Sojourner Truth Autobiography
Birth and Parentage of Isabella
Isabella was born between the years and in Hurley, Ulster County, New York.
She was the daughter of James and Betsey, who were slaves owned by Colonel Ardinburgh.
James, her father, was known by the name Bomefree, which is Low Dutch for "tree." He was described as very tall and straight in his youth.
Betsey, her mother, was most commonly referred to as Mau-mau Bett.
Isabella was the youngest of approximately ten or twelve children, though nearly all her older siblings were sold before her memory began.
Colonel Ardinburgh belonged to the class of people known as Low Dutch. Following his death, Isabella and her parents became the property of his son, Charles Ardinburgh.
James and Betsey were known for their faithfulness and docility, which earned them small favors from Charles Ardinburgh, including a lot of land where they could raise tobacco, corn, or flax on Sundays and evenings to exchange for extra food or clothing.
Living Conditions and Early Childhood
In Isabella’s earliest memories, Charles Ardinburgh moved into a new house built for use as a hotel. The slaves were assigned to the cellar as their sleeping quarters.
The cellar was a dismal chamber with very few panes of glass for light; it was often filled with mud and water that splashed between the floorboards and the uneven earth below.
Slaves of both sexes and all ages slept together on damp boards with only a little straw and a blanket, a practice Isabella later attributed to the prevalence of rheumatism, fever-sores, and palsies among them.
Isabella highlights the inconsistency of slaveholders who expected "intelligent obedience" while providing conditions no better than those of a beast.
The Separation of Siblings
Isabella recalls hearing her parents recount the harrowing details of the sale of her older siblings, specifically a boy of five and a girl of three who were sold when she was an infant.
The boy had woken up on his last morning at home to light a fire for his mother, unaware of the impending separation. When a large sleigh arrived and he was placed inside, he saw his little sister locked into the sleigh-box and attempted to hide under a bed, but he was captured and taken away forever.
Religious Foundation and Parental Instructions
Mau-mau Bett provided Isabella with her primary religious instruction in Low Dutch. She taught her that there is a God who lives in the sky and sees everything.
The instructions included kneeling to say the Lord’s prayer and asking God for help whenever one was beaten or in trouble, with the promise that He would always hear.
Mau-mau Bett would point to the stars and the moon, telling her children that those were the same celestial bodies their sold brothers and sisters looked up at from far away.
Isabella was taught specifically to avoid lying and stealing and to strive for obedience to her masters.
The Death of Charles Ardinburgh and the Slave Auction
Charles Ardinburgh died when Isabella was nearly nine years old. This triggered an auction where the slaves and livestock were sold to the highest bidder.
Mau-mau Bett was granted her freedom on the condition that she take care of the infirm James (Bomefree), as the heirs did not want to be burdened with his maintenance. James was suffering from rheumatism and distorted limbs due to exposure.
The couple remained in the same dark, humid cellar under the hotel, supporting themselves with the husband’s minimal work and the wife’s labor, along with help from kind neighbors who did not own slaves.
The Tragic Decline and Death of Bomefree
After Mau-mau Bett died of a fit of palsy in early autumn, James was left alone—penniless, lame, and nearly blind. He lived in the cellar for a time, fearing no one would assist him.
The Ardinburghs eventually tired of him and offered freedom to two other old slaves, Cæsar and his wife Betsey, on the condition they care for James. However, both Cæsar and Betsey died shortly thereafter in a rude cabin in the woods.
A woman named Soan, herself an emancipated slave, visited James before his death. He pleaded for her to wash and mend him because he was suffering from filth and vermin, but she was too weak and frightened to stay.
James was eventually found dead on his miserable pallet, frozen and stiff. John Ardinburgh, a grandson of the Colonel, celebrated the slave’s death with "a good funeral," which consisted of black paint for the coffin and a jug of spirits for the attendees.
Service Under John Nealy and the Ordeal of Language
At the auction, Isabella was sold for the sum of to John Nealy of Ulster County. She was sold as part of a lot that included sheep.
A major conflict arose because Isabella only spoke Dutch and the Nealys only spoke English. This led to frequent misunderstandings and severe punishments for Isabella when she failed to follow instructions she did not understand.
During one winter, Isabella's feet were badly frozen. One Sunday morning, she was taken to a barn and given a brutal whipping with a bundle of rods that were prepared in embers and bound with cords; the scars remained visible for the rest of her life.
Life with Scriver and Transition to the Dumont Household
After several months, her father Bomefree visited and promised to help her find a new master. Shortly after, a fisherman and tavern keeper named Scriver bought her for .
With the Scrivers, Isabella led a wild, out-of-door life carrying fish, hoeing corn, and fetching liquor. While this life lacked the terror of the Nealy household, she retrograded morally, beginning to curse and use profanity.
In , she was sold to John J. Dumont of New Paltz for . She remained with him until shortly before the state's general emancipation in .
Internal Family Dynamics and the Potato Plot
Mrs. Dumont, unlike her husband, was often impatient and critical of Isabella's work. She employed a white servant named Kate who sought to undermine Isabella.
Kate attempted to prove Isabella was a poor cook by throwing ashes into the kettle of boiling potatoes to make them look dingy and dirty. However, Dumont's eldest daughter, Gertrude (known as Getty), witnessed this and exposed Kate's deception to her father.
Following this triumph, Isabella became increasingly ambitious to please Mr. Dumont, often working several nights in succession to ensure her laundry and field work were superior to all others.
Domestic Life, Marriage, and Motherhood
Isabella experienced a romance with a slave named Robert, owned by an Englishman named Catlin. Catlin forbade Robert from visiting Isabella because he did not want his slave's offspring to belong to another master.
