Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol | 
| Author: Nell Irvin Painter
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $6.89
You Save: $11.06 (62%)
New (28) Used (26) from $1.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 336157
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0393317080
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.567092
EAN: 9780393317084
ASIN: 0393317080
Publication Date: October 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Straight off the shelf NEW! Bookstore Quality! Cover exactly as shown! Photos throughout!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Though she was born into slavery and subjected to physical and sexual abuse by her owners, Sojourner Truth, who eventually fled the South for the promise of the North, came to represent the power of individual strength and perseverance. She championed the disadvantaged--black in the South, women in the North--yet spent much of her free life with middle-class whites, who supported her, yet never failed to remind her that she was a second class citizen. Slowly, but surely, Sojourner climbed from beneath the weight of slavery, secured respect for herself, and utilized the distinction of her race to become not only a symbol for black women, but for the feminist movement as a whole.
Product Description
Sojourner Truth--ex-slave and fiery abolitionist of the mid-nineteenth century, a figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher, and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became an early national symbol for strong black women--indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality. Now in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol October 30, 2007
This book is an excellent review and account of this great woman's life. Although it is rather disjointed in areas--there is a basic sense of the many challenges that Ms. Truth encountered. I found that it gave me a basic sense of her sojourn and it helped fill in the gaps left with other books. It was the basic information for an academic presentation I needed to prepare for one of my doctoral courses.
Short and very readable book , but quite illuminating February 23, 2007
For some reason, most Americans know, or think they know, quite a bit about the Civil War. But somehow the decades before the great drama of the 1860's are little known to most of us. It's almost as if everything between the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War happened under a cloud or in some shadowed universe that sends out very few signals to modern Americans. In reality, the country went through a time of near-chaos as competing political and religious movements battled for the minds and hearts of the American public.
Sojourner Truth, the subject of this biography, experienced a good bit of this social ferment, and the story of her life gives readers a good opportunity to get a grip on this very strange and fascinating period. The author starts with the odd fact that the name and face of Sojourner Truth became very well-known, yet the real story of her life was obscured by her status as a symbol of the Abolitionist movement. The real woman led a surpringly adventurous life, and she did it in the context of a society that supposedly kept slaves, women and rural poor people firmly in their pre-ordained place. The story of how a courageous girl named Katherine, born in slavery and poverty on a Dutch farm in rural New York state, became the free woman and independent thinker called Sojourner Truth, is worth reading for its own sake. But the book also sheds light on the wild side of American religious and intellectual life during her lifetime. While reading this book, I felt like I was really getting two books in one-I highly recommend this book!!
An incredible biography November 10, 2003
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Painter's biography is excellent. She puts Truth in perspective with the challenges of her time. She sheds light on complicated relationships with noteable Abolishionists and with her own children. This book clearly presents the difficult life of one incredible woman who struggles to do her part to free all slaves, gain respect as a woman and be accepted as a human being.
SOJOURNER TRUTH A LIFE A SYMBOL October 31, 2002
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I THINK THIS BOOK IS VERY EDUCATIONAL. I REALLY ENJOYED READING IT. I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT TRUTH. PAINTER WAS A WONDERFUL WRITER. SHE DESCRIBED EVERYTHING TO THE MAX.
A Nearly Perfect Book July 24, 2000
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
When I read a book, I want to get a lot out of it, as I enjoy the reading of it. On the second point: this book is engagingly written. The author questions her own motives and information as she constructs a biography of a difficult life to document. We see Painter confront the challenges of performing biography. I found it a compelling literary device. On the first point, the book mixes biography with history and feminist criticism. This interdisciplinary focus produces a highly inviting book. Among other topics, we find out about the details of slavery in the North, 19th century religious cults, and the ways in which feminists and abolitionists of the time exploited Truth for their own gain, as well as how this appropriation of "Truth" continues to the present. On this point, we learn much about contemporary feminism and culture and its need for heroes-especially African American female heroes.
|
|
|
