Freed from slavery in 1828, Sojourner Truth became the first black woman to crusade for the abolition of slavery. Truth also supported the women's rights movement and from 1850 her speeches called for equality for blacks and for women of all races. She earned a reputation for oratorical power and a ready wit, as evidenced in this speech at the 1851 women's rights convention: I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? . . . And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and woman who bore him. Man, where is your part?

Truth also supported the women's rights movement and from 1850 her speeches called for equlaity for blacks and for women of all races. She adopted the name Sojourner Truth in obedience, she believed, to a heavenly voice as she described it. Sojourner Truth was illiterate and her English was crude, but she was able to hold her audiences captive by her dominating presence. Her themes were usually the abolition of slavery and equal rights for all women.

Sojourner Truth is pictured in a demure light, but one can see that it does not suit her personality from the light in her eyes. The bonnet and dress she wears are very in keeping with her status and the times; however, one can see that there is more to her than meets the eye. She appears in this image as a viewer in her day would wish to see an African American woman, but it is obvious that she is not the sum of her label. She is a rebel who fights for what is right in the eyes of her Lord and is humbled only before Him who made her.