Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewI am particulary impressed with the extremely high quality of the primary research and with the presentation of specific historical evidence on areas of Truth's life. . . . that have been mythologized by other writers. The book is obviously the result of years of careful and laborious sifting through antislavery newspapers and memoirs of Truth's activist associates. . . . [and] makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this woman's public life and her relationship to the reform movements of nineteenth-century America. Equally important, in a tempered and reasoned way, it presents us with an object lesson in how political movements (perhaps necessarily) attempt to appropriate. . . . historical hero figures for their own purposes. Sojourner Truth will stimulate lively discussions among both academics and nonacademics interested in the history of race relations in the United States. -- Jean Humez,author of Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress
Mabee chronicles Truth's life with restrained passion, refusing to fall into the traps of history by accepting what has merely been repeated...It is impressive in its depth, sparking a new interest in the woman being unveiled--a woman so many of us thought we already knew. * The Boston Globe *
This first-rate biography presents us with a heroine considerably more interesting--more original, more powerful—than the personality sentimentalists have often portrayed. * The New Yorker *
