Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Olive Gilbert and Up from Slavery by Booker Washington - Term Paper Example

Task Narrative of Sojourner Truth is a ical piece of memoir written by Olive Gilbert and brings to light the struggles of a distinguished afro-American women’s rights campaigner, an abolitionist and orator going by the name ‘Sojourner Truth’. Her original name was Isabella, daughter to James and Betsy (Gilbert 13). Her parents were slaves to Colonel Ardinburgh from Ulster County in Newyork, America. Narrative of Sojourner Truth accounts for Isabella’s life in slavery, her personal liberation, and her constant travels across America in pursuit of sexual and racial equality and freedom. Sojourner Truth is a name that she adopted after her freedom from her owner and she claimed that the name originated from God’s calling to the liberation course. She was illiterate but an admirable speaker and crusader of equality and anti-racialism. Conversely, Up from Slavery (published in 1901) is an autobiography by Booker Taliaferro Washington recollecting his birth in slavery in Franklin County, Virginia, his education, his foundation of the Tuskegee Institute and his prowess as an excellent speaker and orator who in his life sought to cement good relations between people from different races and bring equality among them. His earliest picture that he could recall is that of slave dwellings and plantations, where the surroundings were miserable, discouraging and desolate. Booker knew very little about his ancestry but knew how horrible the voyages their ancestors had endured from Africa to America (Anderson 3). In his life, he was a dominant figure in the African-American population and represented the last bunch of black people in leadership positions born in slavery. The two books therefore, have a common and significant similarity; both talk in depth about slavery, liberation, and inequality. The narrative of Sojourner of truth is a memoir written by Oliver Gilbert whereas the book up from slave is an autobiography written by Booker Washington himself. The memoir by Olive Gilbert can be seen to revolve around the themes of slavery, evangelism and women’s rights. Sojourner of truth was born in slavery and in her life, worked to emancipate slaves from servitude of the body by the existing American states. After her emancipation from servitude in 1828, she on one occasion said that she would not walk away from the truth, she would therefore stay put and persevere the slavery fires just like the biblical heroes (Gilbert 111-112). She also suggested that slavery had fully prepared her for spiritual tests in ways white preachers could not comprehend. In her childhood years, slavery had made her and her family property to Colonel Ardinburgh of Ulster County, Newyork. Slavery had also subjected her to barbaric whipping by her later owner, John Nealy (Gilbert 27). Slavery exposed her and her family to atrocious working surroundings that at times made them available for auction. Later in her life, her son peter faced the auctioneer’s hammer much to the agony of Sojourner truth. According to her, this was an illegal sale and her fist step after emancipation was to pursue legal action against Solomon Gedney, wealthy elite who had sold Peter outside the state. She won the case and reunited with her son whom she took to Newyork city. Narrative of Sojourner Truth also centers on the evangelical theme. She travelled widely to the countryside calling on people to repent and taught in camps that ‘Jesus Christ is the spirit that existed in Adam and Eve’. Out of this, she perfected herself as an excellent public speaker and preacher. She tried to merge slave life, women’s rights violations and evangelism everywhere she gave vocalizations. She once told her property owner that her name had changed from Isabella to Sojourner and that the spirit of God had changed her to become an accomplished woman of faith (Gilbert 100). True to her word, she became an excellent preacher explaining her own original but curious views to people who were willing to listen and it is said in the narrative that she commanded respect and kept everybody in silence whenever she arose to speak in gatherings and assemblies. Women’s rights also formed a thematic base for Sojourner truth. She is remembered for her contribution to the feminist movement and specifically for her rhetoric question that she asked while attending a convention of advocates. She asked the convention, “Am I not a woman? This question became so famous that it thrusted her to a national hero in both the abolitionist and evangelical movements. In this regard, Sojourner uprightly held high family values, always telling her listeners of the importance of women in families and in the society. She advocated for equality in the political, social and economic spheres where men were seen to be domineering and manipulating women to levels of insignificance. Women were also put to task by her preaching to stand up against slavery and other forms of segregation in order to safeguard their family units and fan the fires of liberation. At one time in a women’s rights convention, she suggested that the feminist movement at the time had discriminated against Afro-American women. In the Up from Slavery book by Booker Washington, a number of themes and views can be cited. One of the themes in this autobiography is slavery. Booker himself had experienced the negative aspect of slavery first hand and in this book, he says that he believed slavery affected the blacks as well as affecting the white people though morally. He argued that Negroes had benefitted from slave trade better than any other people of black origin in the world had. Furthermore, the whites had no self-reliance and had not mastered any other way of productivity, and so they had no clue on how to take care of their families (Anderson 5). In addition, Booker argued that once the slave trade ended, the slaves were certainly prepared to start new lives as their own masters. to the and so everyone had a taste of its bitter impact.Afterwards, Booker came to see that he possessed the power to influence large numbers of people to make them see the benefits of good inter-racial relationships for the betterment of the people, the society and the nation in general. Concerning slavery and racialism, he articulated for the large black population living in the south that had lost its right to vote. Booker also emphasized on optimism and believed that people of different races (in this case the blacks and whites) could live together in spite the looming ghost of slavery. His passion to eradicate slavery can be traced back to his personal experience as a slave that made him property to someone. He was emancipated in 1865 and had to work in both coal and salt mines in order to help his family out of poverty. Booker also emphasized on the substance of schooling because as a child and slave, he was denied the right to pursue education. In his book Up from Slavery, he says that at 16 years, he started trekking to the Hampton Institute in Hampton that was a distance of over two hundred miles (Anderson 7). He later became a teacher because he was so sure that education would help the black people emancipate themselves from the yoke of slavery. He rose up from teaching in his home area, then transferred to Hampton institute and finally started teaching at the Tuskegee Institute that he founded himself. Conclusively, Booker firmly stood by the fact that education was incomplete without taking up a course on trade. To him, there was immense value in work and that his black people would never defeat slavery and racialism without being capable of working trade in communities and neighborhoods that was needed by everyone regardless of the race. Booker also emphasized on success. According to him, success is determined by the problems one has encountered and no by what one has actually achieved. A man’s character, therefore, was a result of the number of walls a man has climbed over before attaining his goals. It is the journey of achievement that is of much importance than that of the finished product. Works Cited Anderson, Eric. Booker .T. Washington and Black Progress: Up from Slavery 100 Years Later. Journal of Southern History, Volume 71, (2005): 3-7. Gilbert, Oliver. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the state of New York in 1828. Boston: University of Michigan, 2009: 13-112. Read More