Sojourner Truth – "And Ain‘t I a Woman?"

"And Ain't I a Woman?" is a speech by Sojourner Truth made at The Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio (Truth). Sojourner Truth, whose real name is Isabella Baumfree, was born in Ulster County, New York (Women). Isabella was a slave in her early life, and her owner, Mr. Neely, used to whip her very fiercely. Isabella soon took up religion, and she began to pray when she was scared or hurting. Isabella fell in a love with a slave from a different owner, and she had a child with him. Her lover's owner forbade their relationship, so he beat her lover who never returned to see Isabella. She was then forced to marry an older slave and they had four children together. Once Isabella was freed, she did not have very many possessions, so she became a traveling preacher. On June 1, 1843 Isabella changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Truth is known for preaching against slave and women's rights and for inspiring many people to do what they feel is right (Women).

Sojourner Truth's speech, "And Ain't I a Women?" is, as one would guess it, directed towards women. The speech talks about the hardships of women and what they have to deal with from men. Truth makes quite a few points saying "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" (Truth).

Truth speaks of how men say they treat women right by helping them into carriages and over ditches and by giving them the best place everywhere, but Truth says that has never been done for her before (Truth). Truth concludes her speech with, "Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say" (Truth) which I feel is a very inspirational ending to a very powerful speech. I think this is an inspirational ending because Truth has said everything that she wanted to say. Now she is saying that she is done, and she is going to sit back and let people think what they want about her thoughts which is a very courageous thing for a speech giver to do because usually speech givers try to convince their audience until every single person is completely convinced that what they are saying is right.

Truth's speech, "And Ain't I a Woman?", portrays Realism in that it defines how life really is for a woman. This speech can somewhat be a representative of Naturalism because it focuses on a specific group of people - women. Truth's speech depicts it's time period very well. During the time that Truth made this speech there were not a lot of rights for women or African Americans. Truth is a true inspiration for being a freed slave and a woman, and, on top of those two monumental things, she preaches to people about the wrongs and rights in their society. In my eyes, Truth is a definite hero of her time period. She is a model figure for women and African Americans. She spoke for what she believed was right, and she did it with style.

Truth incorporated religion into her speech and life by praying to the Lord to keep her safe when she was scared or hurting, and by using His teachings to help her get across to her followers; she was a preacher. Truth's speech somewhat resembles government in that the government has not given many rights to women or African Americans for whom she is fighting for. Truth uses psychology in her speech to get inside the heads of her listeners to get them to believe her and to do what she thinks is right. This is a technique that all speech makers use. Truth's speech resembles the American Dream because it portrays what women want and what they should have during this particular time period.

Works Cited:

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain't I a Woman?" Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Colombus: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 370. Print.

"Women in History". Sojourner Truth biography. Last Updated: 14 Feb 2011. Lakewood Public Library. Date accessed 14 Feb 2011 . .