Sojourner Truth was a well-known black activist against slavery and for equal rights among all people. She had escaped slavery herself and developed strong speaking skills while working as an evangelist and religious mystic. She got involved as abolitionist and after the Civil War as an advocate for women's rights and the rights of freed slaves for the rest of her life. Orators were much in demand for entertainment and she was very popular as a speaker, especially as a former slave. Basically, this play is a monologue, but much of the material is introduced by a narrator.