February is the chosen month to reflect on black history but truthfully not only is it black history, it’s American history. I will be profiling people whom I believe made decisions that impact my life today. With that said, let’s celebrate, reflect and appreciate the people that came before us who made it possible for us to accomplish so much today.
As I reflect on the future of women’s rights in these United States, I appreciate Sojourner Truth a.k.a. Isabella Baumfree 1797-1883. She was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist who was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York. This girl was on fiya-aah. Among her many other triumphs for black and women’s rights, she was the first black woman to win a court case against a white man when fighting to recover her son after escaping with her infant daughter in 1826. I celebrate her life and accomplishments and hope we can continue in her footsteps as we continue to fight for the rights to control our own bodies, receive equal pay for equal work, and live in a society where men and women are socially equal.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): “Ain’t I A Woman?”
Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio
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.
Credit: Fordham University
