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Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 and became a powerful advocate for human rights in the 19th century. In 1851 she delivered her famous speech "Ain't I a Woman" at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, where she argued against the hypocrisy of the inequality faced by women and blacks. She recounted her experiences of hardship and injustice as a black woman. Through repetition of the powerful phrase "Ain't I a woman?" and references to her strength and motherhood, she compelled her white female audience to understand the discrimination faced by blacks and work with them to achieve equality for all.

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Primary Source: Aint I A Woman 1

Aint I A Woman
Tiffany Richardson
October 30, 2015
SSE 3113

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The primary source I decided to choose was taken from the National Park Service; a speech
given by Sojourner Truth, Aint I A Woman. The speech was delivered in 1851 at the Womens
Convention in Akron, Ohio.
Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth,
would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century.
Her early childhood was spent on a New York estate owned by a Dutch American named Colonel
Johannes Hardenbergh. Like other slaves, she experienced the miseries of being sold and was
cruelly beaten and mistreated. Around 1815 she fell in love with a fellow slave named Robert,
but they were forced apart by Roberts master. Isabella was instead forced to marry a slave
named Thomas, with whom she had five children.
In 1827, after her master failed to honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York AntiSlavery Law of 1827, Isabella ran away, or, as she later informed her master, I did not run away,
I walked away by daylight..
On June 1, 1843, Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth, devoting her life to
Methodism and the abolition of slavery. In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of
Education and Industry in Northampton, Massachusetts. Founded by abolitionists, the
organization supported a broad reform agenda including women's rights and pacifism. Members
lived together on 500 acres as a self-sufficient community. Truth met a number of leading
abolitionists at Northampton, including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and David
Ruggles.
Although the Northampton community disbanded in 1846, Sojourner Truth's career as an activist

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and reformer was just beginning. Truth sold portraits of herself during her time of activism. The
inscription below the image is cryptic: I sell the Shadow to Support the Substance. It alludes to
a phrase popular with photographers in promoting the cameras ability to capture all things
transient: secure the shadow ere the substance fade. Many historians have interpreted Truths
use of the phrase as her way of referring to the fact that she sold the portraits to fund her work
for racial and gender equality. That is, by selling the shadowmeaning the photographic
image itselfshe supported the Substance: herself (Truth, literally and metaphorically) and her
important work for social reform.
In 1850 her memoirs were published under the title The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A
Northern Slave. Truth dictated her recollections to a friend, Olive Gilbert, since she could not
read or write, and William Lloyd Garrison wrote the book's preface. That same year, Truth spoke
at the first National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. She soon began
touring regularly with abolitionist George Thompson, speaking to large crowds on the subjects of
slavery and human rights. She was one of several escaped slaves, along with Frederick Douglass
and Harriet Tubman, to rise to prominence as an abolitionist leader and a testament to the
humanity of enslaved people. She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and
women during and after the Civil War. Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1883.
Truth was a powerful and impassioned speaker whose legacy of feminism and racial equality still
resonates today.
Due to the fact that Sojourner Truth was a feminist, her speech, Aint I A Woman expounded
on the inequalities that women and blacks faced at that time in America. She spoke about her
experiences and tribulations as not only a woman in that days society but as a black woman. She
argues the hypocrisy of the inequality between men, women, blacks, and whites. This hypocrisy

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of the inequality between men, women, blacks and whites incites an emotion of resentment in the
audience. Not only does the presence of hypocrisy in any matter, subject, or person hold a
negative connotation, but it also creates a feeling of trepidation that encourages individuals to
take action. By depicting the existence of this hypocrisy present in her own life, she invites her
audience to realize potential injustices in their own lives, which they should want to change.
Sojourner plays on the emotions of her audience in order to grab their attention and their
willingness for change by elucidating her own vulnerable state to which they can relate.
The speech was given in time of History where woman, more specifically black women had no
rights and there was an emerging womens right movement. Truth recognized the connection
between the inferior legal status of African Americans and women in general. Although we
cannot actually hear Sojourner speak these words, reading the documentation of this speech, I
can feel her energy, anger, and resentment building up as she repeats this commanding phrase.
She brings the rhythm slowly to an end with a vivid image of the grief and hardships she has
faced as a slave and a woman. She states that she has borne thirteen children, and seen most all
sold off to slavery as she cried out with [her] mothers grief, following this recollection with
one last repetition of and aint I a woman? She purposefully ended this part of her speech with
such a brilliantly clear image of violence and the traumatic effects of inequality, forcing her
audience, most of which were probably mothers, to relate to her suffering on an even deeper
emotional level. Through this repetition, Sojourner transitions the attention of her audience from
injustices that women face to the injustices that blacks face as well. Effortlessly tying these two
issues of inequality together, Sojourner allows her audience, who as women feel discriminated
against, to connect with and understand the discrimination that blacks face as well.

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The speech ended with a means of inspiring her audience to act on this inequality and solve the
injustices that they each face by making reference to the impact that Eve had on the world. She
claims, 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! By
referencing, the strength of the commonly known Christian figure of the worlds first woman,
Eve, Sojourner is trying to touch each member of her audience so that they can emotionally and
personally relate to her proposition to fight injustice. She suggests the idea that if these women
all work together, there is no reason that they should not achieve what they are looking for:
equality for all.
The Aint I a Woman speech can be turned into a learning experience. I would use these
speech and turn it into a social science lesson. The lesson would focus on the life of Sojourner
Truth, as well as suffrage and abolitionism. This can be done through many different activities.
These activities include:
Think-pair-share: Discuss freedoms that we have. Individually have students think of what things
they would miss if their freedom were taken away from them. Have students share ideas in pairs.
As a whole class, list some of the ideas that were generated. Have class vote on four of the most
important things.
Mini-Lecture: Using background information, talk about the life of Sojourner Truth and her
influence in civil rights and womens suffrage. Define suffrage and abolitionism.
Creative Dramatics/ Role playing Day: Ask students to choose one of the following two options:
1) Dress as Sojourner Truth and deliver one of her speeches after practicing. 2.) Role play a
woman without voting rights. Present things to be voted on throughout the day, and do not allow

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these people to vote. After the roles have been played have students write their feelings on paper,
then discuss them as a class.

Appendices

AIN'T I A WOMAN?
by Sojourner Truth
Delivered 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio
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 mudpuddles, 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.