Sojourner Truth's narrative was not actually written by herself (Sojourner was illiterate) but was published by multiple authors of the time. The earliest edition was written by white abolitionist, Olive Gilbert, in 1850. The last edition was authored by Frances Titus in 1884 (one year after Sojourner Truth's death).
During her stay at the Northampton Association (a Utopian community based on the philosophy of Charles Fourier), Truth became involved with some key players of the Abolition movement (such as Frederick Douglass and William Loyd Garrison). Olive Gilbert met Truth at the association and started taking dictations for Sojourner's narrative. Gilbert remained with Sojourner two years after the convention came to an end so that she could finish writing Sojourner's narrative (Hutchins).
Olive Gilbert was friends with the well known radical abolitionist: William Loyd Garrison. Garrison actually wrote the preface to Sojourner's narrative. One is easily inclined to see the way in which Garrison attacks the institution of slavery. His radical view of slavery is depicted in the opening of the story without any mercy for his readers:
"Hypocrites! liars! tyrants! men-stealers! atheists! Professing to believe in the natural equality of the human race- yet dooming a sixth portion of your immense population to beastly servitude, and ranking them among our goods and chattels! (NST 570)
In addition to Gilbert and Garrison, Sojourner Truth became acquainted with former slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. During one of Douglass' speeches (orated in Boston Massachusetts at Faneuil Hall), Sojourner stood up and asked Douglass a very famous question: "Douglass, is God dead?". Douglass had relayed a speech that urged black slaves to rise up in arms against their oppressors, and Truth (who accepted the fact that Douglass was frustrated, but not that he had lost faith in G0d) fired back by asking him if god had left African Americans (Sellman). Douglass and Sojourner both went on to speak at a women's rights convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850 (Painter). Frederick actually wrote about Truth's unrelenting faith in some of his writings.
Sojourner Truth also came into contact with the widely popular author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe made Truth famous by publishing an article about her in an 1863 Atlantic Monthly. In Stowe's article, Truth was hailed as being an iconic symbol of faith. Truth "became a national icon of the evangelical and abolitionist movements" (Hutchins).
During her lifetime, Sojourner truth met up with a myriad of "celebrities" at the time. She became friends with Amy Post and visited President Lincoln at the White House during the Civil War. She worked with the Freedman's Bureau and National Freedman's Relief Association from 1864-1866. In the later part of her life, Sojourner joined the American Woman's Suffrage Association. In 1880, Sojourner moved back to her daughters where she lived with them until her death in 1883.
Works Cited:
Hutchins, Zachary. "Summary of Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828." Documenting the American South homepage. Web. 12 Nov. 2009.
Painter, Nell Irvin. "Truth, Sojourner." African American National Biography. Ed. Henry LouisGates Jr.. Ed. Evelyn BrooksHigginbotham. Oxford African American Studies Center. Thu Nov 12 11:49:25 EST 2009.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sojourner_Truth
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Both of these sources say that William Lloyd Garrison privately paid for Sojourner Truth's first narrative to be published. Olivia Gilbert was just the writer whom Truth dictated to. I haven't found any sources saying that Olive Gilbert actually had Truth's first narrative published. I even double checked your sources too.
I learned something from this post! I never knew that Sojourner Truth came in contact with so many of the other famous stories and abolitionist like Garrison we've read about.
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