Who Was the First African-American Female Orator to Speak Out Against Slavery?

Born in New York in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth, was the first African American woman to tour parts of the country and tell people of her horrible treatment at the hands of slave owners throughout her life. Believing that she was called by God to speak and try to change people’s opinions about slavery, she adopted her well known pseudonym and went to work speaking out against the treatment of African Americans until her death in 1883.

Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery, escaped and helped many African-Americans gain their freedom under the new emancipation laws. She spent many years working with anti-slavery groups and women’s rights groups. 

Slavery Days

Isabella was born into slavery and acquired the surname Baumfree from her first owner. As a child, she was sold several times and forced to move away from her family. Between 1810 and 1826, her current owner forced her to marry an older slave with whom she bore five children. However, in 1826, she escaped to the north with her infant daughter Sophia. Unfortunately, her other children were not eligible for emancipation until after they had reached their twenties.

In the few years before her conversion to Christianity, she helped many others gain their freedom, including her own son who had been illegally sold into slavery. She converted to Christianity in 1828; however, she didn’t take the name of Sojourner Truth until 1843.

Freedom and Speaking Out

She gave her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman” in May 1851 at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio. Over the course of her life, she had many opportunities to meet and talk with other famous abolitionists of the time such as Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Sojourner Truth dedicated her life to helping others improve their situations as she tried to improve her own. She lived for many years in Battle Creek, Michigan, which is where she also died. A monument honors her memory; it was dedicated to her in 1999.