Linda Ruiz-Lozito: Sojourner Truth. She fled slavery with the help of Quaker friends, and in middle age became a traveling preacher of uncommon power. She was illiterate but had much of the Bible committed to memory. At a women’s rights convention in Ohio, she was treated differently than others by the proto-feminists because she was black, and she pointedly asked, “Ain’t I A Woman?” It’s now one of the most famous orations in American history.
