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206 I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. . . . Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. — isaiah 6:8–9 She possesses a mind of rare power, and often, in the course of her short speeches, will throw out gems of thought. But the truly Christian spirit which pervades all she says, endears her to all who know her. — george putnam (rochester, new york, 1851) chapter 13 The New York Campaign I In February 1851, Sojourner Truth prepared to join the campaign through central and western New York. “I am going with George Thompson on a lecturing tour,” Garrison had told her. “Come with us and you will have a good chance to dispose of your book.” The AASS would cover her expenses. Although now a traveling Abolitionist, she lived on her own resources. Samuel Hill was patient about her mortgage, but she was anxious about her printing expenses. “I had been publishing my Narrative,” she recalled, “and owed for the whole edition, a great debt to me! Every cent I could obtain went to pay for it.” She was to join the traveling group in Springfield. However, Garrison became gravely ill, and a surprised Sojourner found George Thompson alone at Springfield’s Hampden Hotel. A man of working-class origins, Thompson also lived off his own resources. Nevertheless, he said, “‘I’ll bear your expenses Sojourner. Come with us.’”1 Conservative Springfield had a New Org antislavery society, a Garrisonian presence, and a cluster of black activists tied closely to the wool merchant John Brown. He had resided there until 1849, and in his home, a gathering place The New York Campaign 207 for black leaders far and wide, had shared his ideas about setting up a provisional black state in the Allegheny Mountains. He certainly had encountered Sojourner’s familiar face among Springfield activists, even before he stopped at Ruggles’s water cure. Brown had attended the Zion Church she helped organize , and frequented Garrisonian conventions where she spoke. Springfield was a major underground point in the Connecticut River valley network, and Brown’s warehouse sheltered many freedom seekers. He closed his wool business in early 1851, though, and joined a group of black men and women who set up an armed protective organization called the League of Gileadites. Brown was still in Springfield when Sojourner arrived.2 One of the Springfield leaders was Sojourner’s friend John Mars, the popular Zion preacher. The Springfield town fathers considered George Thompson a catalyst for violence. During Thompson’s 1835 tour, he had had so many threats on his life that he had gone into hiding, shortened his planned one-year stay, and left America secretly. Yet that tour had been a major success, leading to the formation of hundreds of antislavery societies. He was now a member of Parliament and an international social justice advocate; his activism included condemning imperial oppression of all colored people, the Irish, and working-class Britons. Though this second tour had been arranged long before the Bloodhound Bill was passed, Thompson’s presence placed a timely emphasis on the urgency of abolition.3 Sojourner Truth had lectured with Thompson that fall, and considered him a true friend of the oppressed. She was on the platform at his giant Faneuil Hall welcome reception when, just as Garrison assured the audience that “the Boston of 1850 was not the Boston of 1835,” a disruptive mob took over. She had then joined Thompson, Douglass, and others on the platform at black Belknap Street Church, where they were undisturbed. She and Thompson had both spoken at Tremont Temple and in New England farming communities. He was reportedly a sensational orator who possessed “brilliancy, versatility, and captivating power.” Gracious and popular with women, he treated Sojourner Truth with courtesy and cordiality, “as if I had been the highest lady in the land.” She recalled that he insisted that she sit next to him at meals, accompanied her to the rail cars, carried her bag, “and never seemed to know that I was poor and a black woman.”4 Prior to Springfield, in Worcester, Thompson had received royal treatment from the mayor and aldermen and lectured at City Hall. But in Springfield, his last New England stop, anti-Abolitionists mounted a protest. “Are you going to allow an English Serf to...

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