{"id":314,"date":"2021-05-31T15:16:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle\/?page_id=314"},"modified":"2025-06-22T20:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T20:17:33","slug":"sojourner-truth-womans-rights-speech-1851","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle\/texts\/sojourner-truth-womans-rights-speech-1851\/","title":{"rendered":"Sojourner Truth, woman’s rights speech (1851)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a woman\u2019s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Truth in 1864 (House Divided Project<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born enslaved in New York in 1799 as Isabella, Sojourner Truth changed her name in 1843.\u00a0 Truth grew up speaking a Dutch dialect and probably spoke English with a noticeable Dutch accent.\u00a0 She was enslaved in New York during a period of gradual abolition (which ended in 1827).\u00a0 As a free woman, Truth joined a series of utopian religious communities in New York and Massachusetts.\u00a0 Her stirring 1851 speech to the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio drew immediate attention but became even more mythical (and somewhat distorted) by later slight mistranslations of her words and dialect.\u00a0 It was from these later accounts that scholars originally derived the popular title, “Ain’t I A Woman?” for these remarks. The version of the speech below was the original transcription recorded by newspapers in 1851. Truth was about six feet tall and imposing presence as a speaker and activist, fighting for both the abolition of slavery and women’s rights.<\/p>\n

SOURCE FORMAT:\u00a0 Public speech<\/strong><\/p>\n

WORD COUNT:\u00a0 344 words<\/strong><\/p>\n

RELATED TEXTS:\u00a0Adams letters (1776)<\/a> \/\/ Declaration of Sentiments (1848)<\/a> \/\/ Harper speech (1866)<\/a> \/\/<\/strong> Anthony trial statement (1873)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

CONTEXT LECTURE:\u00a0 Douglas and Abolitionism<\/strong><\/p>\n

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