The present work, a revised and expanded biography of the noted abolitionist Sojourner Truth, belonged to George Gage, a prominent citizen in Reconstruction-era Beaufort, South Carolina. Gage was a civil engineer born in McConnelsville, Ohio who moved to Beaufort to work as a surveyor. While working on the railroad construction project from Augusta to Beaufort, he developed an interest in vocational training for the formerly enslaved. His wife, Sarah Marshall Ely, was an abolitionist and social activist who taught in the newly established segregated Freedmen's Bureau schools (Duke University Libraries).

The gift inscription on the front paste-down, seemingly also in Gage's hand, states: "Geo. Gage, from Uncle John and Aunt Portia. January 1876." Uncle John and Aunt Portia's identities are unknown, although intriguingly, the use of the titles "Uncle" and "Aunt" indicates the book may have been a gift from members of the African American community that the Gages worked with.