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"#"$%&
!! In Sojourner Truth, a freed slave, abolitionist, and !! Her main message seems to be that black
women’s rights activist is addressing a women’s people and women should share equal rights
rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. with white men.
!! She is responding to a man in the audience who
!! She also seems to suggest that black women
had argued that are too frail and weak to have should receive the same consideration as
equal rights and that they need to be taken care
white women.
of by men.
!! Realizing that she was addressing a hostile
audience and that (given the historical context)
only a few people would agree with her, she had
to choose her words carefully.
3.! Truth dismisses the argument that black !! Truth uses loaded words and phrases that appeal
women are inferior to white men by asking to the emotions by referring to Christ,
what intellect has to do with basic human motherhood, and grief, and by asking the
rights. (If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and audience to look at her and consider the
hardships she has endured.
yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not
!! She uses “plain folk” language which appeals to
to let me have my little half-measure filled?
common people. This may help others to identify
4.! Responding to the man who claimed that and empathize with her and her message.
women should not have as many rights as men !! Her skillful repetition of the phrase “Ain’t I a
because Christ was not a woman, Sojourner Woman?” is an effective use of persuasive
argues that Christ came from God and a woman language aimed at gaining a sympathetic
(Mary), and that man had nothing to do with response from as many people in the audience as
him. possible.
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