The Life & Times of Sojourner Truth Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Society, Woodbury, CT The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, Settled Minister October 4, 2015

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1 Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Society, Woodbury, CT The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, Settled Minister October 4, 2015 Religion without humanity is poor human stuff. ~ Sojourner Truth SOUNDING THE GONG WELCOME Welcome to Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Society. We are grateful for your presence here this morning. I am the Rev. Jeanne Lloyd, minister of this congregation. If you are new to MUUS, we invite you to tell us who you are after the service, during announcements. If you have children with you today, we welcome their presence during the service or they may leave when our children leave for religious education. I want to extend a special thank you to our volunteer choir members who are extending themselves to provide music while we search for a new choir director, and while we transition to a new sound system. The principles by which we try to live our lives are seen on the wall. Fundamentally, we strive to be a people of reason, faith and acceptance; love, respect and compassion, not only for one another but for people we do not yet know. No matter who you are, no matter whom you love, we welcome you here, we welcome you into this place made more sacred by your presence in this, our religious home. Let us begin our service. CHALICE LIGHTING (The flaming chalice is the symbol of our free faith) CENTERING WORDS Having Been the Other by Natalie Fenimore 1 May what we know of suffering, redemption and salvation bring us to Love. Having been the other, may our hearts exclude no one. Having been the slave, may we long to be no one s master. *HYMN 152 Follow the Drinking Gourd Let us acknowledge that the hymns we sing today are hymns created by a people in troubled times. Let us seek understanding through their words and song. 1 James, Jacqui and Mark D. Morrison Reed. Voices from the Margins, An Anthology of Meditations (Boston: Skinner House, 2012) 51.

2 Page 2 of 13 COVENANT (adopted 1997) Love is the spirit of this society. Dwelling together in peace, Seeking truth, helping one another, Serving human needs, Honoring the earth and all that is. This is our covenant. SONG (seated) Peace Salaam Shalom Peace Salaam Shalom, Peace Salaam Shalom, Peace Salaam Shalom, Peace Salaam Shalom CHILDREN S BLESSING & PARTING To our children everywhere, here and far away, known and unknown, we say to you: take all the love, hope, joy and peace that you find and let it shine out to everyone you meet. It is a blessing both to you and to the world... The children and their teachers may go to their classes now. Go with our love. HONORING OUR JOYS AND SORROWS This Sunday, as we take time with one another to share our personal joys, sorrows, and challenges. Let us, in particular hold in our hearts those whose sorrow is born of tragedy over which they had no control and those whose sorrow comes from injustice inflicted by other human beings. This week such sorrow came as the result of typhoons, tornadoes and hurricanes, dangerous travel across borderlands, at the hands of gunmen, and in other ways. Let us remember the burden our secular and religious leaders carry as they try to forge peaceful solutions for this world s problems. May they continue to hold out hope. Let us also hold in community the many types of joy that envelope our lives. We reflect in gratitude on the many blessings of life that we experience. The moments of connection and love. The moments of humor and satisfaction. More than can be named or sometimes noticed. Whatever these joys and sorrows may be, we share them here. And, now, I invite you to relax your body, bring your mind and your heart into this space of community, faith, reason and love. [RING SINGING BOWL] Take these moments to center yourself... breathe deeply. As you center yourself on what is in your heart, you may come forward to light a candle... or... remain seated, lighting a candle in your heart or mind, for someone or something resonating deeply for you in this moment.

3 Page 3 of 13 PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE If you wish, you may now light a candle. PRAYER AND MEDITATION In words Only Begun by William Sinkford 2 Spirit of Life and Love, dear God of all nations: There is so much work to do. We have only begun to imagine justice and mercy. Help us hold fast to our vision of what can be. May we see the hope in our history, And find the courage and the voice to work for that constant rebirth Of freedom and justice. That is our dream. Amen In silence In song: Spirit of Life #123 Spirit of Life, come unto me Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion. Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice. Roots hold me close; wings set me free; Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me. SERMON The Life & Times of Sojourner Truth Rev. Lloyd When I first decided to preach on Sojourner Truth, it was in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign. I know those three little words have prompted an avalanche of opinions, emotions, and talk shows. And, I know that there are many truths evident in those responses. Sorting through them is not easy for many reasons. Least of which is the difficulty we have as a society in listening to each other rather than talking, texting, 2 James, Jacqui and Mark D. Morrison Reed. Voices from the Margins, An Anthology of Meditations (Boston: Skinner House, 2012) 107.

