Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?
1.0 Introduction
Sojourner Truth was a prolific African American speaker on abolition and women’s rights in the mid 19th century. She was also a Pentecostal preacher and traveled extensively throughout the Midwest and the northeast speaking and singing her message. She is renowned for her famous speech “Ain’t I woman” that she delivered in 1851 at a women’s right convention in Akron, Ohio. This short and powerful speech is the subject of this paper. The paper will analyze the speech taking into account the historical background of Truth and its bearing on the speech. Suffice to say, the speech was highly publicized during the American civil war and was published in different news papers of the time including the New York Tribune, the Liberator and the Anti Slavery Bugle. As a result, there are several published versions of the speech. This will focus on 2 versions of the speech. In order to disassemble and understand the speech it’s vital to consider the author’s historical background which had a profound bearing on the speech.
2.0 Historical background
Born Isabella Van Wagenen, Sojourner Truth was a daughter of James and Elizabeth Baurmfree; Africans captured from the modern day Ghana and Guinea respectively. The parents were slaves of a Dutch, Colonel Hardenbergh, who owned a farm in the northern parts of New York. As such Truth could only speak Dutch until the age of nine when she was sold to another farm owner. She was traded between slave owners from the tender age of 9 and suffered a great deal under the slave owners (masters). In fact, Truth stated that one of her masters, John Neely, beat her daily. In 1815 she fell in love with Robert, a slave in a neighboring farm with whom she bore her first child. This love did not last long because Robert was forbidden by his master from having the relationship and was beaten to death by the master. Truth was later forced by her owner to marry Thomas (an older slave). There is controversy regarding the number of children she bore, with some accounts mentioning thirteen and others citing five children.
Sojourner Truth escaped from slavery in 1826 with her infant daughter and worked as a house help in the household of protestant Christians until she became a member of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. She had become a staunch protestant Christian in 1829. She changed her name from Isabella to Sojourner Truth in 1843 when she felt a call to become a travelling preacher. The name was more or less a declaration of her role and mission as a travelling preacher preoccupied with truth and justice. She therefore became a travelling preacher speaking mainly on the abolition of slavery and later on women rights issue. In fact, at the women rights convention at Ohio, where she made her famous speech that is the subject of this paper, there was protest when she rose to speak because many thought she would give a talk on abolition.
3.0 Ain't I a Woman?
As earlier stated there are several versions of the speech but the paper will consider two. The first one was written by France Gage 12yrs after the speech was delivered while the second was recorded in the Anti Slavery Bugle on the 21st June 1851. Below are the two versions that will be considered both adopted from Carleton Mabee’s, "Sojourner Truth, Slave, Prophet, Legend," (New York, New York University Press, 1995), pp. 67-82
As recounted by Frances Gage, in 1863
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [Member of audience whispers, "Intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
As reported in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, Salem, Ohio, June 21, 1851
I am for 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 woman have a pint and a 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 won't take more than our pint will hold.
The poor men seem to be all in confusion and don't 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 there won't be so much trouble.
4.0 Analysis of the speech
The main theme of the speech is gender equality. Suffice to say, that the speech was delivered in the context of women rights convention and that Truth gave it to debase arguments given by earlier speakers (mainly men) who were of the opinion that men were superior to women in intellect, physical strength as well as spiritually. Amidst protest Truth rose to give her speech' in a manner that had not been witnessed before. At the time, women could not correct men especially in public. The male speakers had used scriptures to argue that Jesus was man and that the first woman brought sin into the world. Truth stated that she did get any help from men to get “into carriages, or over mud-puddles” and neither was she given a special place simply because she was a woman. She also pointed out that she was as physically capable as any man, stating that she could do whatever men could. She uses the similes below to liken herself to men,
“I can work/carry as much and eat as much as any man”
“I am as strong as any man”
“I have as much muscle as any man”
She uses her Christian knowledge to drive the point home by pointing out that even if Jesus was a man, God used a woman to bring Him to the world and man had no role in this miracle. On the sin brought into the world by woman, Truth states that if the first woman was strong enough to mislead the world then she is strong enough to lead man to the right path and should thus be given a chance and her right. In the version published in the Anti Slavery Bugle, Truth opens her speech by declaring that she is for woman’s right, clearly setting the tone for feminism. Finally in both versions she concludes by demanding that men should give women their right, stating that women were not asking for too much.
Though somewhat salient, the theme of slavery and its abolition is alluded to in this statement. “I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon”. She alludes to the impending freedom of African Americans from slavery when she says that the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. While comparing herself to men she points to the hard work she had endured and even lashes she had received as a slave. Suffice to say, therefore that her family and personal history in slavery had a bearing in the speech. In addition her vocation (Christian calling to be particular) had a bearing on the speech. She employed Christian tenets to argue for equality of all human beings. As earlier mentioned, Truth was a speaker on abolition and women’s rights and therefore this vocation can be detected in her speech.
The imagery evoked by the speech is both biblical and historical. Truth protests against the prevailing and historic gender inequalities. She concludes by demanding that women rights given their rights. She uses biblical examples to drive her point home. Vital to note is the fact that the same biblical examples had been used by earlier speakers to demean women. She also alluded to the history of slavery as well as the impending abolition. The speech was delivered in the background of historical injustices against women and African American and this background has a bearing, as has been mentioned, in the speech.
Works cited
Gilbert, Olive. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Boston: J. B. Yerrinton and son, 1850. A vailable at: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html
Mabee, Carleton. Sojourner Truth, Slave, Prophet, Legend. New York: New York University Press, 1995.
