Cause and Prophecy: Sojourner Truth as a Mediating Orator

Abstract

　Sojourner Truth, born "Isabella," was a nineteenth-century ex-slave orator and reformer whose causes included both antislavery and woman suffrage. She has been well-known to feminists due to her saying, “Ain't I a Woman?”, but now Truth has won immortality among people in general as a strong-willed, untiring orator. I believe what made her immortal was her work of mediating different groups of people, such as men and women, the white and the black, radicals and moderates. As an orator, she mediated an audience with her eloquence, wit, and religious faith.

　First, Truth's eloquence paradoxically came from her illiteracy, which forced her to develop the ability to be an engaging orator who could instantly ascertain what should be said on the pulpit without any script. As she declared, "I don't read such small stuff as leters, I read men and nations." She could draw on her own lived experience in a political context. Her illiteracy also authenticates her experience as an ex-slave.

　Second, Truth was an entertainer. Her speeches began with singing a hymn, and then she elicited applauses and laughter from an audience. She could cleverly respond to hecklers with wit and jokes. Her sense of humor and singing made her a favorite, both in public and in private.

　Finally, her faith was something that connected people of all colors. She could quote the Bible whenever she chose, because she learned it from children, who would read her any passage as often as she wished. Thus, she orally mastered the Scriptures, applied the gospel to her lived experience, and then orally delivered the truth to an audience. Her wide knowledge of the Bible was vital to her fame as an orator.

　Despite the fact that she was an illiterate ex-slave woman, Sojourner Truth's name survives in history, and she has become a "legend." With her eloquence, wit and faith, Truth inspired - and continues to inspire - people, mediating those with different interests.