Sojourner Truth Ain T I A Woman Analysis

Doetsch-Kidder’s (2016) monograph defines the important role of intersectionality as a defining sea-change in the way that women of color began to unify across racial and cultural barriers. Interviews with minority activists define the perception of the diversification of feminist ideology through the lens of intersectionality. One interview with a African-American activist named Donna illustrates the unity between women of color that evolved in the 1970s: “But overall, we are all fighting for civil rights, so there has to be some type of overlap with each one” (Doetsch-Kidder, 2016, p.103). This development defines the “overlapping’ ideology of different feminist groups, which soon began to devolve the racial and cultural barriers not only between women of color, but also with white feminist groups. In Doetsch-Kidder’s (2016) point of view, the civil rights movement laid the foundation for intersectional feminist principles to be practiced for women seeking greater representation in the workplace.

On May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth gave her most famous speech at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Truth, being born a slave and escaping to her freedom, was both a women’s rights activist and abolitionist. In a male-dominated society, Truth wanted to gain awareness for the inequalities of women and African Americans during the time period. She makes several claims how African Americans and women are not inferior to the white male population. By targeting those males, Truth portrays them as antagonists and thus gives the women and the African Americans something to focus their struggles on. Sojourner Truth attempts to persuade her audience to support the women’s rights movement and on subtler terms, to support the need for African

For the purpose of this thesis, the term, intersectioanlity will be discussed in this subchapter. Intersectionality, a feminist sociological theory, is a term coined by a famous researcher Kimberlé Crenshaw in her essay entitled Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics (1989). The notion is connected with different forms of oppressions experienced simultaneously by African American women. In her essay, Crenshaw compares discrimination to traffic. She states that women can be victims of discrimination and its consequences that may come from many directions, which she called in her research as an intersection of gender,

Sojourner Truth’s speeches had a religious context, were anti-slavery, and encouraged woman’s rights (Women in History). Even though she was illiterate, Truth drew large crowds to her speaking engagements (“Sojourner Truth” C-Span American Writers). Sojourner Truth had a striking presence (Butler, Mary G.). Truth was nearly six feet tall and her voice could settle a loud audience (Butler, Mary G.). She delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech at the Ohio Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1854 (Women in History). This speech was based on the belief that women should always be given the best of everything. She explained that she had worked as hard as any man, eaten as much, and no one had ever given her the best of anything. She repeatedly asked the question “Ain’t I a Woman” throughout her speech (Women in History). Truth continued to give speeches and

The 1800s were not the best time to be a woman in America. They were also not a good time for the thousands of people that enslaved in America. Sojourner Truth was both of these things and worked her entire life to get the rights she deserved. Though she never lived to get all of her rights, she was an influential figure in working towards these rights. Sojourner Truth was one of the most famous orators of her time, speaking out against slavery and inequality to anyone who would listen. Being born into slavery, Sojourner Truth witnessed many injustices and, as a result, worked her entire life to fight for the rights of others by using her gift in public speaking to promote the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, and also worked to help freed slaves.

Sojourner Truth was a renowned black feminist abolitionist in the United States. Truth was born in slavery as Isabella Bomefree but later became a free woman after the enactment of the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827 (Manning and Mullings, 66). She changed her name to Sojourner Truth in 1843 and traveled across the United States to advocate for the abolition of slavery (66). She continued to become an outspoken figure in the abolitionist movement as well as the early women’s rights movement. In May of 1851, Truth addressed the crowed attending a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio where it was assumed she uttered the famous phrase “Ain’t I A Woman?” (66). In the speech, Truth unapologetically confronted the injustices she faced as a black woman as she challenged normative ideas of femininity and womanhood. She also addressed the reproductive labour that black women undergo because

Women's struggle for full equality with men has been going on for decades. One of the famous women at that time was Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883). She was the first black activist to bring together the rights of women and slaves. Truth publicly demanded the abolition of slavery and granting women the right to vote. She gave her most famous speech; "Ain’t I a Woman?" at the Ohio Women's Congress in Ohio in 1851. She was born in 1797 as a slave, sold to a man named Nili, who raped and beat her daily. In 1815, she met a slave named Robert from the neighboring farm and loved him. Robert’s owner was against this relationship, and beat Robert harshly, and prevented him from seeing Truth again. In 1817, Truth was forced by her owner at that time, Dumont, to marry an elderly slave named Thomas, and had several children. In 1826, he fled with their infant daughter, Sophia, in

