Question

Can someone summarize this, please

Ain’t I a Woman?
1864
Sojourner Truth








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?
P1






5
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 –
P2
10
when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and soon 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
the audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s
P3

15
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? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
P4






20
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.
P5








Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
P6














racket: noise
out of kilter: unbalanced

bear the lash: handle pain, but literally, in the context of slavery, surviving a whipping

obliged to you: I appreciate and owe you

Answer 1

The Set-Up

Slavery existed and women didn't have the vote in the first half of the 1800s. The people who weren't complete dirtbags wanted to change that…and had conventions to build up followers.

The Text

Truth begins her speech by pointing out that women and Black men gathering together should strike terror in the hearts of men attached to the status quo. (So you know this is going to be good.)

The status quo is that women need to be protected, and she describes all the special treatment that she never receives. Yeah; both of these are messed up. Women aren't fragile things that need to be treated like weird glass-blown angels…Sojourner Truth proves this by being strong.

…but she also proves that Black women are treated absolutely horrifically. She gets worked like a man (and beaten like a man) and so is considered less of a woman and less of human being.

Then she brings up the complete lack of logic present in inequality. She—being Black and a woman in the 1800s—is allowed less than a white man. But white dudes are getting snippy because she's asking for just a little more in the way of rights. Why are these guys getting miffed, exactly? She's not asking for them to have fewer rights than they already have; she's just asking for more than what she has.

Some of these dudes argue that women can achieve less because—check out this skewed logic—Jesus was male. Truth states that this is ridiculous. After all, God depended on Mary to bring Jesus to the world.

And speaking of Biblical women achieving Big Deal things: Eve managed to turn her world upside down with just one bite of an apple. So a statement that women can't get things done is insane: with the combined forces of determined women, there can be change again. Eventually, men will bow before the force of women's power.

Now that's how you end a speech.

TL;DR

A Black woman stood up and said, "Hey, I'm human, too. And I deserve just as many rights as Black men and white women."

And then the sound of her dropping the mic echoed through history.

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