The Woman Who Named Her Own Calling

In the spring of 1843, a former slave named Isabella Baumfree walked out of New York City carrying nothing but a pillowcase of belongings and a new name. She would no longer answer to the name given her by slaveholders. The Spirit of God, she said, had told her to travel east and speak truth. So she named herself Sojourner Truth — a pilgrim whose purpose was woven into her very identity.…