Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?: Chapters 6–7

Sojourner stayed with the family for several weeks, nursing the sick woman, washing, cooking, and cleaning for the family. They begged her to stay, but Sojourner knew, like her name implied, she couldn’t stay any place too long.

The people ate, sang, prayed, and listened to speakers. The atmosphere reminded Sojourner of Pinxter. Everybody seemed so happy, yet pious.

At first, Sojourner was taken with the notion that whites would sit still and listen to anything she had to say.

She “hushed every trifler into silence,” where “whole audiences melted into tears by her touching stories.”

Since The Kingdom debacle she had avoided groups that tended toward fanaticism, especially loud outbursts.

Parker Pillsbury was another distinguished abolitionist who visited Northampton regularly, too.

His reputation as a speaker was outstanding, and his voice was among those most respected. But his eloquence proved to be a disadvantage.

Douglass’s diction was so perfect, Southerners spread rumors that he had never been a slave.

To prove he wasn’t a hoax, he’d written his autobiography in 1845 giving names, dates, and events pertinent to his life.

To some, William Lloyd Garrison was the preeminent leader of the anti-slavery movement.

He was a tall, gaunt-faced man whose angry speeches were betrayed by his gentle eyes.

As a youth, he had even served time in prison for his beliefs. As an adult he had never wavered.

The masthead of The Liberator expressed without reservation the sentiments of the editor: “No union with slaveholders.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Henry Highland Garnet, a Presbyterian minister, gave a rousing speech at the 1843 National Black Convention that met at Buffalo, New York.

You had better all die-die immediately—than live slaves and entail your wretchedness upon your posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is your only hope.

At the second session, Stanton submitted a resolution calling for women’s suffrage—the right to vote!

Every resolution passed without a hitch, but with the help of Frederick Douglass—the only male in favor—the suffrage resolution passed “with a narrow margin.”

She is the property of her master, and her daughters are his property...they must be entirely subservient to the will of their owner on pain of being whipped as near to death as will comport with his interest or quite to death if it suits his pleasure.

Charles Dickens observed during his visit to the states that “American men accorded their women more deference, lavished more money on them, regarded them with more respect than was accorded the women of any country. But they didn’t particularly like them.”

Charles Dickens observed during his visit to the states that “American men accorded their women more deference, lavished more money on them, regarded them with more respect than was accorded the women of any country. But they didn’t particularly like them.”

Charles Dickens observed during his visit to the states that “American men accorded their women more deference, lavished more money on them, regarded them with more respect than was accorded the women of any country. But they didn’t particularly like them.”

In retrospect it is easy to chart the events that led up to the Civil War from this point.

The Compromise of 1850 was a key issue that fanned the smoldering coals of discontent in the North and the South.

I am pleading for my people,
A poor downtrodden race,
Who dwell in freedom’s boasted land,
With no abiding place.

I am pleading that my people
May have their rights restored;
For they have long been toiling,
And yet have no reward.

Then, without fanfare, she began her speech, making point after point with eloquent simplicity.

The clergy took an active role in resisting the women’s meeting. One minister promised to expel women in his congregation who attended the meeting, while another clergyman proclaimed it a “meeting sponsored by the devil.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton moved this resolution: ‘That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.’

Reporters and essayists called the conference a hen party and chided the women, saying
 they were “hens that wanted to crow,” and “fe-he-males.”

Sojourner tried to be patient while speaker after speaker raised questions such as whether women should be able to keep their jewelry after a divorce or whether women were more liberated by wearing bloomers, a pant-type dress, which supposedly freed the body and allowed more physical exercise. Both issues seemed irrelevant to Sojourner.

Their motto clearly stated their primary objective: “Equality before the law without distinction of sex or color.”

Often they reached places where their figures had just been burned in effigy.

In 1851 Ohio was a free state and a main artery on the Underground Railroad, but there was a lot of pro-slavery sentiment there, especially in rural areas.

Most of the men had come with unyielding prejudices, clergymen mostly who tried to discredit the women’s movement as anti-Christian.

Then there were the seasoned feminists who came because, at last, their goals and aspirations were being addressed.

The gathering was large but for the most part congenial.

Since there were no seats left, she took a seat on the steps to the pulpit.

When that didn’t work, the preachers used the same tired logic that had been used for centuries to oppress women and blacks. God created women to be weak and blacks to be a subservient race.

Then one by one she took on the male religious pedants.

Few listeners at the time could understand the full import of what Sojourner Truth was really saying in that hard-hitting “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.