The Narrative of Sojourner Truth [0]
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Dictated by Sojourner Truth (ca.1797-1883);
Edited by Olive Gilbert
Written by Olive Gilbert, based on information
provided by Sojourner Truth.
1850
CONTENTS
HER BIRTH AND PARENTAGE
ACCOMMODATIONS
HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS
HER RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
THE AUCTION
DEATH OF MAU-MAU BETT
LAST DAYS OF BOMEFREE
DEATH OF BOMEFREE
COMMENCEMENT OF ISABELLA'S TRIALS IN LIFE
TRIALS CONTINUED
HER STANDING WITH HER NEW MASTER AND MISTRESS
ISABELLA'S MARRIAGE
ISABELLA AS A MOTHER
SLAVEHOLDER'S PROMISES
HER ESCAPE
ILLEGAL SALE OF HER SON
IT IS OFTEN DARKEST JUST BEFORE DAWN
DEATH OF MRS. ELIZA FOWLER
ISABELLA'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
NEW TRIALS
FINDING A BROTHER AND SISTER
GLEANINGS
THE MATTHIAS DELUSION
FASTING
THE CAUSE OF HER LEAVING THE CITY
THE CONSEQUENCES OF REFUSING A TRAVELLER A NIGHT'S LODGING
SOME OF HER VIEWS AND REASONINGS
THE SECOND ADVENT DOCTRINES
ANOTHER CAMP-MEETING
LAST INTERVIEW WITH HER MASTER
CERTIFICATES OF CHARACTER
NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
HER BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
THE subject of this biography, SOJOURNER TRUTH, as she now calls herself-but whose name, originally, was Isabella-was born, as near as she can now calculate, between the years 1797 and 1800. She was the daughter of James and Betsey, slaves of one Colonel Ardinburgh, Hurley, Ulster County, New York.
Colonel Ardinburgh belonged to that class of people called Low Dutch.
Of her first master, she can give no account, as she must have been a mere infant when he died; and she, with her parents and some ten or twelve other fellow human chattels, became the legal property of his son, Charles Ardinburgh. She distinctly remembers hearing her father and mother say, that their lot was a fortunate one, as Master Charles was the best of the family,-being, comparatively speaking, a kind master to his slaves.
James and Betsey having, by their faithfulness, docility, and respectful behavior, won his particular regard, received from him particular favors-among which was a lot of land, lying back on the slope of a mountain, where, by improving the pleasant evenings and Sundays, they managed to raise a little tobacco, corn, or flax; which they exchanged for extras, in the articles of food or clothing for themselves and children. She has no remembrance that Saturday afternoon was ever added to their own time, as it is by some masters in the Southern States.
ACCOMMODATIONS.
Among Isabella's earliest recollections was the removal of her master, Charles Ardinburgh, into his new house, which he had built for a hotel, soon after the decease of his father. A cellar, under this hotel, was assigned to his slaves, as their sleeping apartment,-all the slaves he possessed, of both sexes, sleeping (as is quite common in a state of slavery) in the same room. She carries in her mind, to this day, a vivid picture of this dismal chamber; its only lights consisting of a few panes of glass, through which she thinks the sun never shone, but with thrice reflected rays; and the space between the loose boards of the floor, and the uneven earth below, was often filled with mud and water, the uncomfortable splashings of which were as annoying as its noxious vapors must have been chilling and fatal to health. She shudders, even now, as she goes back in memory, and revisits this cellar, and sees its inmates, of both sexes and all ages, sleeping on those damp boards, like the horse, with a little straw and a blanket; and she wonders not at the rheumatisms, and fever-sores, and palsies, that distorted the limbs and racked the bodies of those fellow-slaves in after-life. Still, she does not attribute this cruelty-for cruelty it certainly is, to be so unmindful of the health and comfort of any being, leaving entirely out of sight his more important part, his everlasting interests,-so much to any innate or constitutional cruelty of the master, as to that gigantic inconsistency, that inherited habit among slaveholders, of expecting a willing and intelligent