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SOJOURNER TRUTH, THE LIBYAN SIBYL
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Many years ago, the few readers of radical Abolitionist papers must often have seen the singular name of Sojourner Truth, announced as a frequent speaker at Anti-Slavery meetings, and as travelling on a sort of self-appointed agency through the country.
I had myself often remarked the name, but never met the individual. On one occasion, when our house was filled with company, several eminent clergymen being our guests, notice was brought up to me that Sojourner Truth was below, and requested an interview. Knowing nothing of her but her singular name, I went down, prepared to make the interview short, as the pressure of many other engagements demanded.
When I went into the room, a tall, spare form arose to meet me.
She was evidently a full-blooded African, and though now aged and worn with many hardships, still gave the impression of a physical development which in early youth must have been as fine a specimen of the torrid zone as Cumberworthās celebrated statuette of the Negro Woman at the Fountain. Indeed, she so strongly reminded me of that figure, that, when I recall the events of her life, as she narrated them to me, I imagine her as a living, breathing impersonation of that work of art.
I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence than this woman. In the modern Spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as having a strong sphere.
Her tall form, as she rose up before me, is still vivid to my mind. She was dressed in some stout, grayish stuff, neat and clean, though dusty from travel. On her head, she wore a bright Madras handkerchief, arranged as a turban, after the manner of her race. She seemed perfectly self-possessed and at her ease,āin fact, there was almost an unconscious superiority, not unmixed with a solemn twinkle of humor, in the odd, composed manner in which she looked down on me. Her whole air had at times a gloomy sort of drollery which impressed one strangely.
āSo this is YOU,ā she said.
āYes,ā I answered.
āWell, honey, de Lord bless ye! I jesā thought Iād like to come anā have a look at ye. Youās heerd oā me, I reckon?ā she added.
āYes, I think I have. You go about lecturing, do you not?ā
āYes, honey, thatās what I do. The Lord has made me a sign unto this nation, anā I go round aātestifyinā, anā showinā on āem their sins agin my people.ā
So saying, she took a seat, and, stooping over and crossing her arms on her knees, she looked down on the floor, and appeared to fall into a sort of reverie. Her great gloomy eyes and her dark face seemed to work with some undercurrent of feeling; she sighed deeply, and occasionally broke out,ā
āO Lord! O Lord! Oh, the tears, anā the groans, anā the moans!
O Lord!ā
I should have said that she was accompanied by a little grandson of ten years,āthe fattest, jolliest woolly-headed little specimen of Africa that one can imagine. He was grinning and showing his glistening white teeth in a state of perpetual merriment, and at this moment broke out into an audible giggle, which disturbed the reverie into which his relative was falling.
She looked at him with an indulgent sadness, and then at me.
āLaws, Maāam, HE donāt know nothinā about itāHE donāt. Why, Iāve seen them poor critters, beat anā ābused anā hunted, brought in all torn,āears hanginā all in rags, where the dogs been aābitinā
of āem!ā
This set off our little African Puck into another giggle, in which he seemed perfectly convulsed.
She surveyed him soberly, without the slightest irritation.
āWell, you may bless the Lord you CAN laugh; but I tell you, āt waānāt no laughinā matter.ā
By this time I thought her manner so original that it might be worth while to call down my friends; and she seemed perfectly well pleased with the idea. An audience was what she wanted,āit mattered not whether high or low, learned or ignorant. She had things to say, and was ready to say them at all times, and to any one.
I called down Dr. Beecher, Professor Allen, and two or three other clergymen, who, together with my husband and family, made a roomful. No princess could have received a drawing-room with more composed dignity than Sojourner her audience. She stood among them, calm and erect, as one of her own native palm-trees waving alone in the desert. I presented one after another to her, and at last said,ā
āSojourner, this is Dr. Beecher. He is a very celebrated preacher.ā
āIS he?ā she said, offering her hand in a condescending manner, and looking down on his white head. āYe dear lamb, Iām glad to see ye! De Lord bless ye! I loves preachers. Iām a kind oā
preacher myself.ā
āYou are?ā said Dr. Beecher. āDo you preach from the Bible?ā
āNo, honey, canāt preach from de Bible,ācanāt read a letter.ā
āWhy, Sojourner, what do you preach from, then?ā
Her answer was given with a solemn power of voice, peculiar to herself, that hushed every one in the room.
āWhen I preaches, I has jest one text to preach from, anā I always preaches from this one. MY text is, āWHEN I FOUND JESUS.āā
āWell, you couldnāt have a better one,ā said one of the ministers.
She paid no attention to him, but stood and seemed swelling with her own thoughts, and then began this narration:ā
āWell, now, Iāll jest have to go back, anā tell ye all about it.
