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Ain't I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was an African American women’s rights activist and abolitionist. Truth was born into slavery but escaped to freedom in 1826. Ain’t I a Woman? is her most famous speech, which she delivered without preparation at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851.
Painting: We see an older black woman with glasses, wearing a hat. Bright colours are used. The drawing is simple.
Portrait of Soujourner Truth from the mural The City at the Crossroads of History by Mike Alewitz, 2014. Image: Mike Alewitz / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Before you read the speech, you should go through the vocabulary below.

Vocabulary

  • racket = loud, unpleasant noise

  • kilter = used to describe something that is not quite in the right condition or is not working in the usual or proper way.

  • 'twixt = between (short for 'betwixt', an old fashion word)

  • fix (as in 'be in a fix') = a difficult or embarrassing situation

  • no man could head me = no man could do more work than me

  • lash = strike with a whip

  • grief = deep sadness

  • intellect = the ability to think in a logical way

  • pint and quart = measurements. A quart is larger than a pint.

  • obliged = very grateful

Ain't I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

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Audio: Radio Metro AS / CC BY-SA 4.0

A black and white photo of Sojourner Truth, an old, Black woman sitting in a chair. She wears a dark dress and a white shawl and she has a white bonnet on her head. She's looking straight into the camera. Probably from the 1880s.
Sojourner Truth. Image: Unknown / CC0

"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 mud-puddles, 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.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."


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