Radical Tea Towel

Sojourner Truth Tea Towel

$22.00

Description

‘I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?’

This is what Sojourner Truth asked the audience at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851 during her speech, ‘Ain’t I a woman?’. This impromptu address, where she challenged prevailing notions of racial and gender inferiority and demanded equal human rights for all women and for all blacks, became her best-known speech and was widely disseminated. At a time where advocating for women and African Americans was dangerous and challenging enough, and being one was even harder, her words were a truly radical act.

In fact, her whole life was remarkable. Born into slavery, Truth was sold three times and had five children before she escaped with her infant daughter to a nearby abolitionist family in 1826. The family bought her freedom for twenty dollars and helped Truth successfully sue for the return of her son, making her the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. She then moved to New York City, becoming known as a charismatic speaker, and meeting abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and women’s rights activists, such as Susan B. Anthony, who inspired her for these causes. In 1843, she declared that God called on her to preach the truth, renaming herself Sojourner Truth and becoming a champion of equality. Through her efforts to help recruit black troops for the Union Army during the Civil War, Truth received an invitation to meet Abraham Lincoln in 1864 at the White House. She spent the rest of the 1860s lobbying against segregation and for the case of former slaves.

Dimensions:

19 x 27.5 inches

Materials:

100% Premium Cotton with Hanging Loop

Care Instructions:

Machine wash at 110 degrees maximum. We recommend that before you use your tea towel for the first time you wash it at least once to soften up the material and make it more absorbent for drying dishes. 

All items are shipped from the Museum Store in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Items will be fulfilled within 3 days of order placement. Standard shipping times will vary depending on the shipping method chosen at check-out. 

Merchandise may be returned within 14 days of purchase for a refund in the form of original payment.

For more information about our policies, visit our Shipping and Returns page.

All purchases are tax-free and benefit America's official World War I Museum and Memorial