Ye see, we was all brought over from Africa, father anā mother anā
I, anā a lot more of us; anā we was sold up anā down, anā hither anā yon; anā I can āmember, when I was a little thing, not bigger than this āere,ā pointing to her grandson, āhow my ole mammy would sit out oā doors in the eveninā, anā look up at the stars anā
groan. Sheād groan anā groan, anā says I to her,ā
āāMammy, what makes you groan so?ā
āanā sheād say,ā
āāMatter enough, chile! Iām groaninā to think oā my poor children: they donāt know where I be, anā I donāt know where they be; they looks up at the stars, anā I looks up at the stars, but I canāt tell where they be.
āāNow,ā she said, āchile, when youāre grown up, you may be sold away from your mother anā all your ole friends, anā have great troubles come on ye; anā when you has these troubles come on ye, ye jesā go to God, anā Heāll help ye.ā
āAnā says I to her,ā
āāWho is God, anyhow, mammy?ā
āAnā says she,ā
āāWhy, chile, you jesā look up DAR! Itās Him that made all DEM!ā
āWell, I didnāt mind much ābout God in them days. I grew up pretty lively anā strong, anā could row a boat, or ride a horse, or work round, anā do āmost anything.
āAt last I got sold away to a real hard massa anā missis. Oh, I tell you, they WAS hard! āPeared like I couldnāt please āem, nohow. Anā then I thought oā what my old mammy told me about God; anā I thought Iād got into trouble, sure enough, anā I wanted to find God, anā I heerd some one tell a story about a man that met God on a threshinā-floor, anā I thought, āWell anā good, Iāll have a threshinā-floor, too.ā So I went down in the lot, anā I threshed down a place real hard, anā I used to go down there every day, anā pray anā cry with all my might, a-prayinā to the Lord to make my massa anā missis better, but it didnāt seem to do no good; anā so says I, one day,ā
āāO God, I been a-askinā ye, anā askinā ye, anā askinā ye, for all this long time, to make my massa anā missis better, anā you donāt do it, anā what CAN be the reason? Why, maybe you CANāT. Well, I shouldnāt wonder ef you couldnāt. Well, now, I tell you, Iāll make a bargain with you. Ef youāll help me to git away from my massa anā missis, Iāll agree to be good; but ef you donāt help me, I really donāt think I can be. Now,ā says I, āI want to git away; but the troubleās jest here: ef I try to git away in the night, I canāt see; anā ef I try to git away in the daytime, theyāll see me, anā be after me.ā
āThen the Lord said to me, āGit up two or three hours afore daylight, anā start off.ā
āAnā says I, āThank āee, Lord! thatās a good thought.ā
āSo up I got, about three oāclock in the morninā, anā I started anā travelled pretty fast, till, when the sun rose, I was clear away from our place anā our folks, anā out oā sight. Anā then I begun to think I didnāt know nothinā where to go. So I kneeled down, and says I,ā
āāWell, Lord, youāve started me out, anā now please to show me where to go.ā
āThen the Lord made a house appear to me, anā He said to me that I was to walk on till I saw that house, anā then go in anā ask the people to take me. Anā I travelled all day, anā didnāt come to the house till late at night; but when I saw it, sure enough, I went in, anā I told the folks that the Lord sent me; anā they was Quakers, anā real kind they was to me. They jesā took me in, anā
did for me as kind as ef Iād been one of āem; anā after theyād giv me supper, they took me into a room where there was a great, tall, white bed; anā they told me to sleep there. Well, honey, I was kind oā skeered when they left me alone with that great white bed; ācause I never had been in a bed in my life. It never came into my mind they could mean me to sleep in it. Anā so I jesā camped down under it, on the floor, anā then I slepā pretty well. In the morninā, when they came in, they asked me ef I hadnāt been asleep; anā I said, āYes, I never slepā better.ā Anā they said, āWhy, you havenāt been in the bed!ā Anā says I, āLaws, you didnāt think oā
such a thing as my sleepinā in dat āarā BED, did you? I never heerd oā such a thing in my life.ā
āWell, ye see, honey, I stayed anā lived with āem. Anā now jesā
look here: instead oā keepinā my promise anā beinā good, as I told the Lord I would, jest as soon as everything got aāgoinā easy, I FORGOT ALL ABOUT GOD.
āPretty well donāt need no help; anā I gin up prayin.ā I lived there two or three years, anā then the slaves in New York were all set free, anā ole massa came to our home to make a visit, anā he asked me ef I didnāt want to go back anā see the folks on the ole place. Anā I told him I did. So he said, ef Iād jesā git into the wagon
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