Sojourner Truth, the African American abolitionist, women's rights advocate and social activist revered to this day for her presentation on racial inequalities, delivered her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech on this day in history, May 29, 1851, at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
The powerful performance is still used today as a call for equal treatment of women, according to PBS and other sources.
Truth’s words are recognized as one of the most abolitionist and pro-women's rights speeches in American history, the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center notes.
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"She suggested that the women's rights movement had marginalized African American women and stated, ‘You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can't take more than our pint'll hold,’" the site indicates.
Truth was born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Baumfree — and subsequently changed her name to Sojourner Truth.
She would come to be considered one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the 19th century, says the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
She spent her early childhood on a New York estate owned by Col. Johannes Hardenbergh.
Like other slaves, she experienced the challenges of being sold and mistreated, says the same site.
In 1827, after her master did not honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York Anti-Slavery Law of 1827, she fled.
She reportedly told her master, per the same site, "I did not run away, I walked away by daylight."
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After choosing to convert her religion, in 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth, the site noted.
Truth continued her commitment to the emerging and expanding antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was involved in the women’s rights movement.
At the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, Truth delivered her noteworthy and famous abolitionist and women’s rights speech.
She continued to advocate for African Americans and women’s rights during and after the Civil War, says the National Park Service.
This excerpt from Truth’s famous speech has been distributed on many sites.
"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere," she supposedly said.
"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?"
She went on, "I have borne 13 children, and seen 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?"
There are two conflicting versions of Truth’s famous speech — neither of which was transcribed at the time Truth actually gave it, says History.com.
An account reported in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, the first to be published, reportedly did not actually include the namesake phrase, "Ain’t I a Woman?" the same site recounts.
On May 2, 1863, Frances Gage, a White abolitionist, published an account of Truth’s words in the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
In this account, Gage wrote that Truth used the rhetorical question, "Ar’n’t I a Woman?" to point out the discrimination that Truth experienced as a Black woman, says History.com.
Various details in Gage's account, however, including that Truth said she had 13 children (she had five) — and that she spoke in dialect — have since cast doubt on its accuracy, the same site chronicled.
Some years later, the slogan was further distorted to "Ain’t I a Woman?" — which the same site says reflected the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent.
"Truth was, in fact, a New Yorker," notes History.com. "Regardless, there is little doubt that Truth's speech — and many others she gave throughout her adult life — moved audiences," the same site says.
In the 1850s, Sojourner Truth settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, says Brittanica.com
Truth’s words continue to impact American society as a beacon of hope and equality, even though there are discussions about the actual messaging of her 1851 speech.
When the Civil War began, Truth was dedicated to recruiting soldiers for the Union Army, says the New York Historical Society Museum and Library.
"Although she was a pacifist, she believed that the war was a fair punishment from God for the crime of slavery. She also knew the Union needed fighters to win," reports the same source.
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In 1864, Truth went to Washington, D.C., where SHE worked for the National Freedman’s Relief Association, striving to improve the lives and prospects of free Black people, the same site indicated.
That fall, she was invited to meet President Abraham Lincoln, the site also says.
After the war, Truth lobbied the U.S. government to grant land to newly free Black men and women, says the New York Historical Society Museum and Library.
"She understood that Black people could never be truly free until they achieved economic prosperity, and she knew that owning land was an important first step. She also continued to travel throughout the United States, giving speeches about women’s rights, prison reform, and desegregation," the same site recounted.
Truth was the first African American woman to win a lawsuit in the United States, says the Library of Congress. "This was when she fought for her son's freedom after he had been illegally sold," the source said.
Truth passed away at age 84 in Michigan — with thousands of mourners in attendance.
In December 1883, just after her death, The New York Globe published an obituary, which read, in part: "Sojourner Truth stands preeminently as the only colored woman who gained a national reputation on the lecture platform in the days before the [Civil] War," according to the Library of Congress.
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Unveiled in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall on April 28, 2009, a bronze bust of Sojourner Truth was the first sculpture honoring an African American woman in the U.S. Capitol, says the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
It was donated by the National Congress of Black Women and Congress authorized its placement in the Capitol (Public Law 109-427). President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on Dec. 6, 2006, says the same site.
"California-based sculptor Artis Lane, who designed the Rosa Parks Congressional Medal of Honor, was commissioned to create the bust. Lane depicted Truth with a smile to show Truth's confidence and determination."
