Ain't I a Woman?

On May 29, 1851, at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth stood up and answered the men who had been arguing that women were too weak, too simple and too unlike Christ to hold equal rights. She could not read or write, so what she said survives only as other people wrote it down, and two people wrote it down very differently. Marius Robinson, who was at the convention and knew her, printed his report three weeks later, with no refrain and no dialect. Frances Dana Gage published her version twelve years later, in the middle of the Civil War, and it carries the repeated question that gave the speech its title. Both are printed here, one after the other, so you can see what each version does.

The claim

Truth’s own life is the argument: a woman who has done a man’s work in the field and survived what slavery did to her has every claim to the rights men are debating. The objections raised against women, that they are weak, that they have less intellect, that Christ was a man, fall apart when set against what she has done and where Christ came from.

The rhetorical situation who, to whom, when, and why

What Ain't I a Woman? says

The page prints two texts of one speech. Paragraph 1 is a heading for the first. Paragraph 2 is Marius Robinson’s report as the Anti-Slavery Bugle printed it, in a single unbroken paragraph. Truth asks leave to speak, says she is a woman’s rights, and claims as much muscle and as much work as any man. She names the labor: plowed, reaped, husked, chopped, mowed. She answers the argument that women have less intellect by asking why, if woman holds a pint and man a quart, she should not have her pint full, and she tells the men they need not fear that women will take too much. She says she cannot read but can hear, and that she has heard from the Bible that Eve caused man to sin; if woman upset the world, she should be given the chance to set it right side up again. She agrees with an earlier woman speaker about Jesus, recalls Lazarus raised at the pleading of Mary and Martha, and asks how Jesus came into the world: through God and the woman who bore him. She closes by saying the women are coming up and a few men with them, and that man, with the slave pressing on one side and woman on the other, is caught between a hawk and a buzzard. Paragraph 3 heads the second text, Frances Dana Gage’s version of 1863, and paragraphs 4 to 12 are the runs of speech she quoted. Truth says something is out of kilter, that between the enslaved people of the South and the women of the North white men will soon be in a fix, and that nobody helps her into carriages or over mud puddles. She asks whether she is not a woman, points to her arm, and lists her plowing, the lash she bore, and thirteen children, most of them sold away. She meets the intellect objection with a half-measure cup and the man in black with the birth of Christ, ends on Eve and the world turned back right side up, and thanks the crowd for hearing her.

The line of reasoning how the argument moves

1. Takes the floorEach text opens by claiming the right to speak at all. In paragraph 2 she asks, “May I say a few words?” and then declares she is a woman’s rights. In paragraph 4 she opens instead by naming the noise in the room and predicting that white men will be in a fix. Either way the first move establishes that she belongs in the argument.
2. Puts her own body in evidenceParagraph 2 lists the field work she has done and the weight she can carry. Paragraphs 5 and 6 do the same and add the arm she shows, the lash she bore, and the children sold away. Evidence comes before rebuttal because everything after it rests on what she has already proved about herself.
3. Answers the objection about intellectIn paragraph 2 she grants the premise for the sake of argument: even if woman holds a pint and man a quart, the pint should be filled. Paragraphs 6 and 7 stage the same move with a cup that holds a half measure. Conceding the smaller claim makes the demand look modest and hard to refuse.
4. Answers the objection from ChristParagraph 2 asks how Jesus came into the world and answers, through God and the woman who bore him. Paragraphs 8 and 9 aim the same question at the man in black who said Christ was not a woman. Scripture was the opponents’ strongest ground, and she answers it on its own terms: the 1851 report saves the birth of Christ for the end of the argument, while the 1863 version answers it in paragraphs 8 and 9 and then turns to Eve.
5. Turns Eve into an argument for womenParagraph 2 says that if woman upset the world she should be allowed to set it right side up again. Paragraphs 10 and 11 enlarge the same idea: one woman alone turned the world upside down, so all these women together can turn it back. The story used against women becomes proof of their strength.
6. Closes on the balance of powerThe 1851 report ends with man caught between a hawk and a buzzard as the slave and the woman both come on. The 1863 version ends quietly, with thanks for the hearing. The two endings are the clearest single measure of how differently the reporters heard her.

The full text paragraphs numbered for citation

Text: two printings of the same speech, each transcribed from page images: Marius Robinson’s report in the Anti-Slavery Bugle (Salem, Ohio), 21 June 1851, page 4, via the Library of Congress; and Frances Dana Gage’s version in The Independent (New York), 23 April 1863, page 1, via the Internet Archive.

Paragraph by paragraph what each part does

1. 1

   Paragraphs 1 to 2: The 1851 report, in full

   Paragraph 1 is the heading that identifies the first text. Paragraph 2 is the whole of Marius Robinson’s report, printed in the Anti-Slavery Bugle on June 21, 1851, as one unbroken paragraph. Truth asks leave to speak, states her claim, lists the farm work she has done, answers the intellect argument with the pint and the quart, and tells the men that giving women their rights will make everyone’s life easier. She then moves to Scripture: Eve, the raising of Lazarus, and the question of how Jesus came into the world, and ends with man caught between a hawk and a buzzard.

   Why it mattersThis is the earliest surviving record, printed three weeks after the speech by a man who had been in the room, and it has no refrain and no dialect. Reading it first keeps the famous version from standing in for the speech itself.

