Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883) was born enslaved in the Hudson River Valley in New York. She was named Isabella Baum free, daughter of Elizabeth and James Baumfree, in the Low Dutch community that populated the region. It is little known that Isabella was actually a native Dutch speaker who knew no English until the age of nine. After being forced to learn English, she nonetheless continued to speak the language with a marked Dutch accent for the rest of her life. Isabella had heard that her mother had had 13 children, but she hardly knew any of them, as most of her siblings had either been sold away before she was born or in her infancy before she could remember. Her family, particularly her mother, lived in great terror of this constant separation and loss.
When Isabella was aged nine, her master died and her family was separated once more. Her ill and ageing mother and father were granted freedom following a lifetime of work. Meanwhile Isabella was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for $100. By the age of 13 she had been sold and moved around a total of three times and had had four owners. These were hard years for Isabella. The first of these
