Her Words
Sojourner’s Words and Music
Sojourner Truth was renowned in her time for her speaking and singing ability. Although she could neither read nor write, she had people read to her, especially the Bible, and from this she developed her unique voice about how the world worked and how it could be improved. She sounds like a down-to-earth preacher in many of her speeches.
“Throughout her rhetoric she employed her characteristic sharp wit and her engaging narrative style as she sought to influence her hearers.” (Fitch and Mandziuk, p. 89)
“As one of the few African American women speaking publicly at the time, the renown and respect Truth achieved for herself truly were remarkable.” (Fitch and Mandziuk, ibid)
"Women leaders of that time were very impressed with her. Lucy Stone described Truth as 'wise, unselfish, brave and good' and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote of 'the marvelous wisdom and goodness of this remarkable woman.'” (Fitch and Mandziuk, p. 90)
We would like to give you, the reader, the flavor of Sojourner’s style and wit. The following are excerpts from speeches she gave over many years.
On Women’s Rights
Sojourner Truth's Famous Speech: Ar'n't I A Woman? - Ain’t I a Woman?
Compare the Two Speeches
The Sojourner Truth Project website carefully explains and documents the 2 very different versions of Sojourner’s famous speech. Thank you to Leslie Podell, the website creator, for allowing us to reproduce this chart. https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches
Below are the two main written versions of Sojourner’s speech. The original, on the left, was delivered by Sojourner and transcribed by Marius Robinson, a journalist, who was in the audience at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio on May 29, 1851. And Gage’s version is on the right, written 12 years later and published in 1863, The full text of each version follows the synopsis below so you can see the differences line by line. I have highlighted overt similarities between the two versions. While Frances Gage changed most of Sojourner’s words and falsely attributed a southern slave dialect to Sojourner’s 1863 version, it is clear the origin of Gage's speech comes from Sojourner's original 1851 speech. It is interesting to note that Marius Robinson and Sojourner Truth were good friends and it was documented that they went over his transcription of her speech before he published it. One could infer from this pre printing meeting, that even if he did not capture every word she said, that she must have blessed his transcription and given permission to print her speech in the Anti‐Slavery Bugle. Library of Congress Link to Sojourner’s Speech >
Marius Robinson’s transcription:
Published June 21, 1851 in the
The Anti-Slavery Bugle
The oldest account of Truth's speech that provides more than a passing mention of it was published by Marius Robinson on June 21, 1851 in the Salem Anti‐Slavery Bugle, a few weeks after the speech was given. This version was not the first published account of the Akron speech, but rather the first attempt to convey what Sojourner Truth said in full.
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May I say a few words? I want to say a few words about this matter.
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I am a woman’s rights.
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(a) I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man.
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(b) I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?
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I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and can (c) eat as much too, if (d) I can get it.
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I am as strong as any man that is now.
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As for intellect, all I can say is, (e) if women have a pint and man a quart - why can’t she have her little pint full?
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You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we cant take more than our pint’ll hold.
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The poor men seem to be all in confusion, and dont know what to do.
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Why children, if you have woman’s rights, give it to her and you will feel better.
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You will have your own rights, and they wont be so much trouble.
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I cant read, but I can hear.
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I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin.
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Well if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again.
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The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right.
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When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother.
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And Jesus wept - and Lazarus came forth.
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And how came Jesus into the world?
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(f) Through God who created him and woman who bore him.
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(g)Man, where is your part?
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But the women are coming up blessed be God and a few of the men are coming up with them.
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But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, and he is surely between-a hawk and a buzzard.
Frances Gage’s inacurate version:
23 April 1863 issue of the
New York Independent
The most common yet inaccurate rendering of Truth's speech—the one that introduced the famous phrase "Ar'n't I a woman?"—was constructed by Frances Dana Gage, nearly twelve years after the speech was given by Sojourner at the Akron conference. Gage's version first appeared in the New York Independent on April 23, 1863.
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Well, chillen, whar dar’s so much racket dar must be som’ting out o’kilter.
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I tink dat, ’twixt de niggers of de South and de women at de Norf, all a-talking ’bout rights, de white men will be in a fix pretty soon.
