Sojourner Truth: Florence

"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them."

Sojourner Truth, born a slave named Isabella in about 1797, became a free woman in 1827. Fifteen years later she chose a new name for herself and became a traveling lecturer and preacher. She lived in Florence, Massachusetts, from 1843 until 1851, and continued to travel the country speaking about abolition and woman’s rights. In 1850, Truth dictated her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.

In 1851 she gave her famous, “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in Ohio.

The Sojourner Truth Memorial statue in Florence was conceived of in 1994, and dedicated in 2002 at the corner of Pine and Park Streets. The creation of the memorial was led by the Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue Committee, in an effort to challenge oppression and eliminate racism.