I sell the shadow to support the substance.

Sojourner Truth ¹

On the first day of October 1865 Sojourner Truth dictated a letter from
Washington, D.C. to her friend Amy Post in Rochester, New York.

I have heard nothing from my children for a long time, neither from
my grandchildren since they left me. I take this occasion to inquire after
their whereabouts and health, as well as your own prosperity, and to
inform you of my own. I spent over six months at Arlington Heigths
[sic], called the Freedmen's village, and served there as counciller for my
people, acceptably to the good but not at all times to those who desire
nothing higher than the lowest and the vilest of habits. For you know I
must be faithful Sojourner everywhere.

Six months after the formal ending of the Civil War, Truth felt that the
nation was still wandering like the Israelites in the wilderness with no
promised land in sight.

I have generally received the kindest attention from those in Authority
even to the President. But I see dark spots still in the great cloud that
leads us by day, and occasional angry flashes in the pillar of fire that
guides through this long dark night. Yet my comfort in all this is in the
thought that God rules.

The dark spots by day were easy enough to account for in her constant
confrontation with the racism that persisted after the abolition of slavery.

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