The stunning speech sometimes known as 'Ain't I a Woman?'
Sojourner Truth spoke out against slavery and for women's rights in this landmark speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851
May I say a few words? I want to say a few words about this matter.
I am a woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?
I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now.
As for intellect, all I can say is, if women have a pint and man a quart -- why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we cant take more than our pint’ll hold.
The poor men seem to be all in confusion, and dont know what to do. Why children, if you have woman’s rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they wont be so much trouble.
I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again.
The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother. And Jesus wept - and Lazarus came forth.
And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and woman who bore him. Man, where is your part?
About the Author
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), given the name Isabella Baumfree in slavery, was born into enslavement near Kingston, New York. In 1826 she took her freedom from the last of her four enslavers and moved to New York City where she worked until 1843, when after a religious conversion she became a preacher. She changed her name to Sojourner Truth and left New York City for Florence, Massachusetts, a centre of abolitionist activism and one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. The Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee summarizes her extraordinary achievements:
‘Truth made a living as a public speaker, successfully brought cases to court, marched and performed sit-ins for reform causes, petitioned Congress, met with presidents, and tried to vote in the 1872 election. She also broadened the definition of "reformer" beyond the white, educated, middle-class women who primarily made up the women’s movement. In her life and person, Sojourner Truth combined the causes of abolition, racial equality, and women’s rights, and was a significant advocate for social justice.’
What we love about this passage…
Sojourner Truth could neither read nor write, but she listened to readings of the Bible and she mastered the art of oratory: this speech is clear, concise, witty, and direct, using iron-clad logic and rhetorical flourishes to dismantle the opposition.
This is the earliest written version of the speech as transcribed at the time by Marius Robinson and published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle; it does not include the rhetorical question ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ This often-attributed phrase appeared twelve years later when another version of Truth’s speech was published by Frances Gage, who gave Sojourner a stereotypical southern slave dialect despite the fact that she was born in the northern United States. You can compare the two versions and learn more here.
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