“Ain’t I a Woman” Speech (1851)

Thu May 29, 1851

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Image: Sojourner Truth, c. 1870. Photo credit to Randall Studio [wikipedia]

On this day in 1851, Sojourner Truth gave what is now known as the Ain’t I a Woman speech, delivered to the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio: “I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?”

Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

On this day in 1851, Sojourner Truth gave what is now known as the “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, delivered to the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Here is a short excerpt of the speech, from Marius Robinson’s transcription:

"I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman’s rights. [sic] I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now.

As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart - why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, - for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold."