My thanks to Jimi (jlsavell) for the introduction to Truth and for sharing an extensive knowledge of American history, most relevant here, the 19th century and Civil War.
Image: courtesy of Google free pics; data: courtesy of Wikipedia and other internet sources.

Stanza 1-2: Born c. 1797 (precise year unknown) and died 1883, Isabella Baumfree was one of 10 or 12 children of African American parentage. Following the death of her owner, she was sold at auction with a flock of sheep for $100. She was reportedly beaten daily, once with a bag of rods. Over the next 4 years, she was sold again on two more occasions. The third time she was repeatedly raped, which in turn caused her to be subjected to further harassment from the owner's wife. From childhood, she claims to have had visions and heard voices, attributed to God.

Stanza 3: In 1815 she met and fell in love with a slave from a neighbouring farm. However, his owner forbade the relationship because any children sired from the liaison would not be his to own! When they were caught together, her lover was brutally beaten requiring Truth's slave master to intervene to stop the savagery. She would never see him again and he would die a few years after this incident. The experience would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me."

Stanza 4-5: Eventually she married an older slave and bore 5 children, 4 of whom survived and one the result of her master's rape.
Although legislation for the abolition of slavery had started in NYS in 1799, emancipation was not due to be completed until 1827. When her owner reneged on a promise to release her early, she was so incensed that she escaped, taking her youngest, Sophia, with her. She was obliged to leave her other children behind.

"I did not run away, I walked away by daylight..."

Stanza 6: She was taken in by a couple, the Van Wagenens, who bought her services from her owner and accommodated her and her daughter until the Act came into force. They were also instrumental in helping her be reunited with her son who had been abused during his enslavement.

Stanza 7-9: With freedom, she became a Christian with her turning-point in 1843 when she changed her name to *Sojourner Truth because she heard the Spirit of God calling her to preach the truth (sojourner meaning a temporary resident, reflecting her itinerance). She travelled extensively, finding her way to Massachusetts where she joined an organisation, founded by abolitionists, supporting women's rights, religious tolerance and pacifism. In 1851 in Ohio she delivered, on the spur of the moment (she could neither read or write), her most famous and powerful speech, Aint I a Woman, challenging her audience to stand up for their equal rights with pride.

*"Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff."
*"But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard."

Stanza 10: With the advent of the Civil War in 1861, she helped to recruit Black troops into the Union Army and then worked diligently to cater for the flood of people escaping from slavery following emancipation.
*Further efforts in Washington to signal a turning of the tide included travelling in streetcar designated for whites only.

Stanza 11: "I feel safe in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail."

*"I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a milestone, though I can't see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter!"

On her death in 1883, Frederick Douglass, a reformer and abolitionist, described her in a eulogy:
"Venerable for age, distinguished for insight into human nature, remarkable for independence and courageous self-assertion, devoted to the welfare of her race, she has been for the last 40 years an object of respect and admiration to social reformers everywhere."

"I am not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star."

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