Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman?

• PRINT

Like Harriet Jacobs, former slave Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797–1883) spoke out against slavery. In her 1851 speech to the Ohio Women's Rights convention, Truth combined her anti-slavery message with an affirmation of the rights of women.

"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 of the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon.

"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!"

As Tough as a Man

"Look at me! 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 13 children, and seen them sold off to slavery, and when I cried out, none but Jesus heard me!

"That man in back there says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him!

"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! Now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

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

Adapted from Scholastic Search, March 1993.

Ida B. Wells: Civil Rights Activist
Journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells fought for women's right to vote, but the National American Woman Suffrage Association asked her not to march with them. Didn't black women have as much right to vote as white women?

Fannie Lou Hamer
Learn about Fannie Lou Hamer, who fought for African-Americans to claim their constitutional right to vote, despite oppressive local laws and prejudiced officials.

Harriet Tubman
Born into slavery on a farm in Maryland, Harriet Tubman made her way to freedom, then returned to the south nineteen times in order to lead more than 300 more people to freedom on what came to be known as the Underground Railroad.

LESSON PLAN	Taking a Stand with Rosa Parks Provides an opportunity for students to respond to Rosa Parks' experience in writing
ONLINE ACTIVITY	Women Who Changed History Explore women in history especially during Women's History Month, including Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride, and Rosa Parks. Extension activities...
BOOK INFORMATION	The Book of Black Heroes from A to Z Photographs and one-page profiles introduce children to 48 important African Americans from the past, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, and Booker T. Washington.