4 Page 4 of 13 blogging, and ing at each other. However, the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the words, Black Lives Matter were another 4 words spoken by Sojourner Truth. In 1851, she spoke at the Women s Rights Convention, and asked, Ain t I a Woman? She may as well have been asking, Aren t I human, too? Don t I matter? Don t you care? I doubt any person who listens thoughtfully to the three words, Black Lives Matter could not hear the plaintiff cry beneath the words. The plea of someone, who, after seeing the wealth or privilege or education or security afforded to many who have a lighter skin color, asks: Aren t I too deserving of respect? Aren t I also worthy of security, of opportunities for growth, of meeting basic needs, of protecting my family, of life? Through the process of deepening my research on Sojourner Truth, I was humbled by my ignorance about her, the circumstances of her life, and the ways that white men and women (like me) have manipulated her words to promote our own agendas. I found myself wondering, as I was planning this sermon, would I also manipulate her image, in order to deliver a service I promised you? Time will tell. So, let me first give you a relatively brief sketch of the life of Isabelle Bomefree 3 4, also known as Sojourner Truth, a name she created for herself naming herself by herself and for her G d. 5 The name means traveling preacher. 6 She was born in into slavery. She died in , having lived 86 years from colonial times to post civil war times. She was a northern slave, enslaved in New York State. 9 In 1806, she was sold to a family for $ and a flock of sheep 11. In 1808 she was sold again for $ In 1810 she was sold for $175, and there she bore 5 children. 13 [At least three of these children were] sold away from her. 14 In 1826, at When speaking for herself, Rev. Lloyd does not spell out the word, G d, because the term is loaded with many misconceptions and preconceptions. That which is the spirit of life and community, the spirit of love and death, the spirit of humanity, cannot be relegated to one three letter word. Rev. Lloyd invites others to reconsider the meanings of this word, and, to contemplate whether it is a noun or verb. Is G d Love? The reader is invited to expand their vision and understanding truth.html 7 history/sojourner truth/ 8 history/sojourner truth/

5 Page 5 of 13 age 29, Isabelle escaped to freedom with her infant daughter, Sophia, 15 fleeing to a Quaker family. 16 And, then, on July 4, 1827, New York State emancipated slaves born after In betwixt these times, her son, Peter, was illegally sold into slavery in Alabama. And, Isabelle, who could not read or write, having had no formal education, successfully sued the State, winning back Peter s freedom and this landmark case. 18 It was also during this time that she converted to Christianity, frequently living in Christian utopian communities. When, in 1835, she was wrongly accused of poisoning 19 Elijah Pierson, she sued for slander, and won. 20 In 1839, her son, Peter, shiped out of Nantucket on the whaling ship, the Zone. He never returned from sea. 21 In 1843, Isabelle takes the name of Sojourner Truth, leaves New York, 22 and shortly thereafter joins the utopian [abolitionist communal settlement called the] 23 Northampton Association for Education and Industry 24 in Florence, Mass. There she meets the anti slavery reformers Giles Stebbins, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pillsbury, Frederick Douglass and the health reformer Sylvester Graham. Though the Northampton Association disbanded in 1846, she continued to work for George Benson, brother in law of William Lloyd Garrison. When his business failed, she purchased a home for a mortgage of $300. Subsequently, she followed the Underground Railroad circuit of more or less sympathetic anti slavery communities preaching for: the education for former slaves, 25 prison reform including speaking against capital punishment 26, women s rights, and, of course, the abolition of Southern slavery. When Frederick Douglas despaired of the lack of progress made toward eradicating slavery in the south, Sojourner Truth challenged him, asking, Is God dead? as though to say, Why would you give up hope, while G d is still with us? 14 history/sojourner truth/ history/sojourner truth/ Truth Biography.htm us/history

