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 ...but her mother endowed her with a deep, unwavering Christian faith that carried her through these trials for her entire life. (Stephanie Tolliver, Sojourner Truth, http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/trut-soj.htm)
In 1843, Isabella had a spiritual revelation that changed her life forever. In that revelation, God called her to walk through the land and boldly proclaim the truth. She adopted the name Sojourner Truth to represent call God had given her. Equipped with new dress and 25 cents in her pocket, she left New York and walked through Long Island and Connecticut, preaching “God’s truth and plan for salvation.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe (the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) interviewed her for the Atlantic Monthly in 1863.
“Well, Sojourner, did you always go by this name?”
“No, indeed! My name was Isabella; but when I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I wasn’t going to keep nothing of Egypt on me, and so I went to the Lord and asked Him to give me a new name. And the Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to travel up and down the land, showing the people their sins, and being a sign unto them. Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted another name, because everybody else had two names; and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sibyl, Atlantic Monthly, April 1863)
She eventually added abolitionism and women’s suffrage to her oratory, often giving personal testimony about her experiences as a slave. She became the first African-American woman to make public speeches against slavery.
“Sojourner Truth was a strange compound of wit and wisdom, of wild enthusiasm and flint-like common sense, who seemed to please herself and others best when she put her ideas in the oddest forms. Her quaint speeches easily gave her an audience.” (Frederick Douglas, Quoted in, Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, p. 98)
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