Sojourner Truth (born Isabella (Belle) Baumfree; c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) is an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist.

Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escapes with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826.

After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she becomes the first black woman to win such a case against a white man

She gives herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she becomes convinced that God has called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying the hope that was in her".

Her best-known speech is delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

The speech becomes widely known during the Civil War by the title "Ain't I a Woman?," a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect; whereas Sojourner Truth is from New York and had grown up speaking Dutch as her first language.

During the Civil War, Truth helps recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, she tries unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.

In 2014, Truth will be included in Smithsonian magazine's list of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time"