"And Ain't I a Woman"

In Sojourner Truth’s speech “And Ain’t I a Woman?” was a very influential speech, at least it was to me, because it did she did not try to make it sound fancy or anything, she just spoke in a way that just made sense. The counter points to the common thoughts about women back then that she made were also said in a very matter of fact way and they made a lot of sense; granted, the arguments against women’s rights were not that hard to find flaws with. This speech is not just about woman’s rights in general, it is pointing out the fact that the “northern” white women fight for women’s rights but they do not see African American women as equals. This sad fact is what brings about the refrain “And ain’t I a woman” because she is rhetorically asking the audience if she is a woman or not because since she is, she should have the same rights as white women because both groups are women. She emphasizes this point by relating to the audience about all of the things that she had to endure while being a slave that white women would not dream of ever happening to themselves because they expect to be “helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere” (Truth 370). She makes their “problems” seem petty when she talks about how she had to endure having her children being sold into slavery in front of her eyes and how she had to work hard labor, which scared her arms (Truth 370). Apparently, during the mid-1800’s, it was considered a strong argument to say that men were better than women simply for the fact that “Christ wasn’t a woman” (Truth 370). She quickly disproved that by pointing out that Christ was the product of God and a woman, asking “Where did your Christ come from” (Truth 370).

I think that this shows a little bit of Thoreau’s philosophy because Thoreau was an abolitionist, and I am sure that since he believed in equality, I would also assume that he was for women’s rights, which are both important
subjects to Truth.


Truth, Sojourner. ""And Ain't I a Woman?"" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 370. Print.