Harriet Tubman / Sojourner Truth (1992)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] while I run [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Harriet Tubman they called her the Moses of her people Carla that because she had so many people out of slavery like the Moses of Oh she led him out on what they called the Underground Railroad course you understand it wasn't a real railroad at all there was a network of people who like Harriet believed that it was okay for slaves to escape from slavery ninety eight hundred miles of walking late at night through swamps through woods in chased by dogs sometime and don't you know sometimes people would get scared and want to go back but Herod she always kept a six-shooter strapped to a side underneath her skirt and they got to get nervous and scared she fooled that six you doesn't say all right you move on or you die and everybody would move on she brought over over three hundred people out of slavery like that on the Underground Railroad and never lost a passenger Harriet Tubman was born Harriet Ross around 1820 her exact birthday isn't known because like many slaves her date of birth was never recorded she lived with her parents and ten brothers and sisters on a plantation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when Harriet was five years old she was hired out as a domestic servant she slept on the kitchen floor poking her feet under the fireplace ashes when the night's grew cold for meals she shared table scraps with her master's dogs actual slavery was economic it was legal it was personal it was a situation in which the slave had no rights a person who was a slave could not walk down the next block without having someone else who owned her or who owned him say explicitly yes you may do that a slave was someone who could be forced to work from the age of eight six four even long hours at task that someone else decided young Harriet repeatedly failed at domestic work and by the time she was in her early teens was known as a strong but surly laborer unfit for indoor work yet useful as a field hand she could plow chop wood and drive a team of oxen more efficiently than most men she worked on the farm like the men I went and planning and plowing that type of work and her overseer would whip her every day every day she would get will she had to be more or less obedient to her master they told her when to go to bed when to get up when to work as such and she had a rebellious spirit and she said that slavery was against the law of God in 1831 when Harriet was about 11 nat turner a slave on a Virginia plantation led an army of 60 rebel slaves against their white masters the slaves are known to have used that process virtually from their time of departure from the slave capsules on the African west coast primarily in which they resisted the the attempt to be enslaved to become enslaved they attempted to escape on on ships by simply if the opportunity offered itself by by leaping off and drowning or whatever once they were bound by the continental United States the protest of the form or of insurrection slaves fighting against the system and they fought against the system whether they were in the north or the south [Music] I'm gonna cross the rivers of Jordan somebody did hallelujah across the rivers tell God are you treating somebody dead when Harriet was 15 years old her compassionate nature proved to have disastrous results because she had chosen to block the door when there was an attempt to capture a runaway slave and she herself was placed in the way of a two-pound weight which struck her head and which undoubtedly fractured her skull and and and and left her with some sort of affliction harriet fell into a coma and endured a long period of recovery as i lay so sick on my beard from christmas to march i was always praying for poor old master o lord convert old master change that man's heart and make him a christian she suffered periodic sleeping fits for the rest of her life as a result of this injury in 1844 harriet married John Tubman a free black man but this did not change Harriet's status as a slave her husband liked her masters wanted to control her threatening that if she were to run away he would betray her in 18-49 Tubman's worst fears came true she heard that two of her sisters had been sold and were already in Chains heading south then I heard that as soon as I was able to move I was to be sent with my brothers in a chain gang to the far south harriet knew it was time to go and she persuaded three of her brothers to go with her her father had shown her how to use the night sky as a compass she assured her brothers that she could guide them Harriet Tubman knew better than to ask her husband to come along or even to let him know that she was going she left at night with her brothers but fearing the unknown they insisted on turning back Harriet turned back with them Harry had learned through another slave that she was scheduled to be sold south the next day this time she knew she would have to run away alone she had learned an important lesson which she would never forget freedom is only for those bold enough to take it not able to trust her husband Tubman wanted someone in her family to know she was leaving on her own that she was not on her way south she walked by the big house where her sister was working and start singing swing low sweet Aaron and got long to stay here so Mary and took the get the message and she knew what the message was they would use coded messages coded messages to slaves spirituals as I said walk together children walk together children don't become weary we're gonna make it to the promised land I have shoes you have shoes all God's children have shoes when you get to heaven gonna put on their shoes and walk all over God's heaven heaven was a code word for Canada when night fell a stranger hid Tubman in the back of his farm wagon covered her with vegetables and drove her to the first stop on the Underground Railroad she began to learn the route she was to use so often and so effectively in the future the Underground Railroad was a loose network of people willing