19th century women lacked basic rights, yet shaped our culture and history. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but won fame preaching freedom for Blacks and women. Her famous speech, "Ain't I A Woman? " challenged other reformers to start seeing Black and poor women. Harriet Beecher Stowe learned that women should not speak in public, yet her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin became the best-seller of the century and forced a national reckoning with slavery. This four-session course uses lectures, readings and discussions to explore the life stories Truth and Stowe.
Recommended: Nancy Koester, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life (Eerdmans, 2014); We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth (Eerdmans 2023). Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850)
