A Woman Who Went Against the Social Norms of the 19th Century
In 1828, Sojourner Truth, a freed slave woman, filed a lawsuit against a white slave owner in New York. The lawsuit was in response to her five year old son, Peter, being sold to a plantation owner in Alabama. The sale of the boy was in 1827, which was just a few months before he would have been freed under the gradual emancipation that had been enacted in New York.
Sojourner Truth was not only successful in the lawsuit she filed against Solomon Gidney in 1828, but she was also victorious in other numerous court cases that she was involved in throughout her life. It brings to question how Sojourner Truth was so successful and influential during her lifetime. She had everything going against her. She was of course a woman, she was black: born into slavery, she was not wealthy, and she was illiterate. What seemed to be limits and boundaries that society gave Sojourner Truth did not hold up to the lack of limits and boundaries that she gave to herself.
To look at her first win in court, one might assume that the attorney that agreed to take the case was responsible for the success of her lawsuit against Gidney. Her attorney was Mr. Herman M Romeyn of New York. Mr. Romeyn was an active member of the freemasonry of Kingston, New York and had served as secretary of the lodge between 1808 and 1828. Freemasons had high standings and reputations in the community.(1) He had also been admitted as an Attorney of Law in Ulster County, New York in 1818. (2)Truth’s court cast was in 1828, so he had ten years of experience before he took on her case. It would seem that he might have had important connections in the community that might have helped the success of Truth’s case.
It does seem that the attorney did have some impact on Sojourner Truth’s court case, but the majority of the influence of the case revolves around Truth herself. Just a brief look at the case might leave one wandering what it was that made her successful. One can look at all the things she wasn’t. She wasn’t rich, she wasn’t white, and she wasn’t a man. Those three things were characters that one would assume were needed in order to be successful in the early part of the 19th Century in the United States.
Sojourner Truth was not educated, as previously pointed out, she was illiterate. Truth memorized the entire Bible; she knew every word and could recite it from beginning to end. She also dictated her own biography. It seemed she knew the importance her life was going to have for future generations and had the hindsight to have it documented. She seemed to have the foresight and the ability to know that she could instigate change. Evidence of her ability to move people by just her words can be seen in her speeches.
One of her most famous speeches was delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. When she first approached the podium she was met with resistance because she was not just a woman but a black woman. Once she finished her speech she was met with a roar of applause. A line from her speech that has become synonymous with her name is “Aint I a Woman?” This speech was empowering for women of the mid-19th century, but also can be very inspiring to women of modern times.
Sojourner Truth would go on to win several more cases in court, some were brought against her, some she brought against other people, but in all cases she was victorious. She would travel the country giving speeches about women’s rights, against slavery, and spreading the word of God. She helped slaves escape to freedom and assisted them in finding employment afterwards. She was a woman who left her own footprint on social change during her lifetime. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln in 164, because of the work she did during the Civil War.
Sojourner Truth Library of Congress/http://www.loc.gov/
Sojourner Truth was almost six feet tall and had a muscular figure from the manual labor she performed during her lifetime. She was also said to have a very masculine voice. It’s not hard to imagine that she would be somebody that could easily get people’s attention just by standing up. Her physical traits combined with the fact that she had the gift of speech made her capable of winning battles without resorting to violence. Truth was a very devout Christian woman and used her beliefs and words to fight against injustices around her.
The fact that women had no rights during the 19th century period in American History can be seen in the laws and the many historical documents from this time period. This was not always the case. A black woman who was born into slavery in the early 19th century, poor and illiterate, was not only victorious in standing up and fighting for her own rights, but for society as a whole.
Bibliography
(1) Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett. History of Ulster County. New York: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Events and Peck, 1880. Print.
(2) Skimmer, Roger Sherman. The New York State Register. Vol.54. New York:Clayton & Van Norden, 1830. Https://books.google.com/books?-6o0uaaaayaaj.
