a female US slave (=a black person who was owned by a white person) with strong Christian beliefs, who was allowed to become a free person and who then travelled around the US teaching people about God and speaking publicly against slavery (=the practice of owning slaves) (1797-1883). orig. Isabella Van Wagener born 1797, Ulster county, N.Y., U.S. died Nov. 26, 1883, Battle Creek, Mich. U.S. evangelist and social reformer. The daughter of slaves, she spent her childhood as an abused chattel of several masters. After being freed in about 1827, she worked as a domestic in New York City (1829-43) and began preaching on street corners with the evangelical missionary Elijah Pierson. Adopting the name Sojourner Truth, she left New York to obey a "call" to travel and preach. Adding abolitionism and women's rights to her religious messages, she traveled in the Midwest, where her magnetism drew large crowds. At the start of the American Civil War she gathered supplies for black volunteer regiments. In 1864 she went to Washington, D.C., where she helped integrate streetcars and was received at the White House by Pres. Abraham Lincoln. After the war she worked for the freedmen's relief organization and encouraged migration to Kansas and Missouri
A sojourn is a short stay in a place that is not your home. a short period of time that you stay in a place that is not your home (sojorn, from sojorner , from subdiurnare, from sub + diurnum )
To dwell for a time; to dwell or live in a place as a temporary resident or as a stranger, not considering the place as a permanent habitation; to delay; to tarry
(intransitive verb.) 14th century. Middle English sojornen, from Old French sojorner, from Vulgar Latin subdiurnare, from Latin sub under, during + Late Latin diurnum day; more at UP, JOURNEY.