The impact of great African American Women

THE IMPACT OF GREAT AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN BEFORE 1877

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was originally known as Isabella , and was the daughter of James and Betsey , who were slaves of Col . Hardenbergh in New York After escaping from slavery and being legally freed by the state Isabella eventually was called to the life of an itinerant speaker and took up the name Sojourner , and later on adding the surname Truth . She was a powerful speaker against slavery , who often moved her audiences to tears and exclamations of horror just by speaking of

how some slaves were treated by their cruel masters . Truth 's work pointed to the complexities of developing moral agency amid contradictory moral economies

The various projects which Truth undertook in her life and work showed how she both resisted and played off of the contradictory demands of womanhood . She fought for the uplift of her race , but through the particular means open to her as a woman . She acted as a direct care provider to African Americans in and around Washington D .C , during and after the civil war , protesting the segregation of the City Railway , and working on jobs and resettlement projects . She also fought for women 's suffrage as a means to improve the living conditions for African Americans . She also argued simultaneously for the vote on the basis of women 's nature and knowledge as distinct from men and for an expansion of liberal understandings of rights to include African American women

In her...