Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Penguin Classics)

A symbol of the strength of African-American women, and a champion of the rights of all women, Sojourner Truth was an illiterate former slave in New York State who transformed herself into a vastly powerful orator. Dictating to a neighbor, she began her celebrated life story, in which she chronicles her youth, her 1827 emancipation, and her religious experiences, one year after the extremely successful publication in 1846 of Frederick Douglass's narrative.

Truth's magnetism as an abolitionist speaker brought her fame in her own time, and her narrative gives today's readers a vivid picture of nineteenth-century life in the north, where blacks, enslaved or free, lived in relative isolation from one another.

Based on the 1884 edition of the Narrative, this volume contains "Book of Life", a contemporary collection of letters and biographical sketches about Truth's public appearances, including the controversial "Arn't I a Woman" speech and Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1863 essay, "Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sibyl" as well as "A Memorial Chapter" about her death.