to hide runaway slaves in their homes and conduct them to the next station or safe house traveling by night hiding in the daylight Tubman trudged through 90 miles of swamp and woodland at last many days after she started she found herself across the magic line on free soil I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now that I was free there was such a glory over everything the Sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields and I felt like I was in heaven making her way to Philadelphia Harriet was able to get a job in a hotel kitchen the city had an active abolitionist community the Philadelphia vigilance committee was a very important group engaged in aiding fugitive slaves it was a group that had operated from the late 1830s into the early 1840s and it was comprised of fugitives as well as free blacks and white supporters it was a group that aided the Underground Railroad and their primary job was to aid fugitives with food and clothing and and money and to direct them on to other places when Harriet Tubman arrived in Philadelphia she affiliated herself with this group and this group supported her in her return to Maryland and the Eastern Shore to free other fugitives Oh usually when slaves ride with Harriet Tubman for instance the Johnson house or any other house along the Freedom Trail the first thing she would do she would give a soft knock on the door and usually there was answers who's there a friend was a friend it was the coded words then the occupant would know that Harriet Tubman was there or another kind of conductor on the ground were slaves and the password was given and the passwords were returned so Harriet Tubman is someone who through her own her own devices to her own exertion overcame slavery became free and then even more so went back and brought other people with her so she has freedom freedom freedom freedom freedom Harriet made many trips south but by 1851 the Fugitive Slave Act made these trips all the more dangerous Tubman heard ominous news of fugitive slaves arrested and returned to the south from previously safe cities in Massachusetts and New York I never closed my eyes that I did not imagine that I saw the horsemen coming and heard the screams of women and children as they were being dragged away [Music] Philadelphia was no longer a safe place for Harriet to work she moved to st. Catharines Canada a small town near Niagara Falls where many free blacks and former slaves had settled now instead of 90 miles she had to conduct her passengers on a grueling journey of almost 500 miles she stole away into the night and crept along the very slave quarters or cabins often time whispering or knocking our doors more or less singing steal away steal away steal away to Jesus I ain't got long to stayed here or the code of spiritual informing the slaves to steal away she was a very courageous and brave woman and she you know in turn escaped from slavery and then went back to help others do the same so she even in the early stages she was giving back to her you could call her community she was helping her brothers and sisters get to where she had already gotten by 1854 Harriet Tubman had become a legend among the slaves and a demon to the slaveholders posters announced a reward for Harriet Tubman sometimes called Moses worth $12,000 to any person who delivered her to the authorities the countryside swarmed with bounty hunters in 1857 Tubman settled down in Auburn New York the small town was to be Tubman's home for the rest of her life before emancipation she would make 19 excursions into the South delivering more than 300 slaves including family from the land that had tried and failed to keep her in bond it was on these pilgrimages that she met Frederick Douglass and John Brown leaders in the abolitionist movement John Brown recruited a small band of free blacks and fugitive slaves for an attack on the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry what he needed now was black leadership charismatic figures who could inspire and lead these volunteers he believed there were two such leaders in the United States Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman during the winter of 1858 and 59 Tubman met with John Brown and others in Boston to confer about the plans at Harpers Ferry Harriet Tubman would have been with John Brown at Harpers Ferry had she not become ill at the time and so therefore I think that the course of history was changed perhaps by her illness Browns efforts failed he was captured tried and executed after the Harpers Ferry raid was a failure Harriet Tubman like many other African American abolitionists had to distance herself from brown and from the raid because her name like that of Douglass and many others was banded around as one of those who was supportive and involved in the rate indirectly as the north-south split widened the South called for strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and an end to the Underground Railroad there were many people who didn't like the idea that the Underground Railroad was existing at all black people and white people here a black spies and white spies who would sell their soul for five dollars for a bottle of liquor whatever to revealed two hiding places of these fugitive slaves the issue of slavery continued to divide the Union seven states in the south withdrew from the Union to form the Confederate States of America the Civil War had begun we mourn not that the manjit all his nature's need is God's decree but let the hand that heals the soil be like the wind that fans it free as Union troops advanced through Maryland in the spring and summer of 1861 large numbers of slaves left their plantations to join the northern soldiers these contrabands many of them illiterate malnourished and ill flooded the Union Army camps overwhelmed Union army commanders sent out a call for teachers and nurses hundreds of northerners responded among them Harriet Tubman aware of her work on the Underground Railroad Union officers sometimes used her to lead spy missions she was called to lead a group of soldier because she knew the elements you know the forest to