Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments are feminist texts given and written, respectively, at Women’s Conventions around the country. Both texts demand equal rights for women. Ain’t I a Woman argues why women should be granted equal rights, while Declaration of Sentiments lists oppressions put on women by the patriarchal society. These are both some of the most influential feminist texts from the first wave feminist movement in the United States; however, their context, content, authors, and style, differ the meanings of the texts and reveal the restrictions placed on different women at the time.
Women and women’s issues were, and still often are, confined to the private sphere of life, and …show more content…
Truth was a mother of several children who were sold into slavery. Ain’t I a Woman is a transcription of a speech given by Truth at the May 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Ain’t I a Woman is arguably Truth’s most well-known speech. In this speech, she argues that all women are naturally equal to men and attempts to prove this sentiment by providing evidence of her strength and work that she claims is equal to men. She argues against a man at the convention who claimed that women should not have equal rights because Christ was a man. Truth argues that Christ was born of a woman and God, and that “man had nothing to do with Him” (Truth). Sojourner Truth notes that men expect women to need “to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere” but no one gives these things to her. She is either arguing that she is not treated the way white women are, or that she is capable of doing these things by herself regardless of gender or …show more content…
The most commonly cited version of Sojourner Truth’s speech was officially transcribed by Frances Gage, the president of the convention at the time, twelve years after the speech was given. Although Truth never lived in the south and likely spoke with a Dutch accent, the way Frances Gage writes Truth’s speech depicts her as having a southern accent and dialect (Sojourner’s Words and Music). Margaret Washington, a historian and author of Sojourner Truth’s America, recounts that Gage “presents Truth disparagingly, as an oversized, humorous African-born oddity, possessing naive religious faith and speaking in droll, thick, almost incomprehensible southern dialect” (Washington). This type of accent is often associated with a lack of intelligence, while her Dutch accent, with which many other versions of the speech are transcribed, is often associated with having more intelligence. The content of the speech in the two different transcriptions also slightly differs. Frances Gage’s version depicts Truth’s speech as one about the racial disparities in the feminist movement. In this version of the speech Truth argues that black women are not currently included in the movement for women’s rights, but should be. The other versions depict Truth’s speech as an argument in support of the general women’s rights movement. The versions that depict Truth’s “more intelligent”
Women and women’s issues were, and still often are, confined to the private sphere of life, and …show more content…
Truth was a mother of several children who were sold into slavery. Ain’t I a Woman is a transcription of a speech given by Truth at the May 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Ain’t I a Woman is arguably Truth’s most well-known speech. In this speech, she argues that all women are naturally equal to men and attempts to prove this sentiment by providing evidence of her strength and work that she claims is equal to men. She argues against a man at the convention who claimed that women should not have equal rights because Christ was a man. Truth argues that Christ was born of a woman and God, and that “man had nothing to do with Him” (Truth). Sojourner Truth notes that men expect women to need “to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere” but no one gives these things to her. She is either arguing that she is not treated the way white women are, or that she is capable of doing these things by herself regardless of gender or …show more content…
The most commonly cited version of Sojourner Truth’s speech was officially transcribed by Frances Gage, the president of the convention at the time, twelve years after the speech was given. Although Truth never lived in the south and likely spoke with a Dutch accent, the way Frances Gage writes Truth’s speech depicts her as having a southern accent and dialect (Sojourner’s Words and Music). Margaret Washington, a historian and author of Sojourner Truth’s America, recounts that Gage “presents Truth disparagingly, as an oversized, humorous African-born oddity, possessing naive religious faith and speaking in droll, thick, almost incomprehensible southern dialect” (Washington). This type of accent is often associated with a lack of intelligence, while her Dutch accent, with which many other versions of the speech are transcribed, is often associated with having more intelligence. The content of the speech in the two different transcriptions also slightly differs. Frances Gage’s version depicts Truth’s speech as one about the racial disparities in the feminist movement. In this version of the speech Truth argues that black women are not currently included in the movement for women’s rights, but should be. The other versions depict Truth’s speech as an argument in support of the general women’s rights movement. The versions that depict Truth’s “more intelligent”