The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1939-02-25
AnHutt9 4rrntntH
SOJOURNER TRUTH AND
HARRIET TUBMAN
By Louise Thompson

When Sojourner Truth went to see
Abraham Lincoln she was not a stran-
ger to him. He had known of her LONG
hight for the freedom of her peonIe
long before she, herself, knew of Lin
coin.
1t was not strange that Lincoln
should have heard of Sojourner Truth.
Born slave about 1900 in Ulster
County, New York, and never throuob-
out her long life having learned 10
read or write, she was known bv those
IN high places as we'll as by the GREAT
masses of her people for her uncon-
promising fight against slavery and
Tor the rehabilitation of the ex-slaves
after the war. In her 'Book of LIFE,
winch she carried wherever she trav-
eIled are testimonials from the great
est abolItionists of the day-William
LLOYD Garrison, Frederick DOUGLASS
wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, +o
name few. Similar tribute to her
fearless struggle for equality of WE.
men was paid by Susan B. ANTHONY
and Lucretia Mott.
IN the halls of Congress, in churches
ana meeting rooms, on street corners
Anywhere an audience was to he
11!ound-went Sojourner Truth. travel
ing thousands of miles without funds
alone and unafraid. Her audiences
were not ALWAYS friendly.
War Nurse
during the Civil War, when So
Journer Truth was over sixty She
nursed the wounded soldiers in Tho
hospitals around Washington. Aftar
the war she worked among the frned
people there, teaching them how 70
adapt themselves to freedom.
S9oJourner Truth kept UP Ear travels
and speeches until she was we'll mast
eighty. People were amazed at tbo
vitality and intelligence of This aooJ
woman who lost none of her fire. sd 81
passion to struggle for the rights of
her people. NO Vi
Harriet Tubman
one could not end this brief sketch
Oh S9oJourner Truth without at least
mentioning her contemporary fiobtaT
Tor liberty, Harriet Tubman. 7 know
OF no meeting between Lincoln and
inns brave woman, but I am confident
that ne had heard of her MANY times
100. NO one, pro-slave or aboiitionie+
old not know of this fugitive slave
woman, who with a $4,000 price on
tIef mead, made nineteen trips into +bn
SSIouth to bring over three hundred
Negro men, women and children +o
freedom. She was known as "Tbe
moses OF her people," John Brown
called her General Tubman" in recog-
milton of her assistance to hin,
Union Spy
Duflng the Civil War, Harriet Tub-
man undertook the dangerous work of
spy and scout for the Union Army at
the request of Governor Andrew If
massachusetts. Into the South she
went, facing fire from both armies
iegad!ng the northern troops thro1ob
the Jungle and the swamp, overcomin o.
the fear of the slaves as thew Went p
After the war ended, Harriet T1h-
man returned to Auburn, N. Y. IN fnd
her little farm sold to satisfy a mort.
gage and herself with no means 70
Iedeem 1t or to care for her parents
All curing the war she had received
Dfead and root beer which she sold IN
no compensation for her Invaluable
service to the army and had to main
tam herself by making pies. ginger
!ne soldiers. Now, despite the plead
ing OF Secretary Seward and other
prominent citizens, the government
denied her pension. She was com
PEELED to depend on the assistance of
aDoolltlonist friends and her own labor.
~ SoJourner Truth, as well as Harriet
1l,uoman, was never compensated bv
me government for her work in the
Civil War. Likewise, those two noble
women have been ignored by histori-
ans and unsung in the nations Iitera-
lure. Our task today is to bring them
out OF obscurity into the front ranks
OF our country's heroes that their
lives may be an inspiration to the
emancipation fighters of the twentieth
century. O'''-~ vi