Ain't I a Woman?

What it is

This is a speech given by Sojourner Truth at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. It was not written down by her—she could not read or write—and had no title at the time. It was briefly reported by two newspapers, and a fuller transcript was published that June by Marius Robinson, who was in the audience and checked his version with Truth. A very different, more famous version was published twelve years later by Frances Dana Barker Gage, adding words and phrasing not in the earlier account.

Why it matters

The speech became one of the most quoted statements connecting the struggles of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women to the fight for women's rights. The existence of two very different versions shows how later writers reshaped Truth's words and image, sometimes making her sound like a stereotype rather than herself.

Look closer

• Why do two versions of the same speech differ so much?
• What does it mean that the most famous version was written by someone else, years later?
• What might be lost when a spoken speech is only remembered through other people's notes?