Preview of Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth Summary:

Bernard decided to write about Sojourner Truth while she was an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. She writes in her author's note that reading an anthology of black writings provided her with her "first inkling that Negroes had made any contribution to American history beyond the well-known fact of their slave labor," and she found Sojourner Truth interesting because "Sojourner's powerful personality, her strong-minded opinions and no-nonsense behavior—as well as the very practical inspiration she brought to her struggle for her people's rights—made me suspect I had been missing a great deal."

On one level, Bernard's book tells the story of Sojourner Truth, "a frightened, lonely slave child" who rose from being "the hardworking, obedient slave of a master whose sole claim to her gratitude was that he was reasonably kind" to achieving national recognition as a leading spokesperson for the rights...