Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted
almost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its
most successful converts in revivalism.
With this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful
degree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of
description, and her ready flow of language, when "exhorting."
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the
Atlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:
"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more
of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this
woman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as
having a 'strong sphere.'"
The wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the
experience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of
Whitman, for example, is characteristic of "Sojourner Truth," or Isabella,
as she was baptized.
Naturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble
origin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which
made up the sum and substance of her life.
Pages:
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144