Title: Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?
Author: Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick McKissack
Illustrator: N/A
Grade Level Equivalent: 4.9
Lexile Measure: 960L
Genre: Children's Literature
Subgenre: Biography
Theme: Never back down.
Primary and Secondary Characters: Isabella/Belle/Sojourner Truth, the Hardenburghs, Mr. and Mrs. Dumont, Isaac and Martha Van Wagener, Soloman Gedney, Peter
Awards: Coretta Scott King, 1993
Date of Publication: 1992
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
ISBN: 0590446916
Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? tells the story of Isabella, a girl born into slavery. Her first master was Mr. Hardenburgh, who fell ill and gave her and her family to his son. When the second Mr. Hardenburgh passed Isabella, who went by Belle, was auctioned off to a new man, Mr. Neely, whose wife was especially cruel to Belle. When Belle, who spoke Dutch, could not understand the English speaking Mrs. Neely, Mr. Neely took her out back and beat her with a whip. When Belle’s father, Baumfree, an old man who had recently been “turned out” or freed due to his old age, heard of the beating, he convinced a man by the name of Martin Schryver to buy her. Mr. Schryver and his wife spoke English and, for the most part, were very kind to Belle. She was able to learn some English during her time with the Schryver’s. Later, Belle was sold to another master—her last master—Mr. Dumont. During the time she spent on Dumont’s property, Belle was married to another slave, by the name of Tom. Tom and Belle had five children together—four girls and one boy. One day, Mr. Dumont told Belle that in a year’s time he would give her her freedom since she had been a loyal and faithful servant. The law actually said that he had to give her up in two years anyways since she was born before 1799. However, he would turn her out early for being such a hard worker. But when the day came, Freedom Day, for Belle, Mr. Dumont went back on his word. Angry, Belle left anyways, taking her infant daughter with her. They ran to Isaac and Martha Van Wagener’s home and the couple kindly took them in. When Dumont came looking for her, Mr. Van Wagener gave him twenty dollars for Belle, and five dollars for the baby. That matter was settled. It wasn’t long before Belle learned that Dumont had sold her only son, Peter, to a man who was to take him out of New York and all the way to London. At the last minute, the man learned that Peter was too young to go to London, so he gave the boy to his brother, Soloman Gedney. Gedney sold the boy to his brother-in-law, who had just married his sister, who lived in Alabama. Infuriated, Belle did all she could to fight the sale, which included learning from the Van Wagener’s that the sale was illegal since the boy was now out of the state. The Van Wagener’s got Belle a lawyer and she took Soloman Gedney to court for the custody of her son. She won. She was one of the first black women to ever take a white man to court and win. After several more trials and tribulations, Belle would change her name to Sojourner Truth and start a mission to spread her story. She succeeded. Slavery was not the only thing Sojourner Truth would be famous for protesting. She made several appearances at feminist rallies, protesting the lack of rights for women. Her speech “Ain’t I a Woman”, though not planned, turned out to be one of the highlights of her life.
This book would be great to have in a classroom. It would spark so many discussions in a literature circle or just within the classroom. I think that not a lot of people know the story of Sojourner Truth. I may be wrong on that point, but we were never taught about her in school, so for me, this was very eye-opening. It would be so great to have students read about the strength and the power that this one woman had in a time that it was dangerous for her to do so. It is a very inspiring story. I would love to hear what students had to say about this woman and what she went through during her time.
No comments:
Post a Comment