Dutch Elements in the New York Contact Zone: Traces of the Dutch Language and Literature in Sojourner Truth’s Slave Narrative 1850

Abstrakt

It is a little-known fact that the native language of Sojourner Truth ca. 1797–1883, one of the icons of the American Civil Rights Movement, was Dutch. Growing up as a slave of Dutch-American families in the Central Hudson Valley, Truth only spoke Dutch as a child. While she later became fluent in English, Truth kept a Dutch accent all her life. Although Truth’s entire testimonial has been recorded in her second language, English, this article attempts to reawakening her Dutch legacy. It explores the ways in which the Dutch language and Dutch literature impacted Truth’s famous Narrative about her time in slavery, her rebirth as an evangelical Christian and her involvement in the abolitionist and feminist movements.