God I Didn’t Know You Were So Big: Apophatic Mysticism and Expanding Worldviews

Abstract

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella in the late 1790s on Roundout Creek in Rosendale, Ulster County, in the state of New York. A Colonel Ardinburgh owned her parents, James and Betsy. Isabella’s father, James was given the name “Bomefrey” (low Dutch for “tree”) because of his tall stature. Betsy or Mau-Mau Bett, as she was called, gave birth to 10 or perhaps 12 children. Isabella was the youngest and only knew six of her siblings. The rest were sold to other owners. Ardinburgh died when Isabella was still an infant. The Colonel’s son Charles inherited his father’s property, including those he enslaved. Under Charles Ardinburgh, Isabella’s family as well as all of Ardinburgh’s other enslaved blacks lived in a cellar beneath a house that was converted into a hotel. In the cellar, there was little sunlight and the floor was often covered with mud. The men, women, and children who shared this cellar suffered from diseases and ailments resulting in bodies that were often contorted and tortured by pain. ¹