swamps and so forth so she led them into a small skirmish and she was able to retrieve valuable information during that period for the Union Army later that year Tubman accepted an assignment to lead a force of 150 black soldiers and three steam-powered gunboats up the Combahee River they destroyed Confederate munitions and supplies and in the process freed eight hundred slaves to Tubman's credit no one was killed or even hurt she would continue to perform this important work until the war ended almost two years later she was not formally employed she was informal employed but that was not unusual at that time many others were also so she was neither paid during the war and after the war she did not receive it the government turned her down and it meant then that for many years and particularly as she got older that she became poverty-stricken and had it not been for the Nationalists Asian of colored women who when finding out about her condition had a national campaign to raise monies to aid her and indeed they did until her death this is one of the tragedies of American history that it refused to recognize the singular services of an American patriot like Harriet Tubman when Tubman returned to her home in Auburn she was about 45 years old penniless and responsible for two aged parents she planted apple trees and broke ground for a large vegetable garden to feed her family and anyone who came to her door after the Civil War Harriet Tubman settled in Auburn New York where she became very active in aiding other African Americans in many of the communities of the north like Auburn you had a number of blacks who were very poor many of them worked as laborers some of them could not get work but there was a real problem in that period because institutions for the Aged institutions for delinquents orphans and others were not readily available to African Americans she determined that she would set up a Home for the Aged there in her own home and indeed she did appearing at her door in 1869 was another visitor a tall handsome man named Nelson Davis Tubman had met him at a South Carolina army base the former soldier asked the former spy to marry him despite their age difference of 24 years she accepted at about this time Sarah Bradford began writing Harriet's biography it was first printed in 1869 under the title scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman Bradford published the book then turned its proceeds some 1,200 dollars over to Tubman Harriet Tubman was able to escape from slavery herself return to slave territory numerous times helped hundreds of other slaves to escape and has been called the Moses of her people in the terms of leading the slaves and how to slavery into freedom and she lived a very long and fruitful life and I think as a shining example of the kinds of things and women were able to achieve under very difficult circumstances on March 10th 1913 Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia at the age of 93 I came back to Auburn on this beautiful green evergreen tree that shades her grave and a silent Cemetery and I broke down my emotional armor broke down I cried and I said to myself how did this woman do it how did she leave 300 passengers of freedom and never lost one on the Underground Railroad I have wrought in the day you in the night I have had the applause of the crowd and a satisfaction that comes from being approved by the multitude while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling guard and footsore bondman and women whom you have led out of the house of bondage and whose heartfelt god bless you has been your only reward [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] while not me [Music] [Music] after she escaped from slavery Sojourner Truth chose her own free name and became a great abolitionist leader as she traveled the country speaking the truth about slavery she discovered that there was another form of oppression like slaves white women couldn't own property couldn't vote couldn't speak in public she saw these people as allies in the struggle for freedom at a convention where women's rights were being debated she heard preachers and scholars make the argument woo women were too weak to have equal rights they needed to be helped out of carriages helped over mud puddles and given the best place everywhere but she rose to speak it tried to stop Sojourner from coming to the podium but she said nobody ever helped me out of carriages I helped me across puddles I'll give me the best place anywhere in our woman she pulled up the sleeve of a shirt and said showed a strong black arm and said I have worked the fields and and loaded the bonds and no man has bested me and ain't I a woman I have birth many children and when I seen him sold off into slavery nothing but Jesus heard my cry and ain't ah a woman the hata convention was riveted by the speech when she sat down she had made the cry sounded the call for all women to take up the struggle against oppression Sojourner Truth was born into slavery under the name isabella in new york state in 1797 by the time she was born slaves had been bought and sold in the new york area for over 150 years Sojourner Truth was a slave in New York State and we don't usually connect New York State or indeed New Jersey or Pennsylvania with slavery but they were all slave states she was emancipated in 1827 by state law which meant that she grew up as a slave now for Sojourner Truth this meant that she only knew her parents for a short time and that she was separated from her parents very early this was the case with slaves very often throughout the country slaves were subject to sale but even if they weren't sold away from their children or their parents people lived on different plantations and different farms so families were not together slavery is a system in the United States as it were where individuals were owned this property both individuals it was a system of chattel slavery in which the individual had no rights a slave was someone who could be forced to work from the age of 8 6-4 even long hours at tasks that someone else decided a slave was a person who had