Montoya 1

Inigo Montoya

Ms. Colln

English 10, period 6

15 December 2015

Speech Analysis: Sorjourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”

Dear friend,

I thought I’d share with you a speech from a voice that rarely gets attention. So often we hear from the Lincolns and the MLKs, the great generals or the eloquent leaders who have used their position to change the world. Yet there are those voices in history echoing from the sea of the voiceless, those forgotten who demand our attention. There are times when we need to pause, be patient and really listen to discover how forceful these forgotten voices really are. Sorjourner Truth is one of these speakers whose voice is worth considering. Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree was an African American woman who escaped slavery along with her infant child in 1826. As a signal of independence, she changed her own name to Sorjourner Truth and took on the causes of the abolition of slavery and the fight for women’s rights. Although not formally educated--in fact, she could not read or write--Truth would often speak on behalf of these causes throughout her life. One such speech, her “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, demonstrates how persuasive she really was.

So quickly we disregard someone’s ideas based on how they look, or even how they speak. Surely Sorjourner Truth had to work to convince her audiences, who likely believed that if you were a woman, if you were black, and if you were uneducated, then you were inferior. To most, Truth was the last voice worth listening to. Still, her words are persuasive, charged with emotional weight and strong reasoning. Truth appeals to the women sitting in the audience by pointing out their shared struggle. She begins by addressing the dilemma at that time: “Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin at de Norf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon” (1). Truth is well aware that the women in the audience likely hold racial prejudices, but she wants to remind them that their enemy is the same: White men--which should be interpreted to mean a society that values white men over women and African Americans. But Truth continues with strong reason to justify why women, even African American women, deserve to be treated equally. When Truth states, “I could work as much and eat as much as a man, when I could get it, and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a woman?” (8) she is pointing out that her struggles, like the struggles of most African American women at the time, are no less challenging than a man’s. In doing so, she is revealing how unreasonable it is to not allow her the same rights. She builds her credibility by pointing out all of the physical struggles she has gone through in her life, the manual labor in the fields and the farms (7), the bearing and losing of all her thirteen children to slavery (9) and even showing the audience her strong arms (5-6)--all of which helps to confirm the fact that she is worth listening to on this subject and support her rebuttal to society’s claim that women are inherently weaker than men and therefore obviously not deserving of equal rights.

CONSIDER INSERTING TRUTH’S REBUTTAL TO BIBLICAL ARGUMENT

But what we mustn’t ignore here is that Truth is reminding these women in particular, most of whom are probably white, to begin to see the hypocrisy in their struggle for equal rights when the rights of African Americans are neglected. Her powerful refrain, “Ain’t I a woman?”, repeated throughout the speech (four times in total in her short speech) seems to be Truth’s attempt to point out an obvious fact that all Americans fighting for women’s rights at the time so conveniently had forgotten: that African American women are suffering in slavery in even more deplorable conditions while the cause for women’s rights continues. By repeating this rhetorical question, Truth is attempting to appeal to her audience’s sense of justice. The tone of Truth’s speech reveals that she considers her audience to have compassion and enough sense to recognize the grave situation not just for African American women but for all African Americans.

We cannot forget her voice, one that champions the cause for the voiceless. Sometimes there is strength in people who appear to have no power in the world. Sorjourner Truth reminds us to question our prejudices, to consider the real truth in life: that of equality for all despite difference.

1 / Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin at de Norf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?
2 / Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!"
3 / And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked:
4 / And ain't I a woman?
5 / Look at me! Look at my arm!
6 / And she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power.
7 / I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman?
8 / I could work as much and eat as much as a man, when I could get it, and bear de lash as well! And ain't I a woman?
9 / I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' 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?
Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?
10 / "Intellect," whispered some one near.
11 / Dat's it, honey. What's dat got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?
12 / And she pointed her significant finger, and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the argument. The cheering was long and loud.
13 / Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?
14 / Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crowd, as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with out-stretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated,
15 / Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin' to do wid Him.
16 / Oh, what a rebuke that was to that little man. Turning again to another objector, she took up the defense of Mother Eve. I can not follow her through it all. It was pointed, and witty, and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence deafening applause; and she ended by asserting:
17 / If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder
18 / and she glanced her eye over the platform
19 / ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let 'em."
20 / Long-continued cheering greeted this.
21 / 'Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, and now ole Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say."

[Recent scholarship has disputed whether this account, written about 30 years after the speech was given, is an accurate representation of Truth's speaking style. The dialect, in particular, may have been an addition by Gage. For more on this dispute, see Aint I A Woman Delivered by Sojourner Truth by About's Guide to African American History, Jessica McElrath.]