On one occasion, Robert visited Isabella when she was ill. The Catlins (father and son) caught him and beat him savagely with heavy canes until he was covered in blood. Mr. Dumont intervened to stop the violence on his property.
Isabella was later married to a fellow slave named Thomas. She had five children, though she noted the irony of taking pride in providing more property for her oppressors while in a state of "chattelism."
The Broken Promise of Manumission
John J. Dumont promised Isabella her free papers one year before the state-mandated emancipation of July 4, , provided she was faithful and did her work.
When the time arrived in , Dumont refused to fulfill his promise, citing a hand injury she had suffered that supposedly made her less useful. Isabella decided to stay only until her remaining labor (spinning approximately of wool) was finished.
Escape and Sanctuary with the Van Wageners
Isabella left Dumont's house just before daybreak one morning in late , carrying her infant and a small bundle of clothes and provisions in a cotton handkerchief.
She sought refuge with Levi Rowe, who directed her to Isaac S. Van Wagener and his wife Maria. They welcomed her and gave her employment.
When Dumont arrived to reclaim her, Isaac Van Wagener paid for her services and for her child to cover the remainder of the year. He explicitly told Isabella never to call him "master," stating there was only one Master.
The Legal Battle for her Son Peter
Isabella discovered that her five-year-old son, Peter, had been sold illegally out of the state to a planter in Alabama named Fowler. New York law prohibited selling slaves out of state, and minors were to be freed at age .
Isabella sought legal advice from a group of Quakers in Poppletown. She appealed to the grand jury in Kingston and provided a fee of to a lawyer named Demain to secure her son's return.
After a period of legal maneuvering, Peter was brought back from Alabama. Initially, he was so brainwashed that he denied Isabella was his mother and begged to stay with his "dear master."
Upon examination, Isabella found Peter's body covered in horrific scars, callosities, and indurations from being whipped, kicked, and beaten by Fowler.
The Murder of Eliza Fowler
While Isabella was working for various families, news arrived that Fowler had murdered his wife, Eliza (who was the daughter of Solomon Gedney). He had knocked her down, jumped on her, and torn out her windpipe.
Isabella viewed this event through the lens of retributive justice, as Fowler had previously treated her son Peter with similar brutality.
Spiritual Transformation and Philosophical Views
Isabella's religious experience evolved from a literal view of God (whom she imagined as a "great man" in the sky) to a sense of divine pervading presence.
In a moment of intense crisis, she had a vision of God as an all-powerful spirit and realized she could not hide from Him. She felt the need for an intercessor and subsequently had a vision of Jesus.
She describes Jesus as a friend who stands between her and God, whom she initially believed was only accessible to her until she learned others also knew Him.
Her theology holds that Jesus is the same spirit that was in Adam and Eve in the beginning; when they sinned, this spirit fled to heaven and returned in the person of Jesus.
She prioritizes direct spiritual witnessing over sectarian division and has a deep faith in the absolute efficacy of prayer.
Life in New York City and the Search for Peter
Isabella moved to New York City in roughly . She became involved with several religious groups, including the Methodist Church in John Street and Zion’s Church.
During this time, she was reunited with her sister Sophia and a brother named Michael, whom she had never previously met. She also learned that another sister, Nancy, had recently died.
Her son Peter fell into a life of minor crime and bad company in the city. To save him, she eventually shipping him on a whaling vessel in the summer of .
She received several letters from Peter while he was at sea on the ship "Done" out of Nantucket. His letters recount hardships and the death of an acquaintance named Peter Jackson. The last letter she received was dated September 19, .
The Matthias Imposture
Isabella became connected to the kingdom of Robert Matthews, known as Matthias, who claimed the spirit of God the Father dwelt in him.
She worked for Mr. Pierson, a fanatical devotee of Matthias, and eventually joined their communal living arrangement at a farm in Sing Sing.
This community was plagued by drama and allegations, including the suspicious death of Mr. Pierson and accusations of murder against Isabella herself, of which she was later cleared.
Isabella eventually lost all her savings inside the "common fund" established by this religious group.
Identification as Sojourner Truth
On June 1, , she changed her name to Sojourner, moved by a spiritual call to leave the city and travel east to lecture and testify.
She left New York with only two York shillings and a small basket of provisions, trusting the Lord to provide for her needs.
She traveled through Long Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, speaking at temperance meetings and camp meetings.
In Hartford, she encountered Second Adventists (Millerites). While she did not adopt their specific beliefs about the immediate end of the world, she was respected for her powerful singing and preaching.
The Northampton Association
In the winter of her travels, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a communal living experiment.
Here she met figures like George W. Benson and encountered an atmosphere of equality and freedom of thought that greatly appealed to her.
When the association disbanded, she remained in Northampton, working to save money for a small home of her own.
Final Interview with her Former Master
In the spring of , Isabella visited her eldest daughter, Diana, and her former master, John J. Dumont.
Dumont, now elderly, admitted to her that he now saw slavery as the "wickedest thing in the world," a realization he claimed was impossible to avoid in the current political climate, though he had not seen it during his years as a slaveholder.
Perspectives on the Inherent Cruelty of Slavery
The narrative includes a philosophical appendix by Theodore D. Weld, asserting that slavery is a system of inherent cruelty.
Weld argues that slavery is condemned by human nature, conscience, and the "court of human rights."
He notes that slaveholders treat their slaves worse than their livestock, as dogs and horses do not provoke the "towering rage" that is triggered by human opposition to a master’s will.
Evidence provided includes the use of iron collars, gags, branding, and the systematic denial of education and legal property rights to over people in the United States.