Ain’t I a Woman | July 19, 2026 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton
- The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
- Jul 19
- 6 min read
In my trials – Lord walk with me.
In my trials – Lord walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking
Lord walk with me…
SWEET is the virgin honey, though the wild bee store it in a reed;
And bright the jewelled band that circleth an Ethiop's arm;
Pure are the grains of gold in the turbid stream of the Ganges;
And fair the living flowers that spring from the dull cold sod. Wherefore,
thou gentle student, bend thine ear to my speech, For I also am as thou art;
our hearts can commune together: To meanest matters will I stoop,
for mean is the lot of mortal; I will rise to noblest themes,
for the soul hath a heritage of glory.
The opening quote from Sojourner Truth was made at the Women’s Rights Convention in 1850 in Worcester, Mass. Sweet indeed is the virgin honey…Truth knew something about this sweetness…despite a life amid the horrors of slavery…yes in my home state of New York. How did she know? How did she know of the pure grains of gold in the Ganges, the jewelled band and the living flowers that spring from the dull cold sod? She knew, despite her experience as an incarcerated, enslaved human being…despite the agony and misery…despite the evil…she knew how sweet the honey in the reed was…and she knew that she had to address herself to the deepest needs of the human spirit. She was not there for frivolous matters but for the meanest matters. She calls her audience her students and states, our hearts can commune together. She was no ordinary person…no…she was deeply connected to God…to the all-pervading presence and she was able to rise to noblest themes because she knew that the soul hath a heritage of glory. Like Thurman and like Meister Eckhart before him, she knew that she herself was a royal person on her way to fitting the crown that was placed over her head.
Truth was apparently not available (or invited to) the first meeting on July 19th, 1848 in Seneca Falls, although she heard about it through the writings of Frederick Douglass. Attending the first convention in Seneca Falls, NY, Frederick Douglass said…
Men have very little business here as speakers…the thing for men to do in the premises is just to get out of her way and give her the fullest opportunity to exercise all the powers inherent in her individual personality, and allow her to do it as she herself shall elect to exercise them.
He continued by saying, all good causes are mutually helpful. Douglass was onboard from the beginnings of the women’s rights movement and indeed, was the only Black person present on this occasion. He was invited by a women’s rights activist in Rochester, NY, Elizabeth M’Clintock.
Sojourner Truth was the only Black woman at the second convention. It was in this year, 1850 that she wrote her famous Narrative of Sojourner Truth. After the meeting, she was able to sell her book and thus pay a debt she had that funded a home that was built for her.
Now, the story of Sojourner Truth has always been close to my heart. Like Douglass, she was active in the abolitionist movement in New York State. Her story, of course, had the added dimension of ‘women’s rights’. Throughout my educational history, I learned about women’s rights advocates, but all of them were white. Even in Upstate New York, where Sojourner Truth did much of her work, we did not learn about her in this context. And my experience of the feminist movement in my own time was also led by whites. Her story stood out as something different, foretelling the womanist movement, originally articulated by Alice Walker and many others. From Truth’s own perspective, this was how she described her participation in the meeting in Worcester, Mass. At this meeting, there were 1000 participants from 11 states. She tried to be patient when listening to speaker after speaker raise questions such as, should women be able to keep their jewelry after a divorce or is a woman more liberated by wearing bloomers. She was concerned with more basic issues of equality before the law without distinction of sex or color. This was their primary objective.
This was a radical idea for so many, but Truth and Douglass joined those who understood that we are all one…they acknowledged the truth that we are all children of God…men, women, people of all cultures and races.
I want to bring this idea to our present moment…our moment of truth we could say. Intersectionality, a term highlighted by civil rights advocate and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw is what Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker and so many others embodied. This term is explained by Crenshaw in the link below from a TED talk from about 10 years ago.
Sojourner Truth knew the term intersectionality in her bones. She did not need to learn about it in school, from her parents or from a YouTube video. She understood that all have a place at the table and that we better make that clear everywhere we go. She learned this from a life of profound experiences…both profoundly traumatic in nature and also mystical. When I read of her journey, I am left awestruck, even after I thought I understood it already. She was able to, at every turn find a way out of no way. I will give you a couple of examples of some of those turns that her life took. I read about them in preparation for this sermon and couldn’t contain my tears. Her experience, especially as it relates to her children found deep resonance in my soul, despite my previous judgement of her leaving her children when they were young. I started to be able to connect the dots to the generational trauma that allowed her to ‘go forth’, leaving her children with their father. Not immune from the influence of patriarchy, it was only her son that she fought for. She went through the court system to get him back after he was sold to a slaveholder in the South. She was one of the first women and African-American to file and then win a court case. The heartache she experienced with him as he grew up in the perilous environment of New York City was immense. In the end, he went off on a ship, never to return. During this time, I also tended to judge her for her susceptibility to religious cults. She was part of a cult in New York City that was eventually discredited and she was accused of being part of immoral activities including wife-swapping, communal bathing and extortion. Truth was susceptible to following the teachings because of her experience in slavery when she had to trust and believe in her masters. But Truth was able to find a way out of what, for others, might have been no way. She gathered character references of former employers, including former owners.
Her ability to walk into the abolitionist and women’s rights meetings without a sense that she did not belong was awesome. She was equipped for her work like so few people are. What can we learn from her about our current situation? How can we become her students? How can we channel some of her energy…her spirit? In her biography of Truth, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack state that:
Sojourner Truth is not really lost to us. Wherever people speak out against injustice and scorn oppression, Sojourner Truth is in their midst. Wherever people are working to make contradictions better for the weak and downtrodden, Sojourner is there rejoicing. Whoever believes in equality, freedom and justice keeps the spirit of Sojourner Truth alive and well.
Considering our current situation…amid the seeming triumph of greed, corporatism and fascism we are going to need more than just beliefs…we will need more than speaking out, although that is also important. We will need the audacity, directness and sheer courage of a woman like Sojourner Truth. There are many other models for us…Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sue Bailey Thurman, and the more ‘contemporary’ womanists including, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston, Katie Cannon and many more.
The power of Sojourner Truth will continue to guide my feet…because of her courage, audacity, ability to face life and the profound depth of her spirit. May she guide our feet this day.
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