6 Page 6 of 13 In 1851, she spoke at the Women s Rights Convention held at the Universalist Stone Church 27 in Akron, Ohio. It was at this convention that she gave what is often called her, Ain t I a Woman? speech. More on that later... In 1856, she moved her family from Massachusetts to Battle Creek, Michigan, and widened her preaching circuit in the process She bought a home in the utopian Spiritualist community, Harmonia, Michigan. Sojourner continued on her preaching tours until late in her life, speaking across the mid west and east, including such places as Fall River, MA; Springfield, NJ; and Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit the paper ran this ad, This remarkable woman, born a slave in the State of New York more than eighty years ago, and emancipated in 1827, will speak in the lecture room of the Unitarian Church... on Monday evening... Her lecture will be highly entertaining and impressive. She is a woman of strong religious nature, with an entirely original eloquence and humor, possessed of a weird imagination, of most grotesque but strong, clear mind, and one who, without the aid of reading or writing, is 27 truth grave Initially, she went to speak at the Quaker Friends of Human Progress Convention Spiritualists sought to make the spiritual world, long regarded as mysterious, incomprehensible, even dangerous, seem more rational and understandable. They relied on natural law and provable, observable scientific facts to help them bridge the gap between the real and spirit worlds. Several elements of their beliefs appealed to Quakers, including the perfectibility of man, individual responsibility for self improvement, the sanctity of individual conscience and the concept of the divine spark within each person Spiritualism also appealed to many social reformers, attracting abolitionists, pacifists, feminists and advocates of temperance. Many prominent reformers converted, including William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Cullen Bryant Relations between the Spiritualists of Harmonia and their neighbors were not always comfortable. Nationally the sect had a reputation for immorality and Spiritualists were often accused of advocating free love. Because they supported careers for women and other feminist causes, members of the sect were often accused of immoral and licentious practices, that have justly provoked the abhorrence of all right thinking people

7 Page 7 of 13 strangely susceptible to all that in thought and action is now current in the world // Sojourner also returned to Northampton to preach at the Free Congregational Society of Florence, Massachusetts. That society continued the vision of the 1840's utopian community that she had formerly belonged to, "The Northampton Association for Education and Industry..." 37 and later became the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, MA. 38 She died in 1883 in Harmonia and is buried with her family. On her tombstone are the words, Is God dead? I don t know who put those there for her. I hope it was her. What we know about Sojourner Truth, comes from others. As she did not read or write, her legend has rested in the hands of others who could read and write, usually white contemporaries, often with their own agendas. What I didn t realize when I started working on this service was how much others controlled the portrayal of her character to her generation and to those of us who came after. Nell Irwin Painter says that, [For many whites of that era,] Sojourner appear[ed] first and foremost as an exotic... [she was presented on her tours and in the media as] an African, a native, a character who embodies the fervor of Ethiopia, wild, savage, hunted of all nations... burning after God in her tropic heart uneducated, divinely inspired, and charismatic Her ethnic and racial heritage [was identified] as the source of her genius[,] 41 rather than her humanity. Painter suggests that Sojourner Truth s persona was symbolic of a romantic racialism prevalent among abolitionists in those times. 42 And, though other better educated black women were also speaking on the lecture circuit, Sojourner s [persona is better remembered because she] [did not force her white audiences to re 36 Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, page us/history 38 us/history 39 Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, p Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, p Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, p. 10.