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But what’s all this here talking ’bout?
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Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have de best place eberywhar.
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Nobody eber helps me into carriages or ober mud-puddles, or gives me any best place.
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-And ar’n’t I a woman?
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Look at me.
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(a) Look at my arm.
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(b) I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me.
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-and ar’n’t I a woman?
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I could work as much as (c) eat as much as a man, (when (d) I could get it,) and bear de lash as well
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-and ar’n’t I a woman?
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I have borne thirteen chillen, and seen ’em mos’ all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard
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-and ar’n’t I a woman?
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Den dey talks ’bout dis ting in de head.
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What dis dey call it?
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Dat’s it, honey.
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What’s dat got to do with women’s rights or niggers’ rights?
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(e) If my cup won’t hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t ye be mean not to let me have a little half-measure full?
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Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as man ’cause Christ wa’n’t a woman.
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Whar did your Christ come from?
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Whar did your Christ come from?
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(f) From God and a woman.
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(g)Man had nothing to do with him.
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If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all her one lone, all dese togeder ought to be able to turn it back and git it right side up again, and now dey is asking to, de men better let ’em.
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Bleeged to ye for hearin’ on me, and now ole Sojourner ha’n’t got nothin’ more to say.
Hear The Original Speech
Click on the red arrow below to hear the original transcription of Sojourner's 1851 speech.
Listen to the original Marius Robinson 1851 historically correct transcription of Truth's "Ain't I a woman" speech.
"I am a woman's rights"
~Sojourner Truth
The video below is a reading of the speech by Alice Walker.
Further Speech Excerpts on Women’s Rights
1853, New York: “…we’ll have our rights; see if we don’t; and you can’t stop us from them; see if you can.”
1867, New York: “We want to carry the point to one particular thing, and that is woman’s rights, for nobody has any business with a right that belongs to her. I can make use of my own right. I want the same use of the same right. Do you want it? Then get it. If men had not taken something that did not belong to them they would not fear”.
1867, New York: “We are now trying for liberty that requires no blood—that women shall have their rights—not rights from you. Give them what belongs to them; they ask it kindly too.”
“Now, if you want me to get out of the world, you had better get the women votin’ soon. I shan’t go till I can do that.”
1867, New York: “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights (they received their rights after the Civil War), but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring.”
On Slavery
1851 (Here one of her most impressive “reframings” of a subject she knew so well): “O friends, pity the poor slaveholder, and pray for him. It troubles me more than anything else, what will become of the poor slaveholder, in all his guilt and all his impenitence. God will take care of the poor trampled slave, but where will the slaveholder be when eternity begins?”
1854, Boston (from Garrison’s Liberator newspaper): She had often asked white people why God should have more mercy on Anglo-Saxons than on Africans, but they had never given her any answer; the reason was, they hadn’t got it to give.
1856, Battle Creek, MI: “And I asked God, why don’t you come ‘nd ‘leave me—if I was you, and you’se tied up so, I’d do it for you.”
1863, Battle Creek: “Children, who made your skin white? Was it not God? Who made mine black? Was it not the same God? Am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is black? …. Does not God love colored children as well as white children? And did not the same Savior die to save the one as well as the other?”
1867, New York: “I will shake every place I go to.”
On Her Name Change:
The story of Sojourner Truth’s name change from Isabella to Sojourner comes from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s article “The Libyan Sibyl,” and Stowe puts Sojourner’s words into dialect.
“My name was Isabella; but when I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I wa’n’t goin’ to keep nothin’ of Egypt on me, an’ so I went to the Lord an’ asked Him to give me a new name. And the Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to travel up an’ down the land, showing the people their sins, an’ bein’ a sign unto them. Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted another name, ‘cause everybody else had two names; and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl,” Atlantic Monthly Apr. 1863, 478)
Truth is Powerful
Sojourner Truth is known for saying "The truth is powerful and will prevail." But where did that quote come from?
