Sojourner Truth’s autobiographical narrative chronicles her life as a slave in Upstate New York and her transformation into an abolitionist, women’s rights activist, orator, and preacher. She was born around 1797 and emancipated by state law in 1827. The following year she moved to New York City, where she became involved with various unorthodox religious groups. By 1843 she had become an itinerant preacher and spent most of the next 13 years in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was illiterate; her autobiography was dictated to her neighbor Olive Gilbert, and the Narrative was published in 1850. In the 1870s, her friend Frances Titus compiled a new edition, adding the Book of Life, a scrapbook of articles, essays, and letters from Truth’s admirers.