And Ain't I a Woman?

Sojourner Truth was a slave for the first twenty nine years of her life (Meet). She escaped the harshness of slavery and ran away to a nice family that toke her in (Meet). She was a big lady and people liked to listen to her talk (Meet). Truth believed, "That resisting justice was her divinely ordained duty" (Meet). This means that she thought she was put on the earth to help people who could not talk for themselves about their problems. She was originally named, Isabella (Meet). She changed it Sojourner Truth because she was traveling around and telling of God's work (Meet). Sojourner means visiting traveler (Meet). She would travel around the United States talking about God, and soon enough she started to talk about the importance of antislavery in her sermons (Meet). She was also a woman's rights activist (Meet). She demanded votes for women (Meet). She was around during the Civil War time. The United States were going through a lot of changes during this time. We were in war with ourselves over the issue of slavery. Truth helped out a lot during the Civil War. She gathered supplies for blacks that were fighting in the war (Meet). She also help after the war with counseling slaves on how to live their life with their new freedom (Meet). Sojoruner Truth's most famous sermon, "And Ain't I a Woman" was given in Akron, Ohio (Meet).
Sojourner Truth's sermon is about the equal treatment of women from men (Truth). She talks about how women should be helped in every thing they do from getting into carriages to giving them the nicest things (Truth). She comes back from that and says, "Nobody every helps me get into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And Ain't I a Woman? Look at my arm. I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns and no man could head me. And Ain't I a Woman?" (Truth). This is a very realistic statement. It is because she is showing how life really is for a black woman(Truth) (Werlock). Realism is a writing style the show real things that happen in life (Werlock). Truth talks about women how they are really treated (Truth). She does not sugar coat it to make it sound better or add stuff to make it worse, she just relays the truth to the listeners (Truth) (Werlock). Since she was a woman's activist and was fighting for abolishing slavery. In her sermon, she says, (talking about intellect) "What's that got to do with woman rights or Negroes rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me half my little half-measure full?" (Truth). This is also a statement of realism because she is talking about the men telling women and men they are not smart enough to vote. She says they are and they should be allowed to have a say on what goes on in the country (Truth). Truth's sermons were very full of realism by the way she talked about real topics that were happening during her time.

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain't I a Woman." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 370. Print.

"Meet Sojourner Truth." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 368. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/