Faith wrote the following poem in the Spring 2023 section of our course "A Young People's History of the United States." Faith wrote her poem following the week in which we focus on the role of women in early American history and in response to the image of Sojourner Truth. Students learned that in Sojourner Truth's time, photographers often referred to the captured image in a photograph as the "shadow" and that Sojourner Truth created the cards in the image to sell as a way to support her activism as an abolitionist and suffragist.
Faith's poem:
I sell the shadow to support the substance
I’d give it all right now
I've worked
And worked
Days and days
Seen all my children sold off as slaves
I'm a Black Woman in America
I have nothing left to lose
I’ve worked as much as a man has
Ain't I woman too
Nobody opens carriage doors for me
Only Jesus hears my pleas
Look at my arms
Look at my hands
Look at my knees
Look at the glasses barely fitting my face
Knitting at an insane pace
This is a wretched place
I sell the shadow
All the shadows
Every shadow
And one day
They will all know about the substance
They will know my name