Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Stanton in Central Park

Eternity through the Rearview Mirror is a book about seventeen historical characters whose lives were made extraordinary through simple faith. One of the women profiled in Eternity through the Rearview Mirror is Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York in 1797. Beaten, abused—thirty years of it was enough—and she decided to escape. But how? She talked to God about it—told him she was a feared to go in the night. God told her to leave just before the day dawned, and get out of the neighborhood where she was known before people were much astir. She did just that.

When slavery became outlawed in New York on July 4, 1827, Sojourner became a traveling preacher, tending to others, giving others hope. She also became an advocate for women’s rights. “You may hiss as much as you please,” Sojourner often told the crowds of booing men, “but women will get their rights anyway. You can’t stop us neither.”

Sojourner’s work for women’s rights has been memorialized in her native state with a statue in her honor. On Wednesday August 26, 2020, Sojourner Truth, along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, came to New York City’s Central Park. The Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument is the 30th statue in Central Park, but the first to depict woman.

We remember Sojourner Truth today not only for her women’s rights work but for her strength of character and goodness in the face of the harshest of adversities – that’s why I loved writing about her.

What would Sojourner Truth say about what is going on today with respect to the equality of all lives? I think she would be despairingly sad, but she was perseverant and stubborn—that’s what kept her alive. I think she would have continued the fight, loving her neighbors, whatever their color, knowing that God was, and is, in charge.

Adversity will always build character if one trusts in God. I think that’s all she knew to do. And that was enough. More than enough

For more detail, check out this video from CBS News Sunday Morning. You can also read more about her in Eternity through the Rearview Mirror: How Simple Faith Changes Everything—Seventeen Extraordinary Lives.