“So Tall Within” - The Legacy of Sojourner Truth

I take my text from Professor Harris's rich discussion of Sojourner Truth's life narrative. I begin, as Professor Harris began, with Truth's assertion of parental right. When her five-year-old son, Peter, was sent by his owner from New York to Alabama, Truth agonized over the loss of contact between herself and her child. She feared that Peter would lose the opportunity, owed to him under New York law, of liberation at the age of twenty-one.

Truth's insistent cry, "I'll have my child again," was initially dismissed by incredulous slaveholders. But it became a theme of struggle as she repeatedly walked miles in bare feet, resolutely demanding of lawyers, judges and people of influence and good will that Peter be returned to New York. And it became a cry of achievement as Truth finally reclaimed her child, vindicating rights she had pressed in unfamiliar and sometimes hostile forums.