Narrative of Sojourner Truth

From Imani Perry's Introduction toNarrative of Sojourner Truth The reader of theNarrativeshould remember that in many ways it is a biography rather than an autobiography. TheNarrativewas written by Olive Gilbert, sitting at Truth's proverbial knee, and treats Truth's life from her birth until her forties. Gilbert was a woman Truth met while a member of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (18431846), a progressive intentional community in Northampton, Massachusetts. Intentional communities were comprised of people who chose to live cooperatively, according to shared ideals that were often rooted in a set of theological or philosophical beliefs. The members of the Northampton Association operated a collectively owned silk mill and believed in equal rights for women and African Americans; they were advocates of abolition. TheNarrativewas first published in 1850 at Truth's own expense and predated her celebrity as an abolitionist, although she had delivered her first antislavery lecture six years earlier. While theNarrativespeaks little of her abolitionism, it reveals much of her life's mission. Sojourner Truth first and foremost was a woman who lived an evangelical life. It is through her vision of Godly purpose that she came, later in life, to abolitionism. Indeed, one of her most famous, and well verified, comments was one in which religion dramatically dovetailed with abolitionism. At an antislavery meeting in Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, Truth listened to Frederick Douglass, who, despondent at the persistence and growth of antebellum slavery, advocated taking up arms in defense of the enslaved. Truth's poignant response to his fervor was, "Frederick, is God dead?"thus silencing the brilliant and famous abolitionist with her pious conviction. Sojourner Truth was unlettered, while Douglass was learned. She was a northerner, while Douglass was a Maryland native. This contrast was symbolic of Truth's life. HerNarrative, a tale of New York slavery, lay outside the mainstream of slave narratives. Until she moved to New York City, she had never lived in a black community. Her native tongue was Dutch. But Truth's testimony of northern slavery in herNarrative, which revealed slavery as a national legacy and problem, was dramatically verified by the passage of a stricter Fugitive Slave Law in the same year as the book's publication. The Fugitive Slave Law dictated that those suspected of being runaway slaves could be arrested without a warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than the sworn testimony of the owner. A person suspected of being a slave could neither ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her own behalf. Federal marshals who did not arrest an alleged runaway could be fined $1,000. The law not only endangered the formerly enslaved, but all black people. Moreover, the law discouraged those who might assist runaways by providing that any person aiding a runaway in any manner was subject to six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. And one who captured a fugitive slave was entitled to a fee, thereby encouraging the kidnapping of free blacks for sale to slave traders. The law signaled a move toward the nationalization of slavery. This was ironic, given that most northern states had either already begun the process of emancipation or formally abolished slavery two generations prior. Nevertheless, the political power wielded by the South protected the peculiar institution and extended its power around the nation. Truth'sNarrativethus emerges at the precipice of transformations that would lead to the Civil War. As she developed as an abolitionist, the nation careened toward dissolution. In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled inTruth, Sojourner is the author of 'Narrative of Sojourner Truth ', published 2005 under ISBN 9781593082932 and ISBN 1593082932.