Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist of the mid-nineteenth century, a figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher, and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became an early national symbol for strong black women -- indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality.

Now in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend.

"Painter's portrait of Truth is a triumph of scholarly maturity, imagination, and narrative art". -- Arnold Rampersad

"What Painter does as a first-rate historian is peel away the myths and legends so that we might get at a historical Sojourner Truth. . . . A judicious and balanced biography". -- Gerard Early, Chicago Tribune

"A pathbreaking biography. It should command the widest popular attention and profound scholarly attention". -- David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography of a Race