Sojourner Truth: Ain T I A Woman

Because of that African Women had submitted to their masters sexually to escape harsher punishment while some, saw exploiting themselves as a way to lead a virtuous life, which never really went the way they wanted it to because the wife of the plantation owner would sell them off because of jealousy. For that very reason the Jezebel image could not reflect the everyday lives of female slaves, because female salves were forced to have sex by their masters because of fear or to try to escape the grueling punishment of their plantation owners. They did not enjoy exploiting themselves so therefore, the Jezebel could not have been a correct mythology for the black slave woman.

The term Jezebel, a seductive female slave concerned only with matters of the flesh, was used as a means of excusing miscegenation, the sexual exploitation of African American women, and the mulatto population (61). The term Mammy, the premier house servant with expertise in all domestic matters and known for the loving way she raised the master’s children, was used to symbolize race and sex relations at their best. The image of Mammy justified slavery for many white Southerners, for she reflected a positive idea that slaves somehow benefited from the institution of slavery (61).

White wanted to “Enrich our knowledge of antebellum black culture and serve as a chapter in the unwritten history of the American black woman” (White). The author utilizes previous publicize scholarly books and slave narratives to compile the history of a group of women white says is a “womanhood that celebrated heroism, but accepted frailty” (White) this 244-page book identifies with an audience who want to connect with the past experiences of the Black woman. Ar’nt I a woman is made up of 6 chapters that deal with everything from the myth between jezebel and mammy

In the book, “The Incidents Life of a Slave”, Harriet Jacobs shared her experiences working on a plantation, exposing the reality of which African American women endured more immoral suffering throughout the era of slavery. Being viewed as twice the property, they had no liberty over their motherhood and womanhood; their submission towards the slave masters could never be rebelled against without the price of punishment or death. In "And Arn't I a Woman?”, Sojourner Truth’s compare the similarities between African American women, Caucasian women, and men as well as the lack of respect they receive due to developing both female and African American identities. She exposed that most slaves, male and female, did tediously difficult field work, working for long hours with little to no food. In addition to the excruciating physical labor, they suffered sexual, mental, and emotion abuse which caused irreversible trauma.

Similarly, Patricia Hill’s work “Black Feminist Thought” explains the need for black feminism. For Hill U.S. black feminism is needed in order for black women to survive, cope with, and resist their differential treatment in society. Black feminist thought creates a collective identity among this marginalized group of African-American women. Hill provides several features that make U.S. Black feminist thought different than any other set of feminism. The first feature Hill speaks about is ‘blackness’ it is this concept that makes U.S. black feminist a different group that suffers a “double oppression”. Thus, U.S. Black women collectively participate in a dialectical relationship which links African American women’s oppression and activism. Hill speaks on the U.S. black feminist thought and the dilemma they face in American society. During the women’s right movement there was a tremendous difference between black and white women’s experiences, “while women of color were urged, at every turn, to become permanently infertile, white women enjoying prosperous economic conditions were urged, by the same forces, to reproduce themselves”. It is this difference in attitudes that demonstrate why there is a need to focuses on the linkage of experiences and ideas experienced by the black women in America. Consequently, Davis analyzes the hypocritical differences of the government of the

A major point of White’s book is that not only did the lives of female slaves differ from white American women but also from the lives of black male slaves. The title, Ar’n’t I a Woman, derives from a speech Sojourner Truth gave at the Women’s Rights convention in 1851 where she uses her experience as a slave to mock the logic of sex discrimination and disproves the argument that women are weak as “[she has] plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns and no man could head [her]” (White, 14). The speech and the

1. What is Simmons’ argument? A main argument Simmons’ makes in this article is that while African American women hoped to control sexuality, they also found the modern scientific view helpful when it came to understanding youth sexuality (Simmons’, 2015). Simmons’ particularly looks at African American women’s experience with sexuality, and how they had to refrain from sexual exploration due to fear of black nationalism demanding female sexual modesty.

By equating women's rights with those of black people, she advocates for equality on both racial and gendered fronts, highlighting the shared humanity and capabilities of black

replacement of stereotyped images of black womanhood with those that are self defined, 4) black women’s activism, and 5) sensitivity to black sexual politics. The first three themes correlate to black motherhood and living in a binary environment, one in which black people are the oppressed and white

The slave owner’s exploitation of the black woman’s sexuality was one of the most significant factors differentiating the experience of slavery for males and females. The white man’s claim to the slave body, male as well as female, was inherent in the concept of the Slave Trade and was tangibly realized perhaps no where more than the auction block. Captive Africans were stripped of their clothing, oiled down, and poked and prodded by potential buyers. The erotic undertones of such scenes were particularly pronounced in the case of black women. Throughout the period of slavery in America, white society believed black women to be innately lustful beings. The perception of the African woman as hyper-sexual made her both the object of white man’s abhorrence and his fantasy. Within the bonds of slavery, masters often felt it was their right to engage in sexual activity with black women. Sometimes, female slaves made advances hoping that such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master. Most of the time, slave owners took slaves by force.

The speech Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth and the interview with Kimberle Crenshaw on Intersectionality deal with the topic of intersectionality and black feminism. The authors want to prove how black women then and now struggled with being represented in the feminist movement and in society as a whole. The authors explore racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and how the two intersect together.

****Myths about black sexuality was an invented ideology from slave owners to push black women to reproduce for their own personal gains. It was a system conjured up by law so that white males could be in control of all their slaves as a extended family and in turn give them more bodies for work, resulting in more financial gains. The way this was possible was because “slave woman's childbearing replenished the enslaved labor force.” “Black women bore children who belonged to the slave owner from the moment of there conception”(Roberts, 1997, p.23). The law bound children to the slave owner in order to keep slavery on going.

Dating all the way back to the late 1700s, women of color, have had to deal with the constant objectification and othering of their bodies. The hypersexualization of Black Women, has its roots in slavery, and has become a social stigma that is both systemic and institutionalized. It is something that is present both external from the black community as well as within the black community. Not only does this stereotype have a negative impact on the way in which black girls and women navigate and exist in society, it also restricts their voice. Typically, the sexualization of women has been focused from solely a gendered standpoint, which fails to understand the complexities associated with the inclusion of factors such as race, socio-economic status, as well as sexual orientation.

There are a variety of reasons for the greater subjugation of black men over black women in Southern society which can be initially examined in order to understand the unique position which black women held. But one of the most evident and powerful, which lead to and was used in justifying a large majority of the efforts made against the advancement of black men, was that of a fear of miscegenation or racial mixing. An idea which had long since been held as one of the greatest fears of and threats to the status of the white race as superior. As a means to stopping this dire threat, the sexuality of the black male was conflated and propagandized far and wide to be an unstoppable force; and the black men embodying it to be so incoherently lustful and animalistic in their desire for white females that they would take any one at any time regardless of the situation.

The Black Feminist Movement is said to have grown out of the Black Liberation Movement and the Women’s Movement that took place in the United States of America. In both movements Black women were being openly discriminated against and found it hard to voice their opinions and gather solidarity. Author, Cherise Charleswell writes in her article, Herstory: Origins and Continued Relevancy of Black Feminist Thought in the United States, that ‘“Black” was equated with black men and “woman” was equated with white women; and the end result of this was that black women were an invisible group whose existence and needs were (and many would rightfully argue continues) to be ignored.’ This became the reason for Black Feminism to be