Knowra Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and women’s rights activist who escaped slavery and became a prominent speaker for emancipation and equality.
Frederick Douglass : Frederick Douglass was an American abolitionist, writer, and orator who escaped slavery and campaigned against it. Their competing views on women’s suffrage surfaced at the 1867 American Equal Rights Association meeting.
Ulster County, New York : Ulster County is a county in New York’s Hudson Valley, historically shaped by Dutch settlement and slavery. Truth was born enslaved in this county around 1797.
Itinerant preaching : Itinerant preaching is religious or political speech delivered by traveling speakers across multiple communities. Truth traveled widely, drawing on preaching traditions to address antislavery and reform audiences.
Women's rights movement : The women’s rights movement campaigns for women’s legal, political, and social equality. Truth became a prominent speaker in its nineteenth-century campaigns for suffrage and equal rights.
Sojourner Truth's carte de visite photographs : Sojourner Truth’s carte de visite photographs were small portrait cards she sold to support her activism. Truth used her own likeness and the caption “I sell the shadow to support the substance” to fund her work.
William Lloyd Garrison : William Lloyd Garrison was an American abolitionist who founded the antislavery newspaper The Liberator. He helped Truth enter antislavery lecture circuits and introduced her to abolitionist audiences.
New York slavery : New York slavery was the system of hereditary bondage that persisted in the colony and state until gradual emancipation was completed in 1827. Truth’s enslavement unfolded under New York’s gradual-emancipation system.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth : The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is the 1850 autobiography dictated by Truth and published by Olive Gilbert. The book circulated her life story and helped finance her speaking work.
National Women's Rights Convention of 1851 : The National Women’s Rights Convention of 1851 was a gathering in Worcester, Massachusetts, advocating women’s equality. Truth addressed the convention, linking women’s rights claims to abolition.
Ain't I a Woman? speech versions : The surviving versions of Truth’s 1851 Akron speech differ in wording, dialect, and emphasis. Their differences show how editors shaped the speech’s later public memory.
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