The quote appears in the Book of Life and is attributed to Truth during a stay in Angola, Indiana in 1863. She had been invited to give a talk by a local woman, Josephine Griffing, but Indiana had recently outlawed blacks from entering and staying in the state. This law was unconstitutional, so it was fought and Sojourner Truth stayed to give her speech. She had a guard with her, but the local women said maybe she should take a sword or pistol to which she responded: “I carry no weapon; the Lord will reserve [preserve] me without weapons. I feel safe in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.” She gave her speech without interruption. Read the full account, as documented in the Book of Life, online.
Sojourner and Music
Sojourner was very fond of singing both religious and secular songs.
Sojourner Truth… made a version of the song, "The Valiant Soldiers," which appears in the 1878, 1881, and 1884 editions of her "Narrative". Her song is almost identical to Captain Miller's version of the "Marching Song." In the post-Civil War editions of Truth's Narrative, "The Valiant Soldiers" is introduced by this sentence by Francis Titus: "The following song, written for the first Michigan Regiment of colored soldiers, was composed by Sojourner Truth during the war, and was sung by her in Detroit and Washington." She did sing the song, but she was first linked to the song in 1878, fourteen years after Miller's version was published in the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
In 1993, Sweet Honey in the Rock recorded "Sojourner's Battle Hymn," which was basically "The Valiant Soldiers" by Sojourner Truth, which was actually the "Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment" by Captain Miller, with a few less stanza's.
Many people today have also written songs about and for Sojourner Truth. Here’s a sampling:
- Jack Hardy
- The Sojourner Truth Quartet: Brilliance of Truth
- Avery Sharpe is a nationally known bassist and composer and resident of Western Massachusetts. In 2012 he put out an album "Sojourner Truth 'Ain't I a Woman.'" He says he wants to "make the public, and particularly the youth, aware of the struggle and contributions of African American abolitionist and woman's rights activist Sojourner Truth through original musical composition.
- Jeff Lederer is a New York-based saxophonist/composer/educator. His 2006 CD, "Shakers and Bakers" features Shaker songs set to Jeff's compositions, as well as "Sojourner's Song" because she was in the visionary spirit of the Shakers. It is reported in her autobiography to be her favorite song.
- Stanley Friedman wrote a five-movement cantata that explores five moments in the life of Sojourner Truth: taking the name of Sojourner Truth, recruiting soldiers during the Civil War, her famous "Ar'n't/Ain't I a Woman" speech, the end of her life, and her ministry (with a gospel tune).
John William
Exploring Sojourner’s words and music offers a profound insight into the struggles and triumphs of her time. Her powerful legacy continues to inspire and resonate today.
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[…] spoke at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. The speech attracted national attention. Here is part of […]
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[…] Her Words […]
SmileDC
Thank you for sharing this inspiring story.
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[…] Black women as being incapable of living up to virtuous standards of womanhood. From the days of Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech that deplored the way in which privileges and promises of protection afforded to White women were […]
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[…] times, history can often be a reminder that today’s issues and struggles are nothing new. Sojourner Truth was critical in making it known that women’s suffrage was not only a case of gender, but race and […]
Charlie Kiss
I did the walk when I was in Northampton but I have read today that Marius Robinson version of her speech ( he was a friend) was the most accurate and didn’t falsely put in a Southern slang.:
https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches?
Hannah
This was an amazing speech because it was heartfelt and honest about all the problems that they faced and all the things that they thought were right when really they weren’t.
Two versions of Sojourner Truth’s famous speech and their place in history – SCRIBBLING WOMEN
[…] implicitly misattributed to Podell by organizations such as the National Park Service and the Sojourner Truth Memorial. The question arises: At what cost has The Sojourner Truth Project made Painter’s observations […]
Jill Chambers
If Gage’s version of the speech was recalled years later, how would Sojourner Truth object to it in 1851? Clearly Dutch-English sounds nothing like the southern drawl we are use to hearing of this speech- but what does that sound like and who would know? The several versions of the words are powerful and that is what is important.
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[…] iconic rhetorical question “Ain’t I a Woman?” attributed to Sojourner Truth. In another (more probable) document of this speech, Truth states, rather, “I am a woman’s rights.” In this version, […]
Natalie Naylor
You have the Sojourner Truth quote “Truth is powerful and it prevails.” Where in her writings does that appear?
