(Blockson 206) Once she was free, she changed her name from Isabella to Sojourner Truth after a "sudden revelation by God." (Sojourner Truth 1) She believed that He wanted her to take this name, which meant the journey to truth, and evangelize His word. (History-Sojourner 2) She became the first black woman to crusade for abolition in 1828. (History-Sojourner 1) John Dumont was the slaveholder of Sojourner Truth. He was a humane master, according to her, who praised her for being hard-working. (Sojourner Truth 2) The main reason that some slaveholders treated their slaves humanely was because they were valuable property. (Franklin 36) Most all slaveholders would whip their slaves to ensure maximum production and to instill fear in them. (Franklin 28) Prosperous farming families were clearly distinguished by the addition of hired men and women. (Biel 65) .
American racial slavery held "black" and "slave" to be nearly synonymous terms. (Crowe 151) As described by the Oxford English Dictionary, the meaning of black before the 16th century included, "Deeply stained with dirt, having dark or deadly purposes, malignant, wicked and liability to punishment, pertaining to or involving death, etc." (Crowe 214) In 1785, a group of New Yorkers led by John Jay and Alexander Hamilton arranged for the formal freeing of slaves. By 1792, there were anti-slavery societies in every state from Massachusetts to Virginia. (Franklin 33) .
As early as 1810, the federal government excluded Negroes from the postal service. They thought, "If Negroes mix with other people and acquire information, they might learn that a man's rights do not depend on his color." (Crowe 229) Thomas Jefferson owned and sold slaves, yet proclaimed that all men were equal with the "unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (Crowe 250) These were turbulent times and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 increased tensions between free and slave states.
