Ain't I a Woman?
Sojourner Truth gave her famous “Ain't I a
Woman?” speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
(The women's rights movement grew in large part out of the anti-slavery
movement.)
No formal record of the speech exists, but
Frances Gage, an abolitionist and president of the Convention, recounted Truth's
words. There is debate about the accuracy of this account because Gage did not
record the account until 1863 and her record differs somewhat from newspaper
accounts of 1851. However it is Gage's report that endures and it is clear that,
whatever the exact words, “Ain't I a Woman?” made a great impact at
the Convention and has become a classic expression of women's
rights.
The Classic
Report
Several ministers attended
the second day of the Woman's Rights Convention, and were not shy in voicing
their opinion of man's superiority over women. One claimed “superior
intellect”, one spoke of the “manhood of Christ,” and still
another referred to the “sin of our first
mother.”
Suddenly, Sojourner
Truth rose from her seat in the corner of the
church.
“For God's sake,
Mrs.Gage, don't let her speak!” half a dozen women whispered loudly,
fearing that their cause would be mixed up with
Abolition.
Sojourner walked to the
podium and slowly took off her sunbonnet. Her six-foot frame towered over the
audience. She began to speak in her deep, resonant voice: “Well, children,
where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter, I think
between the Negroes of the South and the women of the North - all talking about
rights - the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this talking
about?”
Sojourner pointed to one
of the ministers. “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 helps me any best place.
And ain't I
a woman?”
Sojourner raised
herself to her full height. “Look at me! Look at my arm.” She bared
her right arm and flexed her powerful muscles. “I have plowed, I have
planted and I have 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 man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well!
And ain't I a woman? I have borne children and seen most of them sold into
slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me.
And ain't I a woman?”
The women
in the audience began to cheer
wildly.
She pointed to another
minister. “He talks about this thing in the head. What's that they call
it?”
“Intellect,” whispered
a woman nearby.
“That's it,
honey. What's intellect got to do with women's rights or black folks' 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?”
“That little man in back
there! He says women can't have as much rights as men. ‘Cause Christ
wasn't a woman. She stood with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. “Where
did your Christ come
from?”
“Where did your
Christ come from?”, she thundered again. “From God and a Woman! Man
had nothing to do with him!”
The
entire church now roared with deafening
applause.
“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 that they are asking to do it, the men better let them.”
Posted: Sat
- March 1, 2003 at 06:45 PM