Anna Newman
Hi Natalie–Thanks for your question! One of our committee members, Wendy Sinton, provided the following information. The quote appears in the Book of Life and is attributed to her during a stay in Angola, Indiana in 1863. She had been invited to give a talk by a local woman (Josephine Griffing), but Indiana had recently outlawed blacks from entering and staying in the state. This law was unconstitutional, so it was fought and Sojourner Truth stayed to give her speech. She had a guard with her, but the local women said maybe she should take a sword or pistol to which she responded: “I carry no weapon; the Lord will reserve [preserve] me without weapons. I feel safe in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.” She gave her speech without interruption. You can read the full account online at https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.25244/?sp=141.
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[…] famous abolitionist writings in U.S. history, when Sojourner Truth stingingly asked the question, “Ain’t I a woman?” From that time forward, feminist scholars, such as bell hooks, challenged the absence of […]
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[…] Sojourner’s Words and Music. Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee. […]
Brooklen Middendorf
I am extremely disappointed that Sojourner didn’t actually write her speech. this makes me truly sad especially since it talked all about her life and kind of had “specifics” from her life that weren’t even true…
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Lynn Freitas
The fact that Sojourner learned English somewhat later in life does not mean she learned “correct” or standard English. She would have learned the version of English she was most exposed to, which might well have been some sort of southern dialect. She picked up the language spoken by people around her, which would have been mostly fellow slaves and uneducated white slave foremen. We modern educated people would do well to question our assumption that a speaker needs to talk like us to sound smart.
Leslie Boin Podell
I would agree with your assumption regarding intellect. However I would never argue Sojourner spoke in a sounder slave dialect. She only spoke low-land Dutch upnuntil she was about 12 and then she lived in a community of Upper new yorknstate Dutch and slaves with the same… she was a northern slave whoncane from a Dutch community. And she was reported to having a strong Dutch accent. The only reason people think she spoke in southern slave dialect is because of the Frances Gage speech she penned under Sojourner’s name in which the whole speech is written in a southern “Huck Finn” slave dialect. A gross misrepresentation of Sojourners dialect and identity. Please research deeper!
Leslie Boin Podell
Yes Lynn this is correct. If you research Sojourner Truth you will discover she was raised and lived in upper New York State area which was 100% Dutch speaking. There was NO SOUTHERN DIALECT spoken in upper New York State. This is not debatable it is a fact. And sojourner only spoke Dutch until she was 10
Or 13 and then was forced to learn English from her Dutch owners. Who also spoke English with a heavy Dutch accent that is now extinct and not resurrectanle due to the fact that recording devices had. It been invented yet. While the dialect was written we are unable to know what those sounds were as the international phonetic alphebet was also not invented yet (Thais alphebet now allows us to record any sound with symbols so we can capture accents exactly as they sound in time. As you know even the English language sounds have morphed considerable since the 1900’s. I have hunted through old texts and memoirs written from her area in New York from the time she was alive and I have worked with many dialecticians who have tried to get an idea of what this dialect would have sounded like. Unfortunately it is lost to us. We can only assume it is probably a variation of what a contemporary Dutch speaking person who learned english later in life now speaks like. Anyways we know Sojourner definitely did. It have a southern accent as she was quoted and written about as having a very distinct upper New York State Dutch accent. Thank you for the question. Best , Leslie
J Traugott
Leslie, when I read Gage’s rendition, I hear the Amish accent. They speak exactly this way. Their dialect is Dutch (a derivative of German) and English is a second language. Dar and whar ( pronounced like car) der
Also the word youns (also Dutch) which is not found in the south at all.
How are we equating this to southern dialect?
Have you spent anytime with the Amish? Would you be open to my reading it for you with the PA Dutch accent?
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Ivy Blanco
Hi so I need your help. I am currently working on a research topic that is due in April but right now we’re on working on thesis statements. I was wondering if you can help me come up with an important moment in Sojourner Truth’s life that can be debatable. I am taking honors and my teacher is very picky. Please help me.
