Creative Minds Biography

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York in 1797 or 1798. She never knew for sure which year she was born or even whether it was summer or winter. By the time she was a young woman, Sojourner knew she could no longer live as a slave, and with the help of Quakers, she escaped to freedom. She then began her long struggle to reunite her family and to free other slaves. JERI CHASE FERRIS is the award-winning author of eleven Lerner biographies for children and young adults. She specializes in biographies of women and minorities―people who have done great and important deeds, but have been overlooked in history―for example: Go Free or Die: A Story about Harriet Tubman, Demanding Justice: A Story about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Arctic Explorer: A Story about Matthew Henson, What Are You Figuring Now?: A Story about Benjamin Banneker, and With Open Hands: A Story about Biddy Mason. Jeri retired from a 30-year teaching career in order to write full time and travels all over the United States and the world to research and collect information on her subjects. In addition to writing, she is a frequent speaker at schools and conferences, bringing history to life through the lives of these remarkable women and men. Her current novel is not a biography but is historical fiction, a survival story set in WWII Russia (USSR).