User:LilyMR/Ain't I a Woman?

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in New York State. Truth ran from her master in 1827 after he went back on his promise of her freedom. She became a priest and an activist throughout the 1840s-1850s. She delivered her speech, "Ain't I a Woman?", at the Women's Rights Convention in 1851. Truth questions the treatment of white women compared to black women. Seemingly pointing out a man in the room, Truth says, "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere." She exclaims that no one ever does any of these things for her, repeating the question, "And ain't I a woman?" several times. She says that she has worked and birthed many children, making her as much a woman as anyone else. There is no official published version of her speech as many rewritings of it were published anywhere from one month, to 12 years after it was spoke.