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Sojourner Truth Thesis

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Sojourner Truth was a significant historical figure and a symbol of equality. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797. Originally conceived as Isabella Baumfree, by James and Betsey Baumfree. Growing up, she only spoke a bit of Dutch and similar to most slaves, Sojourner never learned to read and write. She and her family were the assets of Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh. She lived on a New York Estate and was beaten and mistreated like most slaves at the time. During her time in slavery, around 1815, Truth married a slave named Thomas and bore children with him. She was sold to four more owners afterwards, until she strode to freedom around 1826, with her daughter Sophia. She later ran away from the plantation when her master failed to …show more content…

Truth’s target audience was a combination of woman and the men that continue to oppress woman as a whole. As she talks to the crowd you can notice spikes of emotion. When you read the poem its original text there are pauses where she zealously reminds of the pressing question “Ar’n’t I a woman?” It would be easy to assume that this speech was targeted toward woman but with careful analyzing you can deduce she was trying to preach to the men of the world. She was asking the men why her version of being a woman was seen as being a woman just as much as the dainty image that men seem to envision when they see the ideology of a woman. It almost seems as if she is indirectly talking to the fells. She asks “ But what’s all dis here talkin’ ‘bout?” Here it seems like she is talking to someone else, perhaps another woman, and she wants someone to nod their head in agreement so that she has a force backing her as she challenges the idiotic, small minded views that these men have about woman. Another reason I say that is because in another part of the speech she says “Den dey talks ‘bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?” and someone replies with the word intellect.

On the other spectrum it can be argued that she was talking to the woman since the speech was given the Women’s Rights Convention of 1851 in Ohio. Sojourner was speaking to women of her likeness. She was speaking to the woman who worked hard and didn’t meet ones typical expectation of what a woman is. She was …show more content…

Truth wants her audience to learn that women should be treated with abundant care, regardless of the skin color or social standing. She points out that women are equally as proficient as any man. Sojourner wants her audience to know that a man cannot exist without a woman. A woman gives birth to men, and feed them through her own body. The child not only feeds on the nourishment of the woman, but feeds on the heart, essence, and the soul of that woman. The mother of man teaches him what love is, then later in life men seek another woman to give him the same love his mother has given, for her to be his mother again. Woman are truly the Achilles of man. Sojourner Truth wants her audience to understand the significance of women. Thus, to treat women as a delicacy and endow equal rights to the rib of

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