The Life of Sojourner Truth: Nancy Koester

Our guest Nancy Koester talks about her recent book, We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth.

On Pentecost in 1827, the course of Sojourner Truth's life was changed forever when she had a vision of Jesus calling her to preach. Though women could not be trained as ministers at the time, her persuasive speaking, powerful singing, and quick wit converted many to her social causes. During the Civil War, Truth campaigned for the Union to abolish slavery throughout the United States, and she personally recruited Black troops for the effort.

Her activism carried her to Washington, DC, where she met Abraham Lincoln and ministered to refugees of Southern slavery. Truth's faith-driven action continued throughout Reconstruction, as she aided freed people, campaigned for reparations, advocated for women's rights, and defied segregation on public transportation.

Sojourner Truth's powerful voice once echoed in the streets of Washington and New York. Her passion rings out again in Nancy Koester's vivid writing.

Nancy Koester holds a PhD in church history and has taught at both the college and seminary levels. She is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Her work focuses on nineteenth-century American history, especially the antislavery movement, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. She is inspired by women of that era who, though lacking basic rights, found ways to move the nation closer to its own ideals. Koester's 2013 publication with Eerdmans, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life, won the Minnesota Book Award in 2015 in General Nonfiction.