Anna Newman
Hi Ivy, I would suggest taking a look at our bibliography (https://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sojourner-truth/bibliography/) and skim a few of the resources in your age range. They might help you find a moment in Sojourner Truth’s life that would be appropriate for your project. Good luck! Anna
David Walter
The statement of “Ain’t I a woman” was that of a strong but insensed African American activist, who was protesting against the fact that the conference in Ohio was predominantly white with no black activist invited to chair the conference. I disagree with this hypothesis that she invented the concept of ‘black feminism’, simply because there was a perceived understanding that the historical affinity between the Anti-Slavery movement and Universal suffrage in which the women’s right to vote was one of the central issues of that movement was one of unity. With the context of maintaining that historical unity, Sojourner was simply concerned about the growing schism between the growing resentment of white women who were never given the vote before white male immigrant from Europe, some of which were Irish Catholics (which the US protestant majority viewed with suspicion) and Southern Europeans (which US Northern European citizens treated with contempt) who were given the vote as they became US citizens. Sojourner Truth simply was reflecting the hopes, expectations, trials and disappointments of African American women who continued to suffer the insults of disenfranchisement and chastisement that was a daily occurrence for them in the post US civil war world (reconstruction era).
Leslie Boin Podell
Sojoirner never used the words “Ain’t I a Woman” in her original speech. That phrasing was invented 12’years later by Frances Gage when published her made up version of Sojourners speech. To learn more and look at both speeches , Sojourners and Frances’s please visit http://www.thesojournertruthproject.com Both speeches are important but we should reference the correct speech.
Leslie Boin Podell
Sojourner never uttered the words “Ain’t I a woman “. These are the words of Frances Gage, a white woman who rewrote and published Sojourner’s speech 12 years after it was given. The original translation as well as 8 other newspaper reporting of Sojourners speech are in the library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1851-06-21/ed-1/seq-4/ Not one mentions the phrasing “Ain’t I a woman”. That’s because she never said it. For more references and information please
Visit. http://Www.thesojournertruthproject.com Thank you for your time and interest, Leslie
David Walter
I have read about Sojourner Truth, and as I understand it, she turned up, because she was never invited to the conference in the first place, and out of irritation as a leading activist, she invited herself in order to protest the racist exclusion of any black participation in the conference itself. Considering from a migration point of view, that white male migrants from Europe of which some were Irish Catholics and others from southern Europe were recruited to build up man power lost during the US Civil War, were given voting rights as citizens before American white women which the suffrage movement in partnership with the Anti-slavery movement were fighting for, this was the political schism that caused the resentment that has infested the US progressive movement which has had unfortunate consequences to this day. It was in that context of this development of political schism that “ain’t I a woman?” becomes the statement of a strong but insensed black woman who understood the trials, hopes, expectations and disappointments of African American Wpopulation that continued to suffer the consequences of the continued disenfranchisement that slowly squeezing the human rights out of an already exploited section of a people.
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[…] that Truth never have actually asked the rhetorical question that has come to define her. There are differing transcripts of the speech. Frances Gage, the president of the women’s convention, wrote the most famous […]
Leslie
Thank you !
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Raheem Ahmad
Sojourner Truth was a very strong women who helped womens to have the right to vote.
Shahla Carey
I’m doing a history fair, and for my presentation, I will be doing sojourner Truth’s speech Ain’t I A Woman. I thought I would ask you guys to be my secondary source for my presentation. But also would you mind answering a few questions for me. I would like to know what were some of her children’s names if you know them? I also wanted to know if she was married at one point in her life?And if so then what was his name? Were her children conceived by her plantation master or the watcher of the slave’s?
Anna Newman
Hi Shahla–Thanks for your questions! We’d also recommend that you check out our bibliography for some more sources, including biographies of Sojourner Truth. Sojourner had five children, five of whom survived into adulthood: Diana, Peter, Elizabeth, and Sophia. She was married to Thomas, another enslaved person at John Dumont’s in New Paltz, New York. I hope that’s a good start for your research!
KSTills
I’m disappointed Alice Walker read a version of the improvised speech that made it sound as if Sojourner Truth was a Southern woman. Sojourner Truth spoke Dutch and then learned to speak English. She would not have used the Southern idioms. To me it feels wrong, it feeds into a stereotype, this woman fought for the freedom of her son in court and won. This woman sued a non-black couple what would amount to defamation and won! I would have loved to have seen Alice Walker accurately represent the improvised speech.
Leslie podell
Yes!!!
AsilusReign
I love this!!!
LT
KSTills, the Holy Bible was also originally written in Aramaic and Biblical Hebrew and was first translated to Greek and now so many other languages including English. So various translations AND versions. Does that disappoint you to? Does it make the Bible any less holy?
I’m on the fence but ultimately…
It’s all about the motive. Sojourner didn’t write so, in essence, she had a ghostwriter translating her words and she approved them. “I am a woman’s rights!” translated to “Ain’t I a Womyn?” gives the speech contemporary style that can be understood and found meaningful. It is the responsibility of the hearer to go back and dig deep. It’s not like Alice Walker hides the “original (S).” She also had to adapt her presentation/reading to fit the demographics of the audience she spoke to.
Leslie Boin Podell
Sojourners did not like Elizabeth Gage’s fictitious rendition of her speech. This sentiment is reported and quoted directly from Sojourner. In an 1851 issue of the Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, an article states that Truth prided herself on “fairly correct English, which is in all senses a foreign tongue to her. . .. People who report her often exaggerate her expressions, putting in to her mouth the most marked southern dialect, which Sojourner feels is rather taking an unfair advantage of her”. (qtd. in Fitch and Mandziuk 1997: 129). She did not like being portrayed as an unintelligent southern slave. That should matter to Alice Walker and all those who perpetuate the inaccurate version of Sojourner’s speech. It should also matter that although Frances Gage’s actions were well intended and served the suffrage and women’s rights movement at the time; however, by today’s standards of ethical journalism, her actions were a gross misrepresentation of Sojourner Truth’s words and identity. By changing Truth’s words and her dialect to that of a stereotypical southern slave, Frances Gage effectively erased Sojourner’s Dutch heritage and her authentic voice. As well as unintentionally adding to the oversimplification of the American slave culture and furthering the eradication of our nations Northern slave history. Frances Gage admitted that her amended version had “given but a faint sketch” of Sojourner’s original speech but she felt justified and believed her version stronger and more palatable to the American public then Sojourner’s original version. THE TRUTH MATTERS. We must do our best to stick to it for reasons that are obvious as well as for reasons that we can not even understand. Alice Walker does Sojourner as well as the Contemporty and historical African American woman a large disservice by perpetuating the wrong speech. She should know and do better.
Yvonne Quilenderino
Leslie Boin Podell thank you!!!
Gayle Radwick
YES, Leslie! black women have enough problems without having certain dialects assigned to their speech patterns, particularly one that is often associated with a lack of intellect. It feels like Gage wrote Sojourner’s speech in that particular, exaggerated style (evident through the difference in how he wrote Truth’s words vs. the depictions of moments) as a way to delegitimize what she was saying. While this may not have been the intent, it’s so important to recognize that NO ONE should be misrepresented in their speech, but it’s especially fucked to do so from a place of insecurity, ego, or pride…as a white person may have felt entitled to do back in the day, feeling small next to such a powerful, wise, gravitational leader such as Sojourner Truth.
I believe Alice did not mean to belittle Sojourner in her delivery/interpretation. The southern dialect is largely associated with both women… I don’t think it’s my place to judge Walker for her speech. But I do question it, and will use that to do more research on the amazing activist whose words move us over a hundred years later.
Mimi
As a Black Historian I didn’t know of the original until later. Actually when I first heard this speech I would associate it with Harriet Tubman. The dialect, the number of children and the type of work. In a way i feel Francis Gage takes two powerful woman and merge them into one speech. I use this to show how black women were not seen as women and black women were seen as distraction of the cause suffrage movement.
Caiden Kirkpatrick
Thank you so much Leslie Boin Podell
Connie
I disagree with the above comment about different versions of the bible being the same as taking a speech made by a woman and “translating” it into language that negates her intellect and heritage. She spoke English. It was translated from English into a broken form of English, making her seem uneducated. I realize she could not read or write, but she could hear. I am thankful to be given the truth about this speech. I was shocked to find out it was ever taught incorrectly.
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