Faith Legends, Reimagined
Most of us have heard about this amazing woman before, but few would think of her as a legend in the faith. However, I believe that if God were to expand the Bible to include people who faithfully followed Him from our recent history, her story would definitely be included. Sojourner Truth is someone every Jesus-loving woman should admire.
Last fall, I read Sojourner’s autobiography, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, originally published in 1850 and found myself both enamored and challenged by her incredible faith. Originally born Isabella Bomefree in 1797 to parents, Mau Mau Bett and James (nicknamed Bomefree, which is Dutch for “tree” because he was tall). Her parents and their 13 children were enslaved by a dutchman in New York. Devastatingly, their captors would rip her family apart, selling Isabella and all 12 of her siblings away from their parents within their first 10 years of life. Sojourner recalls the day she and her younger brother Peter were forcefully removed from their parents to be sold off to separate enslavers. She was a mere eight years old, and Peter was only 5. Reading this portion of the book absolutely broke my heart. I cannot imagine how horrific this must have been for a young child to watch their loved ones be torn away one by one, knowing that one day it would also happen to them. And then, when that day all too soon arrived, how terrifying and painful that probably was to experience. It left me speechless… And her parents… oh my, I have no words. I just cannot imagine the heartache they felt for the rest of their lives, wondering if their babies were okay, if they were even still alive.
As I was trying to wrap my mind around the devastation that happened to her family, Sojourner shares a powerful moment she had with her mother, Mau Mau Bett, before she was sold away. Please keep in mind that by this point, Mau Mau had 11 of her children ripped from her arms and was dreading the tearing away of her last two as well.
“After this event (the sale of one of her brothers), she was often surprised to find her mother in tears; and when, in her simplicity, she inquired, ‘Mau Mau, what makes you cry?’ she would answer, ‘Oh, my child, I am thinking of your brothers and sisters who have been sold away from me.’ And she would proceed to detail many circumstances respecting them…”
“In the evening, when her mother’s work was done, she would sit down under the sparkling vault of heaven, and calling her children to her, would talk to them of the only Being that could effectually aid or protect them. Her teachings were delivered in Low Dutch, her only language, and translated into English, ran nearly as follows: ‘My children, there is a God, who hears you and sees you.’ ‘A God, mau-mau! Where does He live?’ asked the children. ‘He lives in the sky,’ she replied; ‘and when you are beaten, or cruelly treated, or fall into any trouble, you must ask help of him, and He will always hear and help you.’
“At times a groan would escape her, and she would break out in the language of the psalmist — ‘Oh Lord, how long? Oh Lord, how long?’ and in deep reply to Isabella’s question — ‘What ails you, ma-mau?’ Her only answer was, ‘Oh, a good deal ails me. Enough ails me.’ Then again, she would point them to the stars, and say, in her peculiar language, ‘Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they sees as they look up to them, though they are far away from us and each other.’ Thus in this humble way, did she endeavor to show them their Heavenly Father, as the only being who could protect them in their perilous condition. At the same time, she would strengthen and brighten the chain of family affection, which she trusted extended itself suffieciently to connect the widely scattered members of her precious flock. These instructions of her mother were treasured up and held sacred by Isabella, as our future narrative will show.”
- The Narrative Of Sourjouner Truth, from the chapter entitled “Her Religious Instruction.”
Merely typing these words to share with you caused me to cry. Never in my life have I wanted to reach into the pages of a book and hold someone so badly. Mau Mau and James went through heartache that is inconceivable, just something no parent should ever have to go through - and all of it because of greed. These parents, these believers in God, watched as men who considered themselves their “owners” put a price on their priceless children and profit from their agony. And yet… and YET, even in their endless grief, Mau Mau believed in the Lord, in His goodness and ability to protect them. As she lost child after child after child to the brutality that was chattel slavery, she continued to teach her remaining children that God saw them, loved them, and would care for them always. Mau Mau gave her children the only thing she had that could never be taken from her, or taken from her children: faith.
Isabella, after being sold at 8 years old, was forced to do housework during the day and care for the infant of her mistress all night long. If she fell asleep, she was awakened by severe beatings. She herself would marry and have 5 children, 4 of whom were torn away from her as well. Isabella escaped slavery with her infant daughter in 1826, and in 1828, she made headlines when she successfully sued for custody of her son who had been illegally sold from her years prior. (It’s complicated, but to put it simply - Isabella’s little boy was sold away, and shortly afterwards was then secretly sold once more to someone who illegally smuggled him out of New York to the south). Chattel slavery was practiced throughout the country, but was considerably more brutal and murderous in the Deep South, where Isabella feared her son wouldn’t survive. She asked God to help her, just like Mau Mau Bett had taught her, and believed the Lord would pave the way for her to get her son back.
Here is what happened exactly as it was shared in Sojourner’s book, which was narrated by Sojourner herself when she was very old:
“When Isabel heard that her son had been sold south, she immediately started on foot and alone, to find the man who had thus dared, in the face of all law, human and divine, to sell her child out of state; and if possible, to bring him to account of the deed. Arriving at New Paltz, she went directly to her former mistress, Dumont, complaining bitterly of the removal of her son. Her mistress heard her through, and then replied - ‘Ugh! A fine fuss to make about a little ******! Why, haven’t you as many of em left as you can see to, and take care of? A pity ‘tis, the ******* are not all in Guinea! Making such a halloo-balloon about the neighborhood; and all for a paltry ******!’
