Thesis paragraph: “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a’n’t I a woman?” (Truth 1). These words were delivered from Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I A Woman,” a former slave, preacher, abolitionist and a women’s rights activist, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, in 1851. What was an improvised speech by Truth, is now deemed as one of the most famous women rights and anti-slavery movement speeches in American history. In the speech, she argued that African American slaves and women were on the rise and protesting for equal rights, and it should terrify white men. She believed in equality because black women could be as good as men. When that was not the case, women should be helped to improve and given the same opportunity to learn. In addition, Truth makes biblical references throughout her speech to help justify the fact that both genders are just as important. Truth’s role as an activist and a significant historical figure paved a future path for feminists and abolitionists. Through her struggles as a woman born into slavery, she provides raw context and the undeniable truths, and demands for equality between race and gender.
Supporting paragraph 1: Sojourner Truth believed that women deserve the same rights as men because they could be equally strong and smart, while holding on to their womanhood, stating that there is no innate inferiority between the two genders. In the speech “Ain’t I a Woman,” she establishes to the audience her place in society as a black woman and a former slave, a victim of oppression and prejudice, and held little to no power in the hierarchy. Truth argues against stereotypical behaviour and treatment for women, and particularly black enslaved women, by saying she was never shown the civility. She works just as hard, eats just as much and can bear the same amount of punishment as men, and women do not need to be dominated by men (Truth 1). This is because there was no difference in the way the female and male slaves were treated in the possession of slave owners, women often bred like animals and given heavy lifting duties (Ware 1). Harriet Jacobs, a former female slave who had been trapped in a vicious cycle of sexual assault by her master, escaped from slavery and was freed later on. Jacobs wrote about her life as a woman and a slave; and how sexual abuse of women was a huge part of the dented morality of slavery (Henretta 336). Rape and the various sexual assaults were common, as there were no legal punishments to protect the slaves because they were held as property (Curtis 2).
Sojourner Truth spoke from her experience as a slave, which did not differ from the black men around her. She bore the weight of the same cargos and objects and were given “masculine” labour. These factors, which directly oppose to the “feminine” side of women; innocent, pure, delicate and dependent on men, the female slaves were then perceived as too “masculine” to be women, because they betrayed the traditional roles and the feminity that defined womanhood. Which led to Truth’s famous lines, “Ain’t I a woman?” In 1858, when an angry crowd mocked the validity of Truth’s and African women’s womanhood, Sojourner bore her bare breasts to the assembly, showing off not only her bosom but also her muscles (Mann 581). Rising from a position with no power at all and often excluded from the Women’s Rights movement because of her Africana experience, Truth was sometimes also regarded as the “dramatised” form of female oppression. However, Truth persevered and her legacy is an example of women demonstrating strength and how they can rise, even in the given horrendous environment.
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Supporting paragraph 2: In Sojourner Truth’s speech, she speaks about women being not as smart as men as a result of the lack of education provided for women and slaves. Sojourner believed that with help and equal opportunity, the enslaved women are able to achieve higher knowledge or the same intellectual abilities as men. However, the denial of education and the marginalization of women, especially black women was rooted deep in society, because people believed that women shouldn’t work in the same field as men. Sojourner concludes by saying letting women receive the same opportunity at education would not affect how smart men were (Truth 1). If men were capable of more intelligence, then women shouldn’t be denied however amount knowledge they were capable of. As the deeply ingrained racism in society evolved, black women are prone to endure further subjugation and exposed to further exclusion. In fear of threats black literacy could essentially pose, education in certain parts of the United States was forbidden and made illegal, leaving slaves illiterate and uneducated. Between 1829 to 1834, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina all passed anti-literacy laws and forbade the teaching of writing and reading to slaves (Pawley). Margaret Douglass, a white woman who opened a school for coloured children and taught them how to read and write was quickly arrested after the first 11 months of opening, for violating a Virginian law. She was then incarcerated for a month (Trial of Douglass). Sallie Holley, an educator of African Americans said that Truth, who was illiterate but still highly intelligent, was an example of “a great intellect that slavery crushed” (Mabee 56).
Furthermore, Sojourner had said once that slavery had “robbed” her of education, something that everyone deserved (Mabee 57). Truth has spoken out about the lack of education for enslaved women on many occasions, and she is not the only one. Prudence Crandall, a school teacher and an activist, pushed for equal education opportunities for coloured children as she opened one of the first schools for black girls. Supporting paragraph 3: Christain feminists and activists were prominent in the Women’s Rights movement because of their ties with the most common and popular religion in society. Womanists often used biblical references in their speeches and books to persuade and to personalise their arguments. Sojourner Truth, when challenged that women shall not be as important as men because Christ was a man, answered with, “What did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid Him” (Truth 1). Sojourner was a Christian herself, happening to have changed her belief on equality through a “ revelation.”
