Dickinson season 3, episode 3 introduced the abolitionist Sojourner Truth to its story, adding to the ranks of the characters inhabiting Amherst, Massachusetts. The third and final season of the comedy series starring Hailee Steinfeld premiered on November 4th with three episodes released on Apple TV+. Set during the American Civil War, the titular character's family and friends deal with the consequences of the war. Sojourner Truth came up first in discussion as an unnamed guest of dressmaker Betty (Amanda Warren), and then in person at the end of episode 3.
The African American women's rights activist was played by comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, whose appearance lasted less than 1.5 minutes but still made an impact. In the short scene, Truth donned a red dress complimented by both characters and pressed Betty to restart writing down her life story. Upon Betty's protests that she was tired from the day she'd had, Fumudoh's Truth hinted at the story the episode was about to tell of the time she took a white man to court and won.
The incident mentioned by the Dickinson character brought the real-life Sojourner Truth fame, but her entire life story is just as remarkable. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree around 1797. Her owner, John Dumont, promised her freedom but then went back on his word, it motivated her to run away from his plantation with her youngest daughter, Sophia, albeit leaving her other children. Baumfree's relationship with Dumont was nightmarish. Not only did he regularly rape her when she was his slave, but Dumont also illegally sold her son into slavery in Alabama after Isabella had fled. As the New York Anti-Slavery Law had already passed, she sued Dumont and won, becoming the first Black woman to sue a white man in a United States court and win.
She later became such a fervent Christian that she decided to change her name from Isabella Baumfree to Sojourner Truth in honor of her beliefs that she had to speak the truth. After joining a Massachusetts abolitionist organization, she met many leading abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, kickstarting her life as an equal rights advocate. What the Apple TV+ show covered, Betty transcribing Truth's story, indeed happened in 1851, but it was a woman named Olive Gilbert who transcribed her story and helped her publish it in reality.
Truth not only advocated for equal rights but also women's rights. Her most famous speech about the discrimination experienced as a Black woman, "Ain't I a Woman?" was given at a women's rights conference in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. It was recounted on the National Anti-Slavery Standard 13 years later, although historians debate to this day its accuracy as some details were inexact and the use of a written Southern dialect did not reflect Truth's way of speaking as she was a New Yorker. There was no doubt that Sojourner Truth was a hero, however. During the Civil War, she recruited Black soldiers to fight and mobilized people to donate clothes, food, and supplies for Black refugees.
It's unknown what of Sojourner Truth's life will be shown in Dickinson season 3. What is confirmed is that the abolitionist will reappear later in the season. Whatever Dickinson has in store for the rest of the final season, the show will surely examine the Civil War further, which may help explore Truth's involvement in it. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see on the show any of the stories from Sojourner Truth's life, no matter which ones it decides to tell.
Dickinson streams Fridays on Apple TV+.
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