Sojourner Truth’s America

581 Pages·2009·4.644 MB·English

by  Margaret Washington

SOJOURNER TRUTH’S AMERICA
Sojourner
Truth’s
America
MARGARET
WASHINGTON
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
URBANA AND CHICAGO
© 2009 by Margaret Washington
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Washington, Margaret.
Sojourner Truth’s America / Margaret Washington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03419-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Truth, Sojourner, d. 1883.
2. Truth, Sojourner, d. 1883—Political and social views.
3. Truth, Sojourner, d. 1883—Friends and associates.
4. African American abolitionists—Biography.
5. African American women—Biography.
6. Social reformers—United States—Biography.
7. Social problems—United States—History—19th century.
8. Progressivism (United States politics—History—19th century.
9. United States—Social conditions—19th century.
10. United States—Race relations—History—19th century.
I. Title.
E185.97T8W37 2009
306.3‘62092—dc22 [B] 2008041147
FOR MY CHILDREN
Celeste Beatrice Creel
Her charm strikes the sight;
her merit wins the soul.
AND
James Bryant Creel (Ras Kebo),
September 2, 1975 to June 18, 1994
Buffalo Soldier
Contents
A WORD ON LANGUAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION:
THE THREE LIVES OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
PART I BELL HARDENBERGH AND SLAVERY TIMES IN THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY
1. African and Dutch Religious Heritage
2. “Home Is Like a Grave”
Domesticity, Spirituality, and Patriarchy
3. “Better to Me Than a Man”
Female Life, Labor, and Slavery in Rural New York
PART II ISABELLA VAN WAGENEN: A PREACHING WOMAN
4. Like Hagar and Her Children
Long Walks to Freedom
5. “A Rushing Mighty Wind”
Isabella’s Baptism of the Spirit
6. Sanctification and Perfection
Becoming a Religious Radical
7. “I Will Crush Them with the Truth”
The Commune of Matthias
PART III SOJOURNER TRUTH AND THE ANTISLAVERY APOSTLES
8. The Antislavery Vanguard, 1833–1843
9. “The Spirit Calls Me There” A Sojourner Is Chosen
10. A Holy City
Sojourner Truth and the Northampton Community
11. The Cold Water Army, Olive Gilbert, and Sojourner’s Narrative
12. The Bloodhound Bill and Intensified Activism
13. The New York Campaign
14. “God, You Drive”
The Sojourner in Ohio
15. “I Go in for Agitatin’”
16. Truth Is Powerful
17. Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land
18. “Was Woman True?”
Sojourner, Suffrage, and Civil Rights
19. “I Am on My Way to Kansas”
EPILOGUE:
WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT
NOTES
INDEX
Illustrations follow pages 8, 50, 128.
A WORD ON LANGUAGE
In this book, I use the term “race” as it was employed contemporarily. Race was
a means of defining and marginalizing people on the basis of their phenotype,
and was an almost totalizing concept in the historical period under study. Reform
is a subtheme of this work; for emphasis, I have capitalized reforms that are
most significant to the aims of this book. I sometimes refer to womanist
consciousness. By that I mean that women knowingly, often collectively, focused
on issues and embraced perspectives that were covertly and overtly political,
communal, and gendered. I reject the term “fugitive,” and use it only in
quotations or as an allegation. I prefer to represent black people fleeing bondage
as self-emancipated freedom seekers, rather than criminals. I reject the term
“illiterate” when referring to Sojourner Truth; “illiterate” suggests “ignorant,” as
indeed some writers have labeled Sojourner because she could not read and
write. I view literacy as but one form of learning, not the only means of
knowledge, wisdom, or understanding.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was such a long time in the making, I am sure some people believed
that I, like the main character in Stanley Kubrick’s movie The Shining, was
sitting at my desk writing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Yet
scholarly biographies take longer than other books, especially when a Southern
historian takes on a Northern project. Nonetheless, other factors contributed to
the long gestation. Besides unforeseen personal issues, the book, like Sojourner
herself, had several migrations. I began the project with a generous contract with
an eastern trade press. When the first draft was almost complete, we parted
company for various reasons. I submitted the finished manuscript to Cornell
University Press and undertook revisions on the basis of a very useful reader’s
report. When my collaborating editor resigned, that arrangement fell through,
and Sojourner was again homeless. In searching out several other academic
publishers, I decided to work with the University of Illinois Press. Its excellent
African American list and its being in the land of Lincoln seemed appropriate for
a book about Sojourner Truth, freedom, and equality. A very special thanks to
Laurie Matheson at the University of Illinois Press for believing in the
manuscript, working with me in trimming it down, and her assistance throughout
the publication process. I warmly thank Paul Johnson, one of the Press’s two
readers, for his careful scrutiny of the manuscript, his perceptive comments, and
especially for his understanding of what I wanted to convey about Sojourner
Truth and her times.
The staffs at many libraries, historical societies, and other repositories made
this book possible. In England: the Rylands Library at the University of
Manchester, the Manchester Public Library, and the Rhodes House Library at
Oxford. In Ottawa: the National Archives of Canada. In Pennsylvania: the
Friends’ Library at Swarthmore College, and the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. In New York State: the Cayuga County Historical Society in
Auburn, the History Center in Ithaca, the Huguenot Society in New Paltz, the
Old Senate House, the Public Library, and the Ulster County Hall of Records in
Kingston, the Roslyn Public Library, the Staten Island Historical Society, the
State Library in Albany, the Syracuse University Research Library, the Schaffer
Library of Union College in Schenectady, and the University of Rochester Rush
Rhees Research Library. In New York City: the City Municipal Archives and
Records, Columbia University Special Collections, the New-York Historical
Society, the New York Public Library, and the Surrogate’s Court. In New Jersey:
Special Collections at Rutgers University, and the Reformed Church Archives at
New Brunswick Seminary. In Connecticut: the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library at Yale University, Special Collections at Wesleyan
University, the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, the Harriet Beecher
Stowe Center and the State Library in Hartford, and the Hall of Records and
Public Library in Brooklyn. In Massachusetts: the American Antiquarian Society
in Worcester, rare Books and Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library, the
Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, the Houghton Library at Harvard
University, the Forbes Public Library in Northampton, the Historic Northampton
Society, the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, the Martha’s Vineyard
Historical Society, the Nantucket Historical Association, and the Public Library
in New Bedford. In Michigan: the Burton Collection at the Detroit Public
Library, the Willard Public Library, and the Community Archives of Heritage
Battle Creek, in Battle Creek, the Calhoun County Hall of Records in Marshall,
the Clements Library, the Bentley Historical Library and the Michigan Historical
Collection at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and the State Library and
Archives of Michigan in Lansing. In Ohio: Ashtabula Public Library and
Ashtabula County Historical Society in Austinberg, the Historical Society in
Jefferson, and Special Collections and Archives at Kent State University. My
thanks to the Manuscript and Photo Divisions of the Library of Congress, to the
Huntington Library in San Marino, California, and the Interlibrary Loan
Department at California State University in Sacramento.
I owe a special acknowledgment to the Cornell University Libraries. The
John M. Olin Graduate Library was my second home, and so was the Kroch
Library, where the Division of Rare and Manuscripts Collections houses
delicious nineteenth-century treasures. I thank all the wonderful folks there, and