8 Page 8 of 13 evaluate their stereotypes about black women]. 43 She says, The two most famous nineteenth century black women were both untutored ex slaves: Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. The naïve, rather than the educated persona seems to [be better remembered]. 44 And so, without the ability to read or write, white contemporaries and activists, could manipulate the words attributed to her. Indeed there is considerable debate over whether she ever uttered the words, Ain t I a Woman? There are at least two significantly different versions of this speech. One version was published in the Anti Slavery Bugle, within a month of her speech. It was written by the editor, Marius Robinson, a white abolitionist. 45 Robinson had also spoken on the lecture circuit. While speaking in one them he was taken by a mob, tarred and feathered, and run out of town. But he continued. This was a life long commitment on his part. His emphasis, the lens through which he saw the world, was always as an abolitionist. And, as editor of the Anti Slavery Bugle, his report of Sojourner s speech did not include the phrase, Ain t I a Woman? Not even once. But, then perhaps as a man, and an abolitionist, he just didn t hear it? The following is the original 1851 report by Marcus Robinson. Sojourner Truth said, I want to say a few words about this matter. I am [for] a woman's rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart why can't she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can't take more than our pint'll hold. The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and don't know what to do. Why children, if you have woman's rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they won't be so much trouble. // I can't read, but I can hear. I have 43 Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, Painter, Nell Irvin. Sojourner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic. Gender & History ISSN , Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1990, p Robinson.aspx 10/4/15

9 Page 9 of 13 heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again. // The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother. And Jesus wept... and Lazarus came forth. // And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part? But the women are coming up[,] blessed be God[,] and a few of the men are coming up with them. But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard. 46 The other version was written by Frances Gage, the white suffragist who presided over the Women s Rights Convention at which Sojourner Truth spoke. Surprisingly, Gage reported that Truth spoke in a southern dialect. But, many argue that Gage s version is spun to reflect her own agenda. Sojourner Truth never lived in the south, and her native language was low dutch 47 having been born into a Dutch family in New York. It appears that Gage layered the southern dialect on top of her own women s rights agenda for effect, some 12 years after Sojourner Truth spoke her words. In Gage s text, we find not only the southern dialect, but also the sympathetic phrase Ain t I a Woman? four times. Frances Gage s Report, written in : Sojourner Truth said, "Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de nigger of de Souf and In May 1851 Sojourner Truth attended the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. She delivered a simple but powerful speech recorded in the June 21, 1851, issue of the Anti Slavery Bugle, edited by Marcus Robinson (with whom Truth worked.) It is this speech which was transformed into the "Ain't I a Woman?" legend by Frances Dana Gage, the organizer of the convention. She published her version of Truth's speech, complete with crude Southern dialect in the April 23, 1863, issue of the New York Independent. Gage's expanded description of the speech, and the impact it had upon the convention, appeared less than a month after Harriet Beecher Stowe published her article, "Libyan Sibyl," in the Atlantic Monthly. Together, these two highly romanticized views of Sojourner Truth helped to create the public image of the ex slave an image which still endures today.

10 Page 10 of 13 de womin at de Norf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout? "Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber halps me into carriages, or ober mudpuddles, or gibs me any best place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked, "And ar'n't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! [And here she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power] " I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ar'n't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man when I could get it and bear de lash as well! And ar'n't' I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern *, and seen 'em mos' all sold off the slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ar'n't I a woman? "Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?" "Intellect," whispered someone near. "Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?" And she pointed her significant finger, and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud. "Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?"... "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin' to do wid Him."... Turning again to another objector, she [said]... "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder... ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let 'em."... Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, and now ole Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say." 49

11 Page 11 of 13 PAUSE Rather than offer you the speech I was most familiar with ( The Ain t I a Woman speech) so that I could neatly tie it into the Black Lives Matter declaration, I have instead offered you both speeches, knowing that the truth (figuratively) and Truth, the person, lies somewhere in between. Something of her spirit presents itself nonetheless, though the precise edges of her voice remains obscure. However, let me state what I hope is now obvious. Who controls one s voice, one s language, one s image, is also an issue of justice. The right to express ourselves lies at the center of our principles regarding identity, self empowerment, and compassion. There is a reason this country is founded on freedom of conscious first, and freedom of speech, second. Without both, one s identity will always be compromised by others. The next time I speak here (10/18), Connie Cole Ingber and Marianne Ashby will join me to share our experiences at an Anti Racism training we took last month. For now, a very short story about that workshop. As you can well imagine, while there, there was a lot of discussion about the slogans, Black Lives Matter / All Lives Matter. One of the participants was a woman of color, named Gloria. I, of course, had the dubious honor of being one of the privileged white persons in the room. (Thirty per cent of the people in that room were Unitarian Universalist. Most of them appeared to be white.) Gloria and I initially agreed that the furor over these slogans, was a matter of semantics, and that anytime a phrase becomes a lightning rod for such high pitched emotions, adjustments to the language should be made in order that people may once again listen to each another. We both thought that the slogan should be changed to Black Lives Matter, Too. We were so smart on that first day of two exhausting days reflecting on racism. At least I was. At the end of those two days, though, I got it. I was reminded yet again of the invisibility of my white privilege (at least to me). I was reminded that I don t get to change a people s language. I don t have the right to choose how other people describe themselves. Nor do I get to describe what is important to them. If, I am to step outside my privilege, the very least I can do is allow people to identify themselves in their own words. And, so, at the end of the workshop, I went to Gloria, 50 Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner, leaving more than one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with gratitude. She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the slough of difficulty, turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never in my life seen anything like the magical influence that subduued the mobbish spirit of the day, and turned the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to shake hands with her, and congratulate the glorious old mother, and bid her Godspeed on her mission of "testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this 'ere people.

12 Page 12 of 13 and said to her, Black Lives Matter the wording it can t be changed. She looked at me surprised. She said, Why not? clearly frustrated. I said, because I don t have the right to change someone else s language, only they can do that. // With lightning speed, she agreed and yet adjusted her thinking and then said, But, I can. And, I said, Yes, if you choose to do so, you can. So may it be. OFFERTORY Each Day by Kristen Harper 51 Each day provides us with an opportunity to love again, To hurt again, to embrace joy, To experience unease, To discover the tragic. Each day provides us with the opportunity to live. This day is no different, this hour no more unique than the last, Except... Maybe today, maybe now, among friends and fellow journeyers, Maybe for the first time, maybe silently, We can share ourselves. Let us take the collection. Please remember half of the plate will go to social justice projects in our community. REFLECTION From Facebook, Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism Kenny Wiley September 28 at 10:05pm Edited "You won't have to choose." Kenny writes, I long feared that, as a Unitarian Universalist, I wouldn't or couldn't be fully embraced by black people or communities. Sunday at the Capitol I 'preached' my story of identity fully black, fully UU. I felt the love from my mostly white UU faith family, and deep connection with my fellow black folks including two black, Christian clergywomen I so admire, Rev. Dawn and Rev. Tawana. I preached especially for my fellow black UUs, and had them with me in my heart. This work is so much bigger than 51 James, Jacqui and Mark D. Morrison Reed. Voices from the Margins, An Anthology of Meditations (Boston: Skinner House, 2012) 6.

13 Page 13 of 13 any one person[.] [Yet] part of the journey, for me, has been being proud of my race, and proud of my faith. My mom told me more than once, "There will come a time when you won't have to choose." I'm not saying she foresaw my involvement in Black Lives Matter, exactly, but it's starting to seem like she was right, as usual. *HYMN 153 Oh, I Woke Up This Morning *EXTINGUISHING OF THE CHALICE (please join hands) Please join hands for the extinguishing of the chalice. We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. We extinguish this flame, but not the power and meaning of our covenant, calling us to our highest ideals and ways of being with one another. These we carry in our hearts until we are together again. Let the congregation say: AMEN WELCOMING NEWCOMERS & GUESTS ANNOUNCEMENTS & FELLOWSHIP Settled Minister: Rev. Jeanne Lloyd Director of Religious Education: Misty Lewis As a courtesy to all gathered here today, please silence your cell phone. * Please rise in body or spirit. Please reserve applause for very special responses only. Rev. 09/15