Thunder in Her Voice: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Poetry. African American Studies. In 1850 Olive Gilbert helped Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth) pen her slave narrative, Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. The book provided a detailed account of Truth's life as a slave and the horrific conditions enslaved African Americans were forced to withstand under the brutal system of chattel slavery. THUNDER IN HER VOICE examines the heroic life of Sojourner Truth through verse. Each excerpt from the slave narrative is reflected in poetry as Lita Hooper walks us through Truth's life, providing portrayals of Truth's friends, family members and enemies. The poems offer an intimate look into the life of one of America's most important abolitionists. Rather than a series of revisions, Lita Hooper's elegant poems are striking illuminations that take us beyond the "facts" of Sojourner's life and into the "truth" of her thoughts, her fears, her hopes and her prayers. Hooper's genius lies in her capacity for empathy and her ability to write a poetic line of such simplicity and grace that it turns even the most harrowing facts into beautiful laments of pain and hope.