Isabella heard her through, and after a moment’s hesitation, answered in tones of deep determination - ‘I’ll have my child again.’ ‘Have your child again!’ repeated her mistress—her tones big with contempt, and scorning the absurd idea of her getting him. ‘How can you get him? And what have you to support him with, if you could? Have you any money?’ ‘No,’ answered Isabel, ‘I have no money, but God has enough, or what’s better! And I’ll have my child again.’ These words were pronounced in the most slow solemn, and determined measure and manner. And in speaking of it, she says, ‘Oh my God! I know’d I’d have him again. I was sure God would help me to get him. Why, I felt so tall within — I felt as if the power of a nation was with me!”
I don’t know of many people who, after enduring what Isabella had and facing the violence and hatred Isabella faced, could have responded with as much faith or courage. She walked with the Lord just like her mother had, and she loved Him no matter what unspeakable tragedies happened in her life. This is what inspires me to my core. And, spoiler alert: Isabella did indeed get her little boy back! God provided a lawyer paid for by the generosity of a few people who heard her story, and she found a way to provide for her children through domestic work.
This was not the first challenge Isabella would trust in the Lord to help her conquer. While enslaved in the south, her little boy had been physically and psychologically tortured. His captor told him that his mother did not love him anymore, so when he was retuned to Isabella, he was frightened of her. A short while later, as her son slowly began to heal and confide in her, he spoke of long nights spent on a cement floor and whippings that took the skin from his back. Her son was so deeply traumatized by his experience that he had trouble adjusting to school and drifted aimlessly as a young adult until he later found a job on a ship. He wrote to his mother, still known as Isabella, often (though, being illiterate, she was unable to write back).
Isabella became Sojourner Truth on a seemingly random day in her old age. This is one of the things I love so much about her! As a free-woman, Sojourner continued to do similar jobs to the ones she had during her enslavement - cooking, cleaning, washing, and other housework. Though she was getting paid for her work, it was barely enough to live on, and as she looked over the years of her life she felt as though she were depending on a broken worldly system of working her days away and still never having enough to eat. So, she decided to live differently. Her kids had their own lives by that point, and it was the first time in her life when she could decide for herself how she wanted to live. And Isabella decided to set out on an adventure with God in the lead, going anywhere He led her to go.
“Her next decision was, that she must leave the city; it was no place for her. Yea, she felt called in her spirit to leave it, and to travel east and lecture. She had never been further east than the city, neither had she any friends there of whom she had particular reason to expect anything; yet to her it was plain that her mission lay in the east, and that she would find friends there. She determined on leaving; but these determinations and convictions she kept close locked in her own breast, knowing that if her children and friends were aware of it, they would make such an ado about it as it would render it very unpleasant, if not distressing to all parties…
About an hour before she left, she informed Mrs. Whiting, the woman of the house where she was stopping, that her name was no longer Isabella, but Sojourner; and that she was going east. And to her inquiry, ‘What are you going east for?’ her answer was, ‘The Spirit calls me there, and I must go.' She left the city on the morning of June 1, 1843.
Her mission was not merely to travel east, but to ‘lecture,’ as she designated it; ‘testifying of the hope that was in her,’ - exhorting the people to embrace Jesus…”
-Excerpts taken from The Narrative Of Sojourner Truth
In her book, Sojourner shares some of the sermons she taught and truths she learned that molded and deepened her faith in God. What I find so stunning about Ms. Sojourner Truth is that even though she’d never been taught to read, and was forbidden to learn, she was knowledgeable about scripture on an advanced level. Later she would reveal how she learned passages of the Bible - Sojourner asked children to read scripture to her and she listened intently, writing every word upon her heart. Also, after being enslaved and brutalized by the white people who enslaved her most of her life, she would later devote so much of her ministry sharing about Jesus with white congregations. (This is significant because, barely out of her captivity and trauma, it would have taken courage to trust God and her fellow man in this way. It was not easy to tell the difference between an abolitionist and an enslaver. She was staking her life in many of these friendships.) Sojourner was often the only woman, and the only Black person, in a room of white men and many of them wrote to fellow believers about how enthralled they were by her biblical insights.
Even after facing so much hatred, Sojourner had an open heart. She was excited to share Jesus with anyone who would listen. She would befriend anyone who opened their heart to her with kindness. It was evident that she walked closely with Jesus because she became so much like Him!
“They listened eagerly to Sojourner, and drank in all she said. She soon became a favorite among them; when she arose to speak in their assemblies, her commanding figure and dignified manner hushed every trifler into silence, and her singular and sometimes uncouth modes of expression never provoked a laugh, but often were the whole audience melted into tears by her touching stories.”
