We Will Be Free
The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
Christianity Today Book Award of Merit in History/Biography (2024)
Sojourner Truth's powerful voice calls to us through this evocative narrative of faith in action—and her words are more relevant than ever.
Though born into slavery, Sojourner Truth would defy the limits placed upon her as a Black woman to become one of the nineteenth century's most renowned female preachers and civil rights advocates. In We Will Be Free, Nancy Koester chronicles her spiritual journey as an enslaved woman, a working mother, and an itinerant preacher and activist.
On Pentecost in 1827, the course of Sojourner Truth's life was changed forever when she had a vision of Jesus calling her to preach. Though women could not be trained as ministers at the time, her persuasive speaking, powerful singing, and quick wit converted many to her social causes. During the Civil War, Truth campaigned for the Union to abolish slavery throughout the United States, and she personally recruited Black troops for the effort. Her activism carried her to Washington, DC, where she met Abraham Lincoln and ministered to refugees of Southern slavery. Truth's faith-driven action continued throughout Reconstruction, as she aided freed people, campaigned for reparations, advocated for women's rights, and defied segregation on public transportation.
Sojourner Truth's powerful voice once echoed in the streets of Washington and New York. Her passion rings out again in Nancy Koester's vivid writing. As the legacy of slavery and segregation still looms over the United States today, students of American history, Christians, and all interested readers will find inspiration and illumination in Truth's story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this edifying biography, historian Koester (Harriet Beecher Stowe) explores the life of abolitionist Sojourner Truth and the faith that shaped her. Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 New York State, she was legally enslaved until 1827, though a sympathetic couple, the Van Wagenens, bought and effectively "freed" her in 1825. The devoutly religious family helped galvanize Isabella's faith: "do not call me Master, for there is but one master, and he who is your master is my master," Van Wagenen said to her, leading Isabella to understand the idea of a "God of justice." Soon after, Isabella had a vision of Christ and felt such powerful "waves of love" that she decided to become a preacher, which brought her to New York City. Years later, when she left for Massachusetts, she renamed herself Sojourner, as she was "free to go wherever God's spirit called." For the rest of her days Sojourner "lived into her name," and Koester guides readers through her alliances with Elijah Pierson and Frederick Douglass, the publication of her autobiography, and her role in the early women's rights movement. Koester brings Truth alive in meticulous detail, carefully situating her within her era to underline the revolutionary—and eminently relevant—nature of her thought. Social justice-minded readers will want to take a look.
