35 Sojourner Truth Quotes About Life, Faith and Equality
Throughout history, there are people from all walks of life who you can learn from and look up to. One of those being Sojourner Truth, who was born under the name Isabella Baumfree. While her childhood was anything but a fairytale, as she was born into slavery, sold from master to master during the course of her adolescence and then forced to marry a man she wasn’t in love with, she ended up becoming one of the greatest African American abolitionists and women's rights activists of the mid-1800s. It's no wonder there are so many incredible Sojourner Truth quotes to inspire us.
After years of longing for freedom, Baumfree started to see a glimmer of hope when she was finally promised she would be let go by her master, John Dumont. However, when her dreams and desires seemed like they were about to be attainable, Dumont ended up changing his mind and refused to let her leave like he had vowed he would.
With Baumfree’s life at stake, she decided to risk everything and escape, leaving behind all but one of her children in the process. As she made her way to New Paltz, New York, she and her baby were taken in as free people by a lovely, Christian couple named Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen. The pair even went on to buy Baumfree’s services from Dumont for $20 in order to keep her safe from him until the New York Anti-Slavery Law, which emancipated all enslaved people, took effect in 1827.
Once that day arrived, Baumfree learned that the unthinkable happened: Dumont had illegally sold her 5-year-old son, so she filed a lawsuit against him to get her child back–and she ended up becoming the first black woman to sue a white man and win!
Baumfree's famous legacy didn’t stop there! Living with the Van Wagenens and being exposed to their faith inspired her to take charge of her own life and help others do so too. She ended up changing her name to Sojourner Truth in 1843 and she spent the rest of her years preaching the gospel and speaking out against slavery. Keep reading to see some of her most impactful quotes during that era.
Related: 22 Ida B. Wells Quotes About Injustice, Truth and Virtue
35 Sojourner Truth Quotes
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1. “I'm not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star.”
2. “Then I will speak upon the ashes.”
3. “You may hiss as much as you please, but women will get their rights anyway.”
4. “You will have your own rights, and they won't be so much trouble.”
5. “If women want rights more than they got, why don't they just take them, and not be talking about it.”
6. “I have had trouble enough and sorrow enough in my life, but I am grateful for every moment of it.”
7.” Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again.”
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8. “Truth is all powerful and will prevail.”
9. "Truth burns up error."
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10. "Religion without humanity is poor human stuff."
11. “Now, if you want me to get out of the world, you had better get the women votin' soon. I shan't go till I can do that.”
12. “When I was a little girl, I used to think that God was everywhere. Now I know that God is in me, and I am in God.”
13. “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, these women together ought to be able to turn it right again.”
14. “I am not a woman to be trifled with. I am a force to be reckoned with, a warrior for justice and equality.”
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15. “I am not afraid to stand alone, to speak my truth, and to fight for what is right.”
16. “Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.”
17. “The Lord has made a woman's heart strong enough for anything.”
18. “It is the mind that makes the body.”
19. “I will not allow the fire of my passion to be extinguished by the cold winds of indifference and injustice.”
20. “He was soon drawn into a circle of associates who did not improve either his habits or his morals.”
Related: 45 Frederick Douglass Quotes To Celebrate His Incredible Legacy
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21. “Powerful ideas are just in your pocket.”
22. “If it is not a fit place for women, it is unfit for men to be there.”
23. “I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?”
24. “We have all been thrown down so low that nobody thought we'd ever get up again; but we have been long enough trodden now; we will come up again, and now I am here.”
25.”I have known what it is to be an ignorant slave; and I have seen what it is to be a free woman.”
26. “Where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter.”
27. “Yes,' she said, 'the rich rob the poor, and the poor rob one another.”
28. “We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.”
29. “Black women have been the backbone of this country for too long to be pushed aside and ignored.”
30. “I feel safe and blessed here in the shadows, away from the wickedness of the world. But I will not rest until every woman, every person of color, every human being is free.”
31. “Let others say what they will of the efficacy of prayer, I believe in it, and I shall pray. Thank God! Yes, I shall always pray.”
32. “I am a woman, I am black, and I am strong. My voice will be heard.”
33. “Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright; We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom's light; We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight...”
34. “I can't read, but I can listen, and I have heard chains dropping, and I believe they will continue to drop until all of us are free.”
35. “I have seen the promised land, and it is beautiful. But we have a long way to go before we get there.”
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