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Primary sourcePhotograph1864

I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance

1864

A carte de visite photograph of Sojourner Truth from 1864, sold under a caption she copyrighted herself to fund her work.

This photograph depicts Truth herself, sold under her own copyrighted caption to fund her activist work.

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Sepia carte de visite photograph of an older Black woman seated at a table, wearing a white bonnet, dark dress, and white fringed shawl, with a flower vase at right. Printed caption below reads 'I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance' and 'SOJOURNER TRUTH'.
Carte de visite of Sojourner Truth, 1864. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is a small photograph, called a carte de visite, of Sojourner Truth taken in 1864. It is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The printed caption, "I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance," was copyrighted by Truth herself, and she sold copies of this photograph to raise money for her activism.

Why it matters

This photograph shows how Truth controlled her own public image at a time when Black Americans had little control over how they were represented. By selling her own photograph with her own words, she presented herself as dignified and respectable, and used the sale to fund her work.

Look closer

  • What choices do you see in how Truth is dressed and posed?
  • Why might Truth have wanted to copyright her own image and caption?
  • What does it mean that she used photography, a fairly new technology, to support her activism?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sojourner Truth on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Fanaticism; Its Source and Influence, Illustrated by the Simple Narrative of Isabella, in the Case of Matthias

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Sepia carte de visite photograph of an older Black woman seated beside a table with a flower vase, wearing a white bonnet, glasses, a white shawl, and a dark dress, holding knitting or sewing. Printed caption below reads: I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance. SOJOURNER TRUTH.Photograph

Primary source

Sojourner Truth, seated with knitting

1864

Sepia-toned seated portrait of an elderly Black woman in a dark dress, white shawl with fringe, and white bonnet, sitting in an ornately carved dark wooden armchair in a studio with a decorated shelf and vases behind her.Photograph

Primary source

Sojourner Truth, 1870

Randall Studio · c. 1870

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