fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

Sojorner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman?Sojourner Truth (1797? - 1883) was a former slave who becameactive in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. In1843, responding to what she felt was divine inspiration, shechanged her name to Sojourner Truth and began to preach. Inaddition to being an evangelist, she was involved in abolitionismand (after 1850) the women’s rights movement. Gaunt andmuscular, she was an intense, powerful, and uncompromisingspeaker. This is evident in the following reading, a shortaddress she delivered at a women’s rights convention in Akron,Ohio, in 1851. Up to the moment she spoke at the convention,the advocates of greater freedom for women had been losingground. There were a number of ministers present who opposedwomen’s rights on various grounds. One claimed that men hadgreater intellect than women. Another asserted that Christ’smanhood made men superior. A third pointed out that thesin of Eve had brought evil into the world. The male membersof the audience in the gallery had been enjoying the spectacle.Then Sojourner Truth walked in and addressed the conventionwith an effect that Frances Gage, who was present, describedas “magical, ... turning the whole tide in our favor.” Whatimage of female identity was Truth opposing in her remarks?If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turnthe world upside down all alone, these women together oughtto be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! Andnow they is asking to do it, the men better let them.Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t gotnothing more to say.WELL, CHILDREN, WHERE THERE IS SO MUCHRACKET there must be something out of kilter. I think that‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women of the North,all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix prettysoon. But what’s all this here talking about? That man overthere says that women need to be helped into carriages, andlifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mudpuddles, orgives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at ‘me!Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gatheredinto barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? Icould work as much and eat as much as a man—when I couldget it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I haveborne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off toslavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none butJesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?Then they talk about this thing in the head: what’s this theycall it? “Intellect,” someone whispers. That’s it, honey. What’sthat got to do with women’s rights or Negro’s rights? If my cupwon’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you bemean not to let me have my little half-measure full?Then that little man in black there [one of the many clergymenpresent at the convention], he says women can’t have as muchrights as men, cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did yourChrist come from? Where did your Christ come from? FromGod and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him.269