She was born Isabella Baumfree. As an enslaved child, Baumfree was once sold at an auction in tandem with a flock of sheep for $100. Years later, she would come to know Jesus and change her name: Sojourner Truth.
In “Sojourner Truth Was a ‘Double Woman’ in More Ways than One,” Obbie Tyler Todd reviews the newly released We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth by Nancy Koester. Todd explains that “double woman” refers to the ways Truth stood up for both women’s rights and abolition, a tumultuous undertaking in the 1850s.
“Still,” writes Todd, “Truth was a “double woman” in another regard. She spoke to both sides of the racial and gender divide, and her adamant convictions could puncture friends and foes alike.”
She held fast to her chosen name, journeying in light of the truth even when it caused tension among her fellow activists. Truth critiqued Frederick Douglass’ warmongering and rejected the idea purported by women’s suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton that white women should be permitted to vote before Black men.
Truth’s activism was marked by a steadfast belief that the good news of Jesus “enabled her to both love her worst enemies and rebuke her good friends.” Whatever the work set before us, may we approach it with the same certainty that the gospel is sure.
