CELEBRATED African American freedom exponent and campaigner for gender rights and equality whose historic address at the December 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, entitled “Ain’t I a woman?”, has been anthologised copiously ever since:
Ain’t I a woman?
Ain’t I a woman?
by Sojourner
Truth
(delivered 1851 at the Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio, United States)
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 at the North, all talking about rights, the white
men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
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! 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? I have borne
thirteen 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?
Then they talk about this thing in the
head; what's this they call it? (member of audience whispers, “intellect”) That’s
it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my
cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to
let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he
says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman!
Where did your Christ come from? Where did your 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! And 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.
(Sonny Rollins Trio, “The freedom suite” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Riverside Records, New York, US, 7 March 1958])
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe
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