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Rhetorical Analysis Of Sojourner Truth

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Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth, is one of the most influential women's and Black rights figures from the nineteenth century (Smithsonian n.p.). A former slave, she had firsthand experience of the injustices and social inequalities for Black women of the time. After gaining her freedom in 1826, Truth won the right to have her son back from a slave owner in Alabama in a landmark case, winning against a White man in a court (United States n.p.). She then resumed subservient work as a housekeeper and became a devout Christian before joining the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (Smithsonian n.p.). As part of that organization she became more involved as an abolitionist and rights activist. She met other influential …show more content…

Sojourner Truth's use of, "ain't I a woman", bears a striking resemblance to another famous speech which makes great use of this rhetoric device (Truth 775). Without a doubt, the seemingly humble Truth compares favorably to William Shakespeare's line through the voice of Marc Antony, "Brutus is an honourable (sic) man" (Shakespeare n.p.). Like Shakespeare, Truth desires to point out the hypocrisy of White women wanting to further their station in American society without pulling Black people up with them without drawing the ire of the organization for which she is presenting. Her repeated phrase, like Shakespeare's, is something the crowd cannot deny or find fault with, yet it forces the audience to agree with her points. In this way, she can actually say that the women organizing for women's rights must also be willing to expand Black rights because they've already expressed that they support equal rights between White men and other marginalized demographics. The subtly and poignancy of her appeal is masterful and gently guides her audience to her conclusion without fear of alienating

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