GREAT AMERICANS
Sojourner Truth
Isabella Baumfree or more commonly known as Sojourner Truth was born in 1797 in Ulster County, New York. She was sold as a slave when she was 11, along with a flock of sheep for 100 dollars. She was sold to many owners and was beat and sexually harrassed by her owners. Sojourner was later able to obtain her freedom and she became a prominent abolitionist and women's right activist. She dedicated her life to reform and fought for the equal rights of women. She helped, many of the freed people find good homes and made lanad available to black Southerners. She is best known for her speak that was renamed, "Aint I a Woman."
Quote-“If women want any rights more than they's got, why don't they just take them, and not be talking about it.”
Noah Webster
Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1758 during the time of the American Revolution. Very few individuals at the time did not attend college but Noah loved to learn so much that parents allowed for him to attend Yale. He later graduate in 1778. He was passionate about grammar and spelling and went on to publishing the "Blue-Backed Speller." He is credited with the creation of the first dictionary created in the U.S. He was a lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author.
Quote-“Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground”
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to Republican presidents. He was born in Virginia during the mid-to-late 1850s. He was the founder of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. He was born into slavery in Franklin Country. Washington is also known for writing an autobiography, "Up From Slavery,"was one of the most influential persons of color in his time, and became known for helping African-Americans attain economic independence after slavery in America was declared illegal.
Quote-"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."
