Sojourner Truth made Battle Creek her home

One of the most important figures in American history spent the last chapter of her life in Battle Creek. Sojourner Truth — born into slavery in New York around 1797, escaped to freedom in 1826, and later a famous abolitionist, preacher, and champion of women’s rights — first came to Battle Creek in 1856 to speak to the local Quakers. She liked what she found: a town full of abolitionists and reformers. She moved here the next year and made it her home for the rest of her life, traveling out to speak across the country and returning between journeys.

Truth died in Battle Creek in 1883 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, not far — as it happens — from the grave of cereal magnate C.W. Post. Downtown, a striking twelve-foot bronze monument honors her at the corner of Division and Michigan, and the Battle Creek history museum tells more of her story.