Sojourner Truth, Abolition, Women's Rights

Personal Statement:
Hi, my name is Sojourner Truth. I was born an African American slave near Kingston, New York in 1797. Because I am African American as well as a former slave, I never got a full or proper education. Since I never learned how to read or write, instead I had people read to me. Being a Christian women, I enjoyed having people read the Bible to me. Unlike other people born in America, I did not grow up learning English. Instead, my first language was Dutch and later in life I was taught English. Growing up as an African American women and slave, you could probably start to see the issues I started to have with society. As I got older I realized that abolishing slavery and bringing equality among men and women was what I truly wanted to accomplish. Through my many attempts, I got the reform recognized and got many women to join along in protests and marches to achieve women's rights. Also through many speeches I not only got people to recognize women's rights, but also had people realize that slavery needed to be abolished. When the Underground Railroad was created, I was a contributor in helping African American slaves escape on it. I then moved to Washington, D.C. for three years and Joined the Freedmen's Bureau, which was created to help African Americans adjust to and protect their new freedoms given to them. I also participated in multiple protests on segregation, especially when it came to old laws that kept African Americans from riding streetcars.

Issues:
As stated before, I really strove to abolish slavery and gain women's rights. I believed that women could do the same things men could, including being able to work like men, eat like men, vote, and hold office. Since African American men got the opportunity to vote after the civil war and nothing was done about African American women also getting the right to vote, I felt that something should be done about that. I also believed that just because we are women doesn't mean that were not as smart and capable as men. I would state that "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again. And now that they are asking to do it the men better let them." On the issue of slavery I believed that slave owners should truly feel guilty and sorry for ever having slaves because while God will repay the hardworking slave class, he will forever punish the slaveholder class. And just like God made white peoples skin white, God made African American’s skin black, so why should African Americans be punished for being given the skin color they did by the same god as the white people. You see I believe myself to be a very Christian women so I would talk to God in a lot of my days. I found this to give me the strength I needed to escape from my slaveholder and to freedom. One day I was struck with a vision from God that made me truly feel baptized by the Holy spirit. This then made me strive to want to end the oppression and injustices in America.

Solution:
In order to solve these injustices and oppression's, I traveled as a public speaker, brought different cases to court, marched, preformed sit-ins, made petitions to congress, met with president Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, tried to vote in the 1872 election, and brought the idea of reform to the white, educated, middle class women. In my belief, I was successful in spreading the word about the abolition of slavery and women's rights. I have heard that I was a very influential speaker on those two topics which in turn caused a lot of people to side with me on these issues. Getting more and more people on my side helped get the country to notice what needed to be done. In many of my speeches, I gained support by preaching on how cruel slavery could be for the African Americans. Although no specific law was formed because of me, I did make a huge contribution to both abolishing slavery and gaining equality among men and women which I happen to be extremely proud of. What made fixing the injustices of America difficult was one, the fact that men were still dominant in society and that made it hard to push forth with women's rights. Many men were against women's rights because they didn't find them as equals. They looked at us as not being capable of doing the same things they could and especially not being smart enough. Me being an African American women also set me back a little. Some white women didn't want to protest with me because she was I was an African American, former slave. When pushing for rights for women people would often think that I would only try and push for African American women rights. Although I did push for African American women rights, I also was on the white women's side and tried to bring equality to all women no matter what their race.

Relationship to Others:
I would feel most comfortable sitting next to anyone who was generally for Woman's rights or was against slavery like for instance Frederick Douglass who was against slavery, seeing as though he was African American as well. On the other side I would feel uncomfortable sitting next to any person who tried to oppress women's rights, or keep slavery circulating.