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!! In Sojourner Truth, a freed slave, abolitionist, and
women’s rights activist is addressing a women’s
rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.
!! She is responding to a man in the audience who
had argued that are too frail and weak to have
equal rights and that they need to be taken care
of by men.
!! Realizing that she was addressing a hostile
audience and that (given the historical context)
only a few people would agree with her, she had
to choose her words carefully.
!! Perhaps the desired effect was to refute the
opposition which had claimed that women
were weak and frail, and that they were not as
intelligent as men and therefore not entitled
to the same rights.
3.! Truth dismisses the argument that black
women are inferior to white men by asking
what intellect has to do with basic human
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 filled?
4.! Responding to the man who claimed that
women should not have as many rights as men
because Christ was not a woman, Sojourner
argues that Christ came from God and a woman
(Mary), and that man had nothing to do with
him.
!! Her main message seems to be that black
people and women should share equal rights
with white men.
!! She also seems to suggest that black women
should receive the same consideration as
white women.
!! Truth’s logic seems to consist of four parts:
1.! She is pointing out the flaw in the man’s
logic. On the one hand he claimed that
women should be taken care of, but what
about Sojourner Truth? She is evidently
exempt from being taken care of.
2.! To the assertion that women are weak and
frail, Truth points to her own strength by
asking the audience to turn their eyes
toward her and to look at her muscular arm
while she describes the hard labour she has
performed in her life at the hands of men.
(Cont…)
!! Truth uses loaded words and phrases that appeal
to the emotions by referring to Christ,
motherhood, and grief, and by asking the
audience to look at her and consider the
hardships she has endured.
!! She uses “plain folk” language which appeals to
common people. This may help others to identify
and empathize with her and her message.
!! Her skillful repetition of the phrase “Ain’t I a
Woman?” is an effective use of persuasive
language aimed at gaining a sympathetic
response from as many people in the audience as
possible.
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