Sojourner's Truth

"That man over there say that women needs 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 childern, and seen 'em 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 talks 'bout this ting in de head; what this they call it? ('Intellect' whispered someone near) "That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or nigger's rights? (keep?) If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he say 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 nothin' to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de 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, de men better let 'em. Obliged to ye for hearin' on me, and now ole Sojourner hasn't got nothin' more to say…"

Speech given by Sojourner Truth at a Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851

Up From Slavery - Interactive

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