2. 2

   Paragraphs 3 to 5: The 1863 version begins

   Paragraph 3 heads the second text, Frances Dana Gage’s version, published in The Independent on April 23, 1863. In paragraph 4 Truth says that with so much racket something must be out of kilter, that between the enslaved people of the South and the women of the North white men will soon be in a fix, and that the man across the room who spoke of helping women into carriages and lifting them over ditches has never done any such thing for her. Paragraph 5 is the question and the gesture: she asks whether she is not a woman and tells the crowd to look at her arm. The 1863 text prints a racial slur in paragraph 4.

   Why it mattersGage’s narration between the runs has been cut, which is why paragraph 5 is so short and ends on a comma. The sentence removed after it described her baring her right arm, and the gap shows how much of the famous version is Gage describing rather than Truth speaking.

3. 3

   Paragraphs 6 to 7: Work, children and the half measure

   Paragraph 6 is the heart of the 1863 version. Truth says she has plowed and planted and gathered into barns with no man able to head her, that she could work and eat as much as a man and bear the lash as well, and that she bore thirteen children and saw most of them sold into slavery, with none but Jesus to hear her cry. The repeated question follows each claim. She then asks what they call the thing in the head, and in paragraph 7, after a bystander supplies the word, she says that intellect has nothing to do with the question: if her cup holds a pint and yours a quart, it would be mean not to fill hers. Paragraph 7 sets women’s rights beside the rights of Black Americans in wording the 1863 text prints with a racial slur. The word is Gage’s transcription; the 1851 report contains nothing like it, so there is no way to know whether Truth used it.

   Why it mattersThe refrain turns a list of hardships into a legal claim, since each answer to the question is the same. Gage’s narration, which reports a bystander in the crowd whispering the word “Intellect,” was cut here as it was elsewhere, which is why the exchange reads as a question with no answer.

4. 4

   Paragraphs 8 to 9: Where Christ came from

   Paragraph 8 reports the argument of a small man in black, most likely a clergyman: women cannot have as much right as men because Christ was not a woman. Truth answers with a question about where Christ came from, printed in italics in the original. Paragraph 9 repeats the question and gives the answer: Christ came from God and a woman, and man had nothing to do with it. The 1863 printing spells that word “noting,” and the text on this page keeps the printer’s spelling.

   Why it mattersThis is the same argument the 1851 report makes about the birth of Jesus, which is strong evidence that Truth really made it. Answering Scripture with Scripture leaves the clergyman nothing to stand on.

5. 5

   Paragraphs 10 to 12: Eve, and the close

   Paragraph 10 begins in the middle of a sentence, because Gage introduced it in her own words: if the first woman God made was strong enough to turn the world upside down by herself, then all these women together, paragraph 11 continues, ought to be able to turn it back and set it right side up again, and since they are asking to do it, the men had better let them. Paragraph 12 is the close: she thanks the crowd for hearing her and says old Sojourner has nothing more to say.

   Why it mattersThe Eve argument concedes the charge and then measures it, which turns the strength of one woman into the strength of the whole convention. Ending in the third person, with her own chosen name, lets her step off the platform without asking for anything more.

Rhetorical choices what the writer does, and why it works

People & audiences

Big ideas in Ain't I a Woman?

Key images

Key quotes

The conclusion of Ain't I a Woman?, explained

The page has two endings, and they do not match. Robinson’s report closes with a political calculation: the women are coming up, blessed be God, and a few of the men are coming up with them, while man himself stands in a tight place with the slave pressing on one side and woman on the other, caught between a hawk and a buzzard. That ending looks outward at the balance of power in the country. It grants that some men are allies, then warns the rest that the pressure will not let up, and it leaves the two movements for abolition and for women’s rights joined in a single image. Gage’s version ends somewhere else entirely. Her last two runs give the Eve argument its fullest form, that one woman alone was strong enough to turn the world upside down and all these women together can turn it back, followed by the flat practical line that since they are asking to do it, the men had better let them. Then comes the quiet close: obliged to you for hearing me, and old Sojourner has nothing more to say. Speaking of herself in the third person, by the name she chose for herself in 1843, she steps back from the argument without softening it. The 1863 ending is the one most readers know, and it is shaped like a performance, with the long cheering that Gage describes just before it. The 1851 ending is blunter and more political. Holding the two side by side is the most useful thing this page can do, because the difference is not decoration: it changes what the speech is for.

Common misreadings

AP practice a rhetorical analysis prompt in the exam's style

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Sojourner Truth had been enslaved in New York State, and she could not read or write. In 1851 she spoke at a meeting about women’s rights in Akron, Ohio, where men had argued that women were too weak and too simple to deserve equal rights. She answered that she had done a man’s work in the fields, so she deserved a woman’s rights. Because she could not write, we only have the speech as other people wrote it down. One man printed his report three weeks later, and it sounds plain and direct. A woman named Frances Dana Gage printed a different version twelve years later, and hers added the famous question and a Southern accent that Truth probably never used. This page shows you both so you can compare them.

Compare & connect

Discussion and essay prompts:

Key questions students ask

• What is the main argument of Ain’t I a Woman
• Who wrote down Sojourner Truth’s Akron speech
• How do the 1851 and 1863 texts of Ain’t I a Woman differ
• Did Sojourner Truth really say Ain’t I a woman
• What rhetorical devices does Sojourner Truth use in Ain’t I a Woman
• Why did Frances Dana Gage publish her version of the speech in 1863