I would love to share one final excerpt with you that gave me chills. To set the scene, Sojourner was attending a revival that was being held outside beneath a tent when a group of loud, drunk, racist white men showed up to cause trouble. Sojourner quickly realized that, being the only Black person there in a sea of white faces, she was a target. Her heart full of fear, she knew that if these men were going to hurt anyone, it would be her. Advanced in age and unable to make a run for it, Sojourner began to think about where she should hide when the Lord gave her what many would call a crazy idea instead:
“Under the impulse of this sudden emotion, she fled to the most retired corner of a tent, and secreted herself behind a trunk. Saying to herself, ‘I am the only colored person here, and on me, probably, their wicked mischief will fall first, and perhaps fatally.
But feeling how great was her insecurity even there, as the very tent began to shake from its foundations, she began to soliloquies as follows - ‘Shall I run away and hide from the devil? Me, a servant of the living God? Have I not faith enough to go out and quell that mob, when I know it is written - ‘One shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight’? I know there are not a thousand here, and I know I am a servant of the Living God. I’ll go to the rescue, and the Lord shall go with me and protect me.’ She now came forth from her hiding place, and invited several to go with her and see what they could do to still the raging of the moral elements. They declined, and considered her wild to think of it.”
Talk. About. Crazy. Faith. Just wait and see what she does next!
“The noise and confusion were now terrific. Sojourner left the tent alone and unaided, and walking some to the top of a small rise of ground, commenced to sing in her most fervid manner, with all the strength of her most powerful voice, the hymn on the resurrection of Christ -
‘It was early in the morning - it was early in the morning, Just at the break of day -
when He rose - when He rose - when He rose,
and went to Heaven on a cloud.’
As she commenced to sing, the young men made a rush towards her, and she was immediately encircled by a dense body of the rioters, many of them armed with sticks or clubs as their weapons of defense, if not of attack. As the circle narrowed around her, she ceased singing, and after a short pause, inquired, in a gentle but firm tone, ‘Why do you come about me with clubs and sticks? I am not doing harm to anyone.’ ‘We ar’n’t a going to hurt you, old woman; we came to hear you sing,’ cried many voices simultaneously. ‘Sing to us, old woman,’ cries one. ‘Talk to us, old woman,’ says another. ‘Pray, old woman,’ says a third. ‘Tell us your experience,’ says a fourth. ‘You stand and smoke so near me, I cannot sing or talk,’ she answered.
‘Stand back,’ said several authoritative voices… The crowd suddenly gave back, the circle became larger, as many voices again called for singing, talking, or praying, backed by assurances that no one should be allowed to hurt her - the speakers declaring an oath that they would ‘knock down’ any person who should offer her the least indignity.
She looked about her, and said inwardly - ‘Here must be many young men in all this assemblage, bearing within them hearts susceptible of good impressions. I will speak to them.’ She did speak; they silently heard, and civilly asked her many questions. It seemed to her to be given her at the time to answer them with truth and wisdom beyond herself. Her speech had operated on the roused passions of the mob like oil on agitated waters. They were, as a whole, entirely subdued, and only clamored when she ceased to speak or sing…”
- The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, told by Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth, for much of her life, was enslaved and banned from calling herself her own. When I think about this - how so many of her life’s choices and daily decisions were often determined by someone else who could torture her if she refused - it makes her decision to follow Jesus all the more powerful. When God helped her to gain her freedom, she gave it to Him as an offering. Every choice that was hers to make, she made for God’s glory. So many of us would spiral and fall apart after living a life so difficult, but Sojourner didn’t. God kept her strong. She stood tall like her father, Bomefree, and faithful like Mau Mau Bett. God gave Isabella, also known as Sojourner Truth, victory over enslavers in court, God melted hearts with her stories, and He hushed an angry mob with Sojourner’s beautiful voice.
I pray this encourages you to trust in God more deeply than you ever have, dear sister. Let us take this lesson from our mother in the faith and depend on God in every circumstance. Let’s not be afraid to wander, to speak up, to do things differently, face our fears, and believe the impossible. Let us not hesitate to believe that even when we are surrounded by enemies on every side, pierced by racism, God will defend us. He will make a way. God will always make a way.
I often pray to have a “Sojourner” type of faith. Think of some of the scary things going on in your life, the stuff that is making you want to hide, and declare Sojourner’s statement of faith:
“Shall I run away and hide from the devil? Me, a servant of the living God? Have I not faith enough to go out and [insert your challenge here]? I know I am a servant of the Living God. I’ll go to the rescue, and the Lord shall go with me and protect me.”
I know the world today is crazy, it is difficult, and often filled with violence that makes the future to look grim. Sister, take heart. Nothing can stop the Lord’s plans for your life. No oppression in the world can keep God from helping you, defending you, and giving you the victory over every enemy you face. He helped Moses lead the Israelites from their bondage, helped Esther save the lives of her people, empowered Daniel to survive a lion’s den, and led Isabella through her long, brutal enslavement and into a new life of freedom as Sojourner. This should give every woman, especially every woman of color, hope! In a world that says we can’t, God says we can!
Receive God’s promise from the book of Isaiah today:
“When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”
- Isaiah 43:2 NLT
Love you,
- Kelly
Sources: The Narrative Of Sojourner Truth, originally published in 1850. The current edition was published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
