AbolitionistsStrategies of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and John BrownThe abolitionist movement was a reform movement in the 18th and 19th centuries. Often called the anti-slavery movement, it sought to end the slavery 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 fight against slavery. These people became known as 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 women's rights advocate. She joined the abolitionist movement and became an itinerant preacher. She took her new name – Sojourner Truth – in 1843 and began preaching along the Eastern Seaboard. His strategy was to travel around Long Island and Connecticut, talking to people about his life and his relationship with God. She was a powerful speaker and singer. When she rose to speak, one observer wrote, "her imposing figure and dignified demeanor silenced every trifle." The audience was “brought to tears by his touching stories”. She traveled and spoke a lot. Encountering the women's rights movement in 1850, Truth added its causes to her own. 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 the 1850s under the title 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 lecture circuit. Harriet Tubman was closely associated with abolitionist John Brown and knew many other abolitionists, including Frederick Douglas, Jermain Loguen. , and Gerrit Smith. After freeing herself from slavery, Tubman worked in various businesses to save money to finance her activities as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She is believed to have led around 300 people to freedom in the North. Accounts of her exploits reveal her highly spiritual nature, as well as a dark determination to protect her charges and those who helped the... middle of paper ...... others do what she needed they do. . Her subjects listened to what she had to say and were encouraged enough by her 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 it was not completely legally abolished in Africa until the first quarter of the 20th century. While the greatest achievement of the abolitionist movement was certainly the liberation of millions of black people from bondage, 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 Sojourner Truth. New York: 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 in November 14, 2001