Sojourner Truth

From Conservapedia

A black slave woman who adopted the name Sojourner Truth ( - 1883) fought for the rights of slaves and women. She gave the famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech in Akron, Ohio,

Given the name Isabella she was born into slavery on the Hardenbergh estate, Swartekill, Ulster County, New York and bought at auction in 1806 for $100 by John Neely, near Kingston, NY. In 1808 she was bought for $105 by Martinus Schryver of Kingston, NY, staying there about 18 months

She was then bought in 1810 for 70 pounds (c.$175) by John Dumont, New Paltz, NY, --she bore five children, Diana, Peter, Elizabeth, Sophia and a child who died in infancy

In 1826 Isabella walked to freedom with infant daughter,Sophia -- she had to leave the other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order, but on July 4, 1827 New York state emancipates slaves born after 1799

In 1843 at age 46, Isabella adopts the name Sojourner Truth, and leaves New York to travel to Springfield, Mass.

She traveled in 1851 to Rochester, NY, where she stayed with Underground Railroad leader, Amy Post -- in May, attended women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, where she delivers the speech later known as "Ain't I a Woman?"

From The Modern History sourcebook at Fordham Univerity. Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851

"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."

In 1864, she visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House and in 1865 was assigned to work at Freedman's Hospital in Washington. She rode the Washington, DC, streetcars to force their desegregation

She was the first black woman to vote in a Michigan state election and died in Battle Creek Michigan in 1883.

While modern feminists see Women's Rights as women being treated equally with men, Sojourner Truth knew that women were special in their own way.