History Department      

History 301 – History Conversations –September 25, 2008

Nell Irwin Painter’s Sojourner Truth  

Nell Irwin Painter tries, in Sojourner Truth, to recreate the life of someone she never met, someone who died in 1883, well over a century ago.  How does Painter do it?  

Part I. Isabella  

Chapter 1. Isabella, Sojourner Truth, and American Slavery.  

  1. Consider the first couple of pages – why does Painter begin like this?
  2. What does P think central to Truth’s life?
  3. P goes into great detail about the culture into which Truth was born.  What details about this culture are important? 
  4. P also wants to put Truth’s life into early 19th century U.S. history.  What points does she make?
  5. So: this is a kind of background/context chapter (if you know “Gestalt” psychology, this chapter is a kind of “background” against which we’ll see the main character).  Is this a useful way to begin a biography?

Chapter 2: Isabella, A Slave.  

  1. Who were Isabella’s parents?  Why’s that important to know?
  2. Slavery was, of course, a “peculiar institution;” how did this specific kind of social institution affect Truth?
  3. P highlights themes like violence; “slave mentality;” black-white relations – what does she say about each?  Are there any other themes you think relevant to this discussion? 

Chapter 3. Journey Toward Freedom.  

  1. Clearly P thinks that Truth experienced a turning point in her life around 1827 (when she was around 30). Is this the sort of thing you’d look for if you wrote a biography?  Freud, of course, thought that early childhood was decisive; the historian Barbara Tuchman thought that young adulthood (18-25) was even more important than childhood – in writing a biography, which state of life would you focus on?  Why?

Chapter 4. Sanctification.   

  1. What does P tell us about the religious mood of early 19th century America?
  2. What’s odd about Truth celebrating “Pinkster”?  What’s this suggest about early American culture?
  3. Look carefully at Truth’s religious experience – what happened?  Why was this important for her biography?

Chapter 5. Plantiff and Witch

  1. What happened to slavery in New York? 
  2. Look closely at Truth’s religious beliefs --  how would you describe them?

Chapter 6. New York Perfectionism

  1. Romantic era biographers believed that the study of a LIFE could reveal a lot about the TIMES. What do Truth’s religious beliefs and actions tell us about religion in early 19th century America?
  2. What was “perfectionism”?
  3. Who’s the “Prophet Matthias”?

Chapter 7. In the Kingdom of Maathias

  1. What does all this “commune” building, all this searching for an ideal society, tell us about early 19th century America?

Chapter 8. Isabella’s New York.

  1. What’s New York like in the 1830s & 1840s? 
  2. Why is Isabella attracted to New York?
  3. In 1843, Isabella changes her name – what’s the significance of this?

Part II. Sojourner Truth. A Life  

Chapter 9. Among the Millerites.

  1. Who were the Millerites? 
  2. Why do people engage in “utopian” thought? What is “utopian” thought like? What are the dangers of “utopian” thought?  What possibilities does “utopian” thought bring with it?

Chapter 10. Northhampton.

  1. What’s the Northhampton Association of Education and Industry like?
  2. In our day, are there any parallels to this sort of association?
  3. What was Connecticutt’s “black law”?
  4. What was the significance of Northhampton in Truth’s life?

Chapter 11.  Douglass, Ruggles, and Family

  1. Truth “networks” with a wide range of people from Northhampton, and through them she meets Frederick Douglass.  What do she and Douglass think of each other?
  2. The composition of The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is a complicated business.  To whom does Truth dictate it?  What goes on in the process of composition?

Chapter 12. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.

  1. What else is involved in the creation of this autobiography?
  2. What sort of difficulty do some readers have with this Narrative?
  3. In what way is the creation of the Narrative another turning point for Truth?

Chapter 13. Networks of Antislavery Feminism.

  1. What were the “three great chapters” of Truth’s life?

Chapter 14. Akron, 1851.

  1. By the early 1850s, Truth had become a frequent public speaker.  What impressions did she make on her listeners?
  2. Reporters had a difficult time fitting Truth into their categories.  Why was it so hard to report on Truth?

Chapter 15. Vengeance and Womanhood.

  1. What was the Fugitive Slave Act all about?  Was it a wise piece of legislation? An inevitable piece of legislation?
  2. Why did crowds sometimes deny the “womanliness” of speakers like Truth? 

Chapter 16. Spiritualism.

  1. How did “spiritualists” see Truth?

Part III. Sojourner Truth, A Symbol  

Chapter 17. The “Libyan Sibyl”

  1. A key chapter!  How do Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Wetmore Story view Truth?

Chapter 18. “Ar’n’t I a Woman?”

  1. How did Frances Dana Gage view Truth?

Chapter 19. Partisan and Aristocrat

  1. How did upper-class, white, northern, anti-slavery people view Truth?

Chapter 20. Truth in Photographs

  1. What was a “carte de visite”?
  2. How did Truth want herself portrayed?

Chapter 21.  Presidents.

  1. Truth met several presidents, including Lincoln, but there are quite different versions of what happened in these meetings – what are the different versions?

Chapter 22. Washington’s Freedpeople

  1. How did Truth react to the great crowds of newly freed slaves who fled to Washington during and after the Civil War?

Chapter 23.  Woman Suffrage.

  1. What role did Reconstruction have in the debates about woman suffrage?
  2. What were the two main factions within the suffrage movement?
  3. What position did Stanton and Anthony take on black male suffrage?
  4. Where did Truth fit into these often bitter debates?

Chapter 24. Kansas

  1. What was the Kansas project all about? 

Chapter 25. The End of a Life

  1. How many times did Truth “die”?

Chapter 26. The Life of a Symbol   &   Coda. The Triumph of a Symbol

  1. How was Truth portrayed after her death?


 
 
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