Sojourner Truth

I was most influenced by Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”  People did not consider her to be a woman because of her strong build, which is mind-boggling to me.  Giving birth is literary the defining act of motherhood and she gave birth to thirteen children.  Most of them were taken from her and she moved on and stayed strong. If anything, her determination and will to survive is a sign that women are strong.  She survived awful living conditions and personal treatment as a slave and she came out standing tall.  She is equal in stature to men and she was not even considered a woman, but a sub par human being.  I think it must have been quite shocking for most of the women at this Women’s Convention in Ohio to hear her speak.  Many of them were probably slave owners themselves, and to hear this uneducated woman speak with so much passion for the same cause they were fighting for should have changed their perceptions about slaves and slave women.  I think it is also important to note that the speech was later written down by one of the women at the convention, to preserve and sustain its true power.  While this makes it clear that the speech we read today may not have been what Sojourner Truth said verbatim, I think it is most important to see that the speech did affect people at the convention.  As a slave woman, she was doubly oppressed and it is so inspiring to me that she was resolute on her beliefs and she was able to deliver this concise speech (the shortest of all the manifestos we read) that was unbelievably powerful.