Sojourner Truth – "And Ain‘t I a Woman?"

Sojourner Truth is often viewed as just as good a speaker as Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, but what set her aside from the norm and made her seem more interesting was the fact the she was African American. As if it was not unusual enough that she was an African American speaker, she was also a woman. In the past during times of slavery, not many would listen to a black woman's case. Sojourner Truth fought very hard African American rights as well as rights for women. Sojourner Truth wanted to show the world that there was nothing different between the three- African Americans, women, and the average white man (Truth).

In her speech, she showed the world that many men were calling women delicate. She showed the world what men really thought of women- that they needed help getting into carriages and getting over mud puddles. Sojourner Truth was a woman, and no one had ever helped her with anything of that sort (Truth). She showed the world that as an African American slave, she had never gotten the benefits that the rest of women got (Truth). She showed the world that since she had to work as a slave, she had done hard work that many men in the North could not do because she was faced with no choice but to do it (Truth).

This work fits in the Realism period because it is in the moment and not about the past. It looks forward to the future and concentrates on what could happen (Truth). It is realistic, and she made realistic demands and proved her point based on facts of what happened in the past, which reflects Realism (Truth). It does not fit in the Naturalism period because the speech was given with feeling and it portrayed everyone's feelings (Truth). It was not scientific, nor did it subject humans to animalistic tests and observations, so Naturalism has been ruled out (Truth). It is also not in the Regionalism period because it is not based on a certain region of the United States that wants more attention (Truth). While this work does not really have anything to do with religion, it has a lot to do with government and different issues of the time period (Truth). This speech, while it does not outright attack the government, fights to go against what the government was trying to do (Truth). She wanted rights for African Americans and women alike, and to do that, she needed to go against the government. Sojourner Truth wanted to be able to do everything that men could because that is what she had been doing her entire life, and she felt that since she gad done a man's work and them some, she deserved it (Truth). This speech does not talk about nature, unless her working in the fields would count, and there is not much about human nature (Truth). One could say that her whole speech was really about human nature because she was trying to change ideas that had come to pass because of her human nature (Truth). This also talks about the American Dream because one of the most basic American Dreams is equal rights (Truth). She wanted to achieve equal rights not just for herself but for many other people as well. She was a minority, but she did not want to be treated as such (Truth). There was not any figurative language, and there is not much talk about the Hero, but the Hero would be the one to give them their rights (Truth). Sojourner Truth was an important orator who wanted equal rights for everyone.

Truth, Sojourner. Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 368-70. Print.