, the author dispels many of the myths regarding the legend we know as Sojourner Truth. Nell Irwin Painter tries to portray her in an honest fashion.
Who was Sojourner Truth? Born a northern slave in Ulster Co, New York to Dutch slave owners, Painter takes us on the roller coaster life of Truth. Sold and then finally free, Isabella(her given name) began her search for the truth through many different spiritual experiences and many moves in her lifetime. She was not without her scars of course; losing her family of origin early on, losing her son, regaining him only to lose him again would have broken anyone down. Not Sojourner, who kept searching, going forth and making a difference during this tumultuous time in our history.
She dabbled in Spiritualism, became involved with the Cult of Brother Matthias, and received her gifts from "The Holy Spirit" telling her to "Go East."
Sojourner seemed to experience and was involved with all the important people of her day; the abolitionists, the suffragettes, so called "prophets" and made a difference with her eloquence and stately presence.
It's clear as Painter writes that however academic one can try to be regarding Sojourner, we as a people tend to want to see her as a legend, a myth that's larger in proportion than perhaps the truth indicates. Painter comes to peace with this at the end of the book. Regardless of the fact Sojourner never said, "Arn't I a Woman?" the book blends the true and the false and was extremely well-written.
11 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
DMCWriter
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book was an excellent account on the life of Sojourner Truth. I remember reading her speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in school, not realizing that, as I discovered in this book, her words had not only been changed but possibly fabricated. Still, as the author points out, we need Truth — the symbol, the Libyan Sybil — as a representation of not only a strong black woman who pulled herself out of slavery and survived independent of government assistance, but as a strong woman fighting oppression and speaking out against injustice. Her cry “Frederick, is God dead?” sent a shockwave through the crowd then and still does today in Truth’s call for spiritual fortitude. I am grateful I read this book. I learned a lot about Sojourner Truth and her marvelous life. She was often misquoted and writers got a lot wrong about her, but what we got right ensures her place in history and keeps her as an historical figure we should continue to teach our children about in schools.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
A. M. Fasick
5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the truth about Sojourner Truth
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
This biography was an eye-opener for me. Painter gives a vivid picture of what life must have been like for a Black woman during the early 19th century. Sojourner Truth was was born a slave in upstate NY, but was only about 30 years old when slavery was abolished in the state. She didn't really have to escape from slavery, she just walked off the estate where she had been enslaved. Her former owner knew where she was and the two were fairly friendly for several years. She became devoutly religious and most of her abolition and women's rights' work was done in the context of religion. But her story was always told by white women, who shaped her narrative to suit their purposes--giving her a Southern accent and implying that she had escaped heroically from a plantation. No one recorded her private life, and her children never became part of the group that fawned over Sojourner. They disappeared from history and apparently died in poverty as her husband did. Because she remained illiterate all her life, she left no record of what she thought or believed. We never see the world through her eyes. Painter has done a remaarkable service by rescuing her from the myth that her life eventually became.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
C. Medine
4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Biography
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is not my favorite biography of Sojourner Truth. Painter has some issues with Truth's being uneducated and kind of a rural figure that white nineteenth century thinkers could accept--in contrast to, say, Maria Stewart. But, the idea that Truth was a symbol is exactly right: she was a figure who was so needed for the anti-slavery and feminist movements: plain-spoken. I enjoyed the book
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Steven D. Livengood
5.0 out of 5 stars Reality and symbol
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2009
Verified Purchase
Painter makes unique recognition of the fact that Sojourner Truth was a self-created identity, and approaches her story through many layers: what do we know? We cannot know as much about Sojourner Truth as we can about other historic figures because Sojourner herself was illiterate. A unique figure -- an orator of historic power, but unable to write or in other ways preserve her own words. All that we can know is what other people wrote or quoted. Yet the written sources disagree: they quote her in black dialect that witnesses say she did not use! People hailed her as a uniquely talented African-born slave, when in fact she was born in New York speaking Dutch as her first language. She lived among African Americans only for short periods late in her life. Her own posed and widely-distributed photographs show only her black skin to differentiate her from any other middle-class matron.

So what is truth? Who is Truth? Is this person Isabella Van Wagenen, or is she really the myth she created. Painter recognizes these layers and sorts out Truth from myth and truth from reality, without concluding that one is more important than the other. Very well done.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Zora
5.0 out of 5 stars Sojourner Truth
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2012
Verified Purchase
I'm glad that I picked this biography between another of Nell Irvin Painters biography of Sojourner Truth. Painter has certainly done her history and research on Sojourner to create this wonderful insightful biography. I am also reading Harriet Tubman's biography and am finding similarities between her biography and Sojourners since they are both portrayed as masculine and take action as apart of fighting a cause. Both were poor but have become iconic figures within American history. This is a great enlightening read about Sojourner shedding light on relatively unknown aspects of her life and that of her children. Great historical read very insightful for anyone interested in such an iconic figure. Definitely read if you are interested, and its at a great low price.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
andon petrossians fred
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in France on April 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
Une autrice super intelligente qui sait comment expliquer un parcours exceptionel
Report
Deborah
5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Contribution
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
Nell Irvin Painter's dedication to bringing Sojourner Truth to life rings clear on every page. It is also worth watching her interview in which she discusses the book, as that is engrossing too. Beautiful writing and a valuable addition on the bookshelf of anyone interested in this period of history.
One person found this helpful
 Report