AbolitionistsStrategies of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and John BrownThe abolitionist movement was a reform movement during the 18th and 19th centuries. Often called the anti-slavery movement, it sought to end the enslavement of Africans and people of African descent in Europe, the Americas, and Africa itself. It also aimed to end the Atlantic slave trade carried out in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa, Europe and the Americas. Many people participated in the effort to end slavery. These people became known as the abolitionists. The three well-known abolitionists are Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), born into slavery as Isabella, was an American abolitionist and advocate for women's rights. She joined the abolitionist movement and became an itinerant preacher. She took her new name, Sojourner Truth, in 1843 and began preaching along the East Coast. Her strategy was to walk around Long Island and Connecticut, telling people about her life and her relationship with God. She was a powerful speaker and singer. When he rose to speak, one observer wrote, "his imposing figure and dignified manner silenced all nonsense." The audience was "dissolved in tears by his touching stories". He traveled and spoke a lot. Encountering the women's rights movement in the 1850s, Truth added her causes to hers. She is particularly remembered for the famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech she gave at the women's rights convention in 1851. Although Truth never learned to read or write, she dictated her memoirs to Olive Gilbert and they were published in 1850 as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. This book and her presence as a speaker made her a sought-after figure on the anti-slavery women's rights conference circuit. Harriet Tubman was closely associated with abolitionist John Brown and was well acquainted with other abolitionists, including Frederick Douglas and Jermain Loguen. and Gerrit Smith. After freeing herself from slavery, Tubman worked at various businesses to save and finance her activities as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He is believed to have led around 300 people in the North to freedom. Tales of her exploits reveal her highly spiritual nature, as well as a grim determination to protect her charges and those who helped... half of paper... others do what she needed them to do. . His subjects listened to what he had to say and were encouraged enough by his words to not give up and continue their journey to freedom. As a result of the abolitionist movement, the institution of slavery ceased to exist in Europe and the Americas in 1888. , although in Africa it was completely legally abolished only in the first quarter of the 20th century. While the greatest achievement of the abolitionist movement was certainly the liberation of millions of blacks from servitude, it also reflected the triumph of modern ideas of freedom and human rights over older social forms based on privileged elites and social stratification. Bibliography: Baines, Rae. Harriet Tubman - The Road to Freedom. New Jersey: Troll Associates, 1982. Bernard, Jacqueline. Journey to Freedom: The Story of the Truth of the Sojourn. NewYork: Norton Publishers, 1967.Ripley, Peter C. The Black Abolitionist Papers. Chapel Hill: University of NorthCarolina Press, 1985.www.askjeeves.com Site visited November 14, 2001www.encarta.msn.com Site visited November 14, 2001www.encyclopedia.com Site visited November 14, 2001