When I first heard Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” my freshman year of high school, I believed that she was commenting on the difference in treatment in society of a black woman compared to a white woman. I thought she was saying that she should be “lifted into carriages, over ditches, and given the best place everywhere,” just as white women were. Reading it again now, I realize that I miscalculated her intentions greatly. She was saying that no one ever helped her in these ways because she didn’t need help. She could do it all on her own. Even one hundred and thirty years later, this kind of attitude speaks to the women of my generation. We don’t need anyone to tell us what to do or how to do it, to keep us from achieving our full potential

Intersectionality examines various cultural spheres and how they overlap, such as race, gender, and class. Sojourner Truth wonderfully demonstrates this in her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, where she speaks of her struggles as a black woman in the 1800s. Truth opposes ideas of the frailty of women and how men always help them into and out of carriages, insisting that women must never do work in order to preserve themselves and be safe. She goes on to point out that she has never experienced any of this and questions why she is any different from all other women.

In the reading Sojourner Truth’s “Aren’t I a Woman?” the key underlying realities expressed would be the struggle of being a Woman in the times where they were not given any unalienable rights. African-American slaves, men or women, were also denied their civil rights more so than white women. Through out the passage Sojourner’s main message is that she is not treated as a woman and that even though she is a woman with no rights, she is also an African-American with no rights. She explains that one man had said how to treat a woman was to help her into carriages, and lift her over ditches, and have the best of everything. She speaks to a crowd and expresses her thoughts and emotions towards the subject. She ends every sentence with “Aren’t

Sojourner Truth is the creator of a very powerful speech and later poem, “Ain’t I A Woman?” Truth’s real name is Isabella Baumfree. She believed God gave her this new name and she described it: “Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land showing people their sins and being a sign to them, and Truth because I was to declare the truth unto the people." This new name reflected a new mission to spread the word of God and speak out against slavery.” This speech that she gave was recited in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. At this convention her audience consisted of white men and women as well as African American women. She gave this speech to talk about her views on women’s rights and to promote equal rights of men and women. Frances Dana Gage was another woman active in women’s rights and she created an extended version of Truths’ speech by adding the impact her speech had on the convention.

The theory of intersectionality has received a widespread of various distinct definitions and usage; it is often unclear of its designed function may be. Intersectionality is defined as “the acknowledgment that different forms of identity-based discrimination can combine to give rise to unique brands of injustice”(Lucas 8). In other words, how the classification of one’s individuality such as gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class can intertwine with each other among the social structure. The term was first coined by feminist and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw who spoke upon the discrimination and marginalization of black women and how both institutions interconnect with one another. The significance of

Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term in her article ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Anti-racist Politics’ (1889) whereby her main focus is on the intersection of race and sex. Crenshaw refers to intersectionality as a ‘crossroad to describe how multiple oppressions are experienced. In her article she examines intersectionality through how the court interpret black women’s stories. She uses the case DeGrafffenreid V General Motors, whereby five black women (the Plaintiffs) accused the employers of discriminating against black women, as they lost their jobs after 1970 due to a ‘seniority based layoff’ during recession. Nevertheless, the judge rejected the plaintiffs’ claim, as the court states that they would of helped if it was an action for race or sex, “but not a combination of both” (Crenshaw, 1989, p.141). The example Crenshaw gives, identifies how multiple oppressions are experienced within intersectionality. In October 2016 Crenshaw gave an empowering speech on how the media only covers black male discrimination by the state, yet there are no stories about how black women are discriminated by the state,

The inferiority and superiority between white women and black women was also one thing that White mainly mentioned. Her other point is about how the men think about the black women sexually. White sets the tone with and draws her title from a quote from former slave Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech at the Women’s Right Convention in Akron, Ohio. At the Convention, Truth spoke, “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns… I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear de lash as well. . . and aren’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen em mos’ all sold of into slavery --- and ar,n’t I a Woman” (qtd. in White14). White procced to answer truth’s question, as well as others: what are the myth of covering female slaver? Was slavery different for women and men? What were the predictable stages of a female slave’s life? Whom did she turn to in time of need? What was her place in the family? What long -lasting effects has slavery had on black women? The author purpose was to “enrich our knowledge of antebellum black culture and to serve as a chapter in the yet unwritten history of the American black women” (14) she succeeds in greatly.

There are many interpretations of intersectionality, but without a doubt, the critical theory of intersectionality is based on the understanding that oppressive institutions within society take different forms for specific cultural and social positions of individuals and groups. Among the concerns in the article, Joan Simalchik and Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective discuss the ways in which intersectionality provides a better understanding of how relations of power and privilege and the intersection of gender and race influence women’s everyday lives.