no right to a vacation a slave was a person who had no rights to wages and it is a system which existed here for several hundred years and which continues to permeate I think present-day society in terms of how we react to certain racial relationships in this country Isabella's family was owned by a man named Hardenberg who was of Dutch descent she heard only Dutch as she grew up so this was her first language when she was about 11 years old her master died and his heirs auctioned off his horses his cattle and his slaves Isabella was sold to a man named John Neely who owned a store and dock and nearby Kingston New York one Sunday morning her master took her to the barn where he beat her with red-hot iron without reason although Isabella pleaded with him to stop and called out to God for help the beating continued until her back was covered with blood a slave was someone who could be beaten and masters and overseers routinely used Forbes force or the threat of force in order to coerce workers to do what they wanted so slave children were not likely to stay with their parents as they grew up and they were very likely to have been beaten what we'd consider child abuse Isabella's father learned about the brutal punishment that his daughter had received and he was able to persuade a local fisherman named Martin Shriver to buy her from the Neely's Isabella was sold once again in 1810 her new owner was patient and relatively kind but his wife was mean-spirited and took an instant dislike to her quiet spoken knew slave Isabella was often badly treated by her mistress and co-workers in the Dumont household but she had been taught to repay evil with good and she had developed a deep spiritual belief that her hard work would eventually be rewarded she agreed to accept as her husband one of des monts older slaves frequently slaves did not have a choice in terms of whom they married masters quite frequently did not favor their slaves marrying persons on other plantations because they would not be able to exert full control over their lives Sojourner Truth then contracted a marriage with an older man it does not appear that this marriage was contracted because they were greatly in love it was more marriage of convenience however she did bare him several children year after year Isabella planted corn chopped wood and hauled buckets of water for the due months in 1824 good news finally reached her pressured by abolitionist groups the New York State Legislature passed an emancipation law requiring that all slaves born before July 4th 1799 be freed on July 4th 1827 although no one knew for sure when Isabella had been born the dumont agreed that she was eligible to be freed in 1827 the slaveholders are terrible for promising to give you this or that or such in such a privilege if you will do thus and so and when the time of fulfillment comes and one claims the promise they forsooth recollect nothing of the kind and you are like us not taunted with being a liar or at best the slave is accused of not having performed his part or condition of the contract and she was not set free but she was determined that she would be free so she left but she left her children in slavery because they had been assigned to term slavery as such and their freedom would come much later as it happened her child Peter was sold to another owner in New York and then sold to Alabama Sojourner Truth checked the law and found out that it was illegal to sell a New York slave out of the state Sojourner Truth or Isabella went to court to get her son back her son had been illegally sold into perpetual slavery in Alabama out of New York state that she took this step showed that even as a slave she was an extraordinarily strong person with a sense of autonomy of personal autonomy and of what her rights were even though as a slave she had no legal rights so she was an unusual person at that time and she felt very strongly about her children a family by the name of Van Wagoner offered to hide Isabella but Dumont found her first wishing to help Isabella the van Wagner's offered to buy her and her baby for a small sum Demond agreed and isabella was free Isabella worked as a maid for the van Wagoner's for two years but like many former slaves she thought of leaving the area in search of job opportunities and port cities along the East Coast by this time her husband Thomas had been emancipated Isabella rarely saw him they had agreed to go their separate ways in the summer of 1828 Isabella and her son Peter headed down the Hudson River to New York City with the help of a friend Isabella soon found work as a domestic servant she began to look for a church that she could join she refused to sit in a church with segregated prayer rooms so she decided to join a black congregation known as a Zion African Church and then when she was about 30 years old she became a Methodist she discovered Jesus which changed her life tremendously and this faith allowed her to transcend much of the tragedy of her youth and helped her become the person whom we know with his tremendous presence she devoted her free time to homeless young women at the Magdalene asylum the director was Elijah Pearson a self-proclaimed minister Pearson believed himself to be a man of great spiritual powers whom God had chosen to relieve the wretchedness of the poor in New York City Isabella also believed that she could communicate directly with God and in August 1831 she moved into Pearson's meetinghouse becoming his full-time servant and a devout member of his religious sect Pearson subsequently founded a religious community with Robert Matthews who called himself Matthias Sojourner Truth belonged to a commune we would call it a commune they called it a kingdom a religious commune between 1832 and 1835 and it was at Zion Hill Westchester County New York just outside of New York City this commune was headed by a man named Mathias who had been born Robert Matthews in upstate New York and Mathias said he was a prophet and he convinced several other Americans in New York that he was a prophet and one of them was Isabella Sojourner Truth now sedona truth isabella was one of many americans at the time who believed in what we think of now as rather unconventional religion it was a fascinating brand of religion and there seemed to have been cells of this kind of religion all over the antibellum Norris Isabella went to live at Zion Hill with Matthias Pearson and the Folgers who owned the farm however she returned to New York City in 1834 after becoming disillusioned with their approach to religion not long after a scandal erupted at Zion Hill Pearson died and his relatives accused Matthias of poisoning his fellow prophet and stealing his money a New York newspaper printed a sensationalized account of life at Zion Hill the story accused Isabella of being an evil witch who had single-handedly destroyed the peace and harmony that had once existed they're offended by the accusations Isabella filed a lawsuit against both Folger and the newspaper she again won her case and received one hundred and twenty five dollars in damages from the defendants while continuing to work as a servant Isabella realized her experiences as a slave mother and devout Christian had given her a perspective on human rights and spiritual well-being that she wanted to share with others in her own mind she heard powerful voices telling her that she had a mission to help the needy and the oppressed early in the summer of 1843 Isabella decided to act on God's command that she leave New York City and become a traveling preacher but she wanted a new name a free woman's name and the Lord gave me Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land showing the people their sins and being a sign unto them afterward I told the Lord I wanted another name because everybody else had two names and the Lord gave me truth because I was to declare the truth to the people Sojourner Truth became Sedona Truth in 1843 when she was about 46 I think maybe we could close more close to 44 years old but certainly she was a mature woman and she felt that she should go out into the world go to the east which meant Brooklyn from New York City and preach the gospel to convert Souls from Brooklyn Sojourner took a ship across Long Island Sound and proceeded northward preaching in Connecticut and Massachusetts wherever she went people flocked to listen to her she joined a commune called the Northampton Association in Northampton Massachusetts which is in western Massachusetts which was an industrial community made silk and she stayed there for several years and it was there that she became a supporter of women's rights and anti-slavery she began to speak on the anti-slavery circuit in the late ninth 1840s and we first hear of her as a reformer in the very late 40s and the early 1850s while truth was living at the Association she met many prominent public figures among the people were abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass although the importation of slaves into the United States was forbidden after 1808 slavery was still being practiced in most of the southern states led by garrison and Douglas the abolitionist movement sought to put an end to slavery all of Gilbert an abolitionist friend of truths from Northampton had been suggesting to truth since 1847 that she share her story truth liked the idea and in 1850 she and Gilbert published the narrative of Sojourner Truth which included an introduction by garrison truth who could not read the account of her own life was able to support herself by selling copies of the book at abolitionist meetings Sojourner Truth using her voice very strong religious beliefs felt this need this urge to travel the country delivering her message of upliftment for black people and ultimately did become someone who was involved in many other activities including the abolitionist movement including the women's movement during her stay at the Northampton Association she heard lectures advocating that women be given the same political and legal rights enjoyed by men recognizing that she and the women's rights speakers were kindred spirits truth decided to join their ranks and yet another battle for freedom many women abolitionists compared the plight of the women in America to that of slaves in the south and declared that both women and slaves must be liberated she said I am against slavery because I know what it's like and she was also a woman's rights activist and she said I am I'm for women's rights because I know what it's like to be a woman who has no rights that is the extreme of having no rights of being enslaved at a women's rights convention in Akron Ohio so Derner truth made such a strong defense for the feminist cause that she aroused national attention Sojourner Truth today is best known by a tag line that is associated with a speech she gave in 1851 and that phrase is it's a question and aren't I a woman and we understand that phrase to say I am a woman too even though I am black even though I am hardworking I am a woman too I deserve woman's rights and women deserve people's rights a well-known figure in the women's rights movement Sojourner Truth also began speaking for the abolitionist cause she became known for her simple but moving anti-slavery speeches and her witty biting attacks on the hypocrisy of people who owned slaves and yet profess to be Christians we know of Saturno truth as an anti-slavery woman's rights supporter she saw herself in the 19th century as a preacher who was bringing souls to Jesus sojourners preaching brought her to Rochester New York the town where Frederick Douglass published his anti-slavery journal the North Star she gave many lectures during her extended stay in Rochester whose residents were known for their strong abolitionist sympathies during the rest of 1852 and 1853 truth continued her lecture tour in Ohio and Michigan for women abolitionists speaking in public was tremendously courageous that the early 19th century was a time in which women did not generally speak in public it was not considered the thing to do for respectable women in 1857 at the age of sixty truth decided to move to Battle Creek Michigan a town with strong abolitionist roots truth was among the people who believed that slavery could still be ended peacefully years before at an abolitionist meeting in Boston Massachusetts she and Frederick Douglass tangled over this very issue Frederick Douglass was despairing that slavery could be abolished peaceably and he was calling on the slaves to rise up in is there freedom through force of arms Sojourner Truth was in the audience and she stood up and she said Frederick is God dad meaning Frederick have you lost your faith that God will bring our people through peaceably in 1861 the Civil War broke out blacks and the anti-slavery societies hailed the war as a struggle to end slavery but Americans buted chiefly as a battle to reunite the country Sojourner Truth decided to make a tour of the Midwest and rouse support for the union's war effort truth decided to visit President Lincoln in Washington DC she met with Lincoln on the morning of October 29 1864 she bluntly told him that she had never heard of him before he ran for president Lincoln laughed replying that he had heard of her for years and years true thanked the president for all he had done for black Americans and asked him to sign her book of life a collection of treasured autographs in November Lincoln was reelected by an overwhelming margin in the wake of several victories by the Union Army instead of returning to Battle Creek truth remained in Washington DC she spoke at a local charity benefit to help raise money for black soldiers and joined a group of women who fed and nursed thousands of former slaves refugee camps were set up in Washington for slaves fleeing the South conditions at the camps were terrible and the ex-slaves were constantly on guard against slave traders who kidnapped freed slaves and took them South most freedmen were afraid to speak out in protest truth however refused to be silenced she marched through the Freedmen's villages and told the slaves the law is for you take refuge in it she worked for the National Freedmen's relief Association where she educated the freedmen about the need to find work and housing and other responsibilities that came with their newly won freedom I think Sojourner Truth was very bold for in her day and age because she just went around people you know that she will what she believed was wrong that slavery was wrong she had no money she was poor you know she had no support it was just herself and I think that takes a lot of inner strength to pull that from within yourself to say well this is what I'm gonna do I strongly believe that this is wrong and I'm gonna speak out truth was still in Washington the night President Lincoln was assassinated while watching a play at Ford's Theatre in the month following Lincoln's death the last of the Confederate armies surrendered to Union forces on December 12th 1865 truth and millions of other Americans celebrated as Congress ratified the 13th amendment declaring that slavery was unlawful in the United States truths prayers had been answered she had lived to see the end of slavery staying in Washington truth prepared herself for a new mission a campaign against racism the slaves had been freed but in the eyes of many White's throughout the country blacks were not equal after the Civil War Sojourner Truth became very active in reform primarily within the black community she liked a number of the former abolitionists like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and many others she lived in Washington DC for a time prior to - residing in Michigan and while in Washington she became involved in a variety of reform she worked with with with freedmen she worked with him there at the hospital she worked with them locally in terms of addressing problems of discrimination in the city and one particular area was in terms of public transportation and she she was a great organizer she organized freedmen to protest for their rights in march of 1875 the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote to all men regardless of race color or previous condition of servitude reconstruction was a moment in which black people black men were able to vote so it meant access to political power and political power in a democracy is fundamental truth was still concerned about the impoverished freedmen who had flocked to Washington DC she implored a white audience in Rochester New York to sign a petition to help former slaves resettle in the West get these colored people out of Washington and offer the government and get the old people out and build them homes in the West where they can feed themselves and they would soon be able to be a people among you that is my commission now agitate them people and put them there learn them to read one part of the time and learn them to work the other part of the time her plan was never adopted the tide of black progress continued to be blocked by conservative White's Hayes became the 19th President of the United States in 1876 one of his first major acts as president was to withdraw the federal troops that were protecting the civil rights of southern blacks the action signaled the end of Reconstruction many gains that blacks had won after the civil war would now be reversed truth did not have the strength to tour and protest by the beginning of 1881 she had become gravely ill she died early in the morning of November 26 1883 but she found it within herself to tell people what she believed was wrong and to tell people how she felt and she stood up for what she believed in and I believe that's very important to not compromise yourself if you believe that is wrong and you really believe that to let someone know to tell them to stand up for what you believe and become active in that and you know to really let people know all we know about Sojourner Truth is from the reports of the period others and how they saw Sojourner Truth it appears that she was a woman of great presence a woman of great strength a woman whose whose presence and strength and sheer utterance could could calm and audience could Rev an audience up could move an audience to action she was a woman of great strength and presence [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Published: Thu Aug 01 2019