Rhetorical Analysis of Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

In Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, she effectively uses allusions, pathos, and a strong and angry tone to convey her message to the men and women at the Women’s Convention in Ohio that she and other women deserve the same rights as men because they are just as strong and capable as men are. During the 1800s, women were viewed as inferior to men and had none of the same rights that they had, especially black women. This influenced women, like Sojourner Truth, to stand up and speak out against those who were denying them their rights. Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist, delivered speeches in order to advocate for equal rights and freedoms for women and the fair treatment of women compared to men. In order to accomplish this goal, Truth had to include popular allusions to make sure her audience knew what she was trying to say and would understand her message. She also had to use a lot of emotion and an angry tone to connect with her audience and appeal to their emotions in order to persuade them to see the issue of women’s rights the way she, and other women, see it.        

Truth uses allusions of people in the Bible to connect with her audience of ministers so that they understand her message of women’s rights. In her speech, she criticizes a man for saying that women shouldn’t have the same rights as men by saying, “What did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid hIm.”(p.3) She uses Jesus Christ as an example of how a woman was chosen by God to bring the Savior of the world into human existence and men had no part in it whatsoever. All of the monsters knew who Jesus was and so Truth using him as an example really allowed the ministers to further understand what point she was trying to make with her speech. At the end of her speech, she describes how the sins of Eve at the beginning of the Bible have affected the world. She says, “If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the platform) ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”(p.4) Truth uses this popular story to demonstrate how women have the power and strength to “fix” the world if they have the rights and freedoms they deserve. Again, the popular allusion of the sins of Eve affecting God’s perfect world is a story that everyone, especially ministