Blog Five

Sojourner truth gave her speech, "And I Ain't a Women?" at a women's convention in Ohio in 1851. In this speech, she talked about how everyone is talking about rights and arguing about rights. She mentioned that "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!" (Truth). She then goes on asking if she isn't considered a women? Showing the audience her arms and proving that she works and plows the field, she makes a point that "Negro women" are in a different category than white women (Truth). Arguing her point with true statements, I bet that she really got the crowd up and going. I think that if I was listening to her speech, I would be moved and want to help this problem. Her speech really helped change America.

Sojourner truth was against slavery, as you can tell in this speech. Writing about how she had to lose her children to slavery, she reached her audience on an emotional level. She was alone in the world except for Jesus (Truth). Her views on slavery went hand in hand with Emerson and Thoreau's views on slavery. Emerson and Thoreau looked at slavery through a macro level while Sojourner Truth made the truth of slavery more personal to her audience. She brought the life of children into her story along with the sorrow she felt when she lost them. Her view on slavery probably appealed to women while Emerson's and Thoreau's work probably appealed more to men. When a women realizes the kind of torture Sojourner went through when she lost her children, they probably thought about how they would feel if they lost their own children.

They have similar philosophies, but they all look at slavery at a different level. I personally like Sojourner Truth's level better because she stared slavery into the eye when she lost all of her family to it. Emerson and Thoreau had their own experiences with slavery as well, but there stories were not as personal as Sojourner Truth's.

Truth, Sojourner. "Internet History Sourcebooks." FORDHAM.EDU. Fordham University. Web. 07 Feb. 2012..