of sojourner truth. >>> claudine ferrell received her b.a. and m.a. in history. now at texas state university. she taught u.s. and texas history at lamar university in beaumont for three years before entering the doctoral program at rice university where she focused on american legal and constitutional history and african-american history. her dissertation was on the unsuccessful effort to pass a federal law against lynching in 1917 through 1922. a year at kansas state university was followed by her coming to fredricksburg and the then mary washington college. at umw she teaches legal, constitutional and african-american history as well as a wide array of courses, including the gilded days, the progressive era, the united states and vietnam, u.s. since 1945, america's small wars, the american home front during the world wars and american disasters. in addition to the history department's two-course methods sequence for majors. and she is currently chair of the department of history and american studies. it's my pleasure to introduce dr. claud

of sojourner truth. >>> claudine ferrell received her b.a.nd m.a. in history. now at texas state university. she taught u.s. and texas history at lamar university in beaumont for three years before entering the doctoral program at rice university where she

. -- claudine ferrell. dr. ferrell: first i want to thank dr. bill crawley for the series and for the opportunity to replace him and mary washington, but as everyone knows there is no replacing bill crawley. i also -- i also want to thank s power for sponsoring this lecture. i am talking about sojourner truth, an unusual and unique woman, beyond anybody's measure, an impressive one. to what to great was she these things is impossible to know, for reasons i will emphasize today. like most former slaves, even frederick douglass, who wrote and spoke extensively, the are details about her life, we do not know. that i think in many ways she did not know. certainly, we were details about her life she refused to share, and i will be discussing those as well. she comes to us largely through the lens of whites, of white america, friend and foe, supporters and opponents, people curious and judgmental, to people who actually knew her and then people who met her in passing. for whatever reason, she ensured that was the case. she clearly spoke her mind. we k