Scholastic Canada - Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?

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Scholastic Canada Ltd.
ISBN 0-590-44691-6
178 pages
Ages 8-12

by Patricia C. McKissack
and Frederick McKissack

In 1797, a slave named Isabella was born in New York State. She was freed in 1827, but it was not until much later that she chose the name by which she would become known throughout the nation and remembered long after her death — Sojourner Truth. Sojourner, because she wandered from place to place speaking against slavery to anyone who would listen. And Truth because that is what she told.

Sojourner Truth was the mother of five children. Fighting to get back her son after he had illegally been sold to the South, she became one of the first black women to win a suit against a white man. Sojourner Truth was also a preacher, an abolitionist, and an activist for the rights of both blacks and women. Although she couldn't read, she could quote the Bible word for word, and was a powerful speaker. An imposing six feet tall, with a profound faith in God's love and a deep, rich voice, she stirred audiences around the country, until her death in 1883.

This is an inspirational biography of an African-American woman who fought for freedom and women's rights.

1992 Coretta Scott King Honor Book
1992 The Boston Globe / The Horn Book Award Winner


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Excerpt from SOJOURNER TRUTH: AIN'T I A WOMAN?
by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick McKissack

"That man over there," she said pointing to a minister who had said women were the "weaker sex." "He says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, over mud puddles, or gets me any best places." And raising herself to her full height, she asked, "And ain't I a woman?"

Sojourner Truth turned to the men who were seated behind her: "Look at me!" She bared her right arm and raised it in the air. The audience gasped as one voice. Her dark arm was muscular, made strong by hard work. "I have ploughed. And I have planted. And I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me." She paused again and asked this time in a whisper: "And ain't I a woman?"

"I have borne children and seen them sold into slavery, and when I cried out in a mother's grief, none heard me but Jesus. And ain't I a woman?"

From Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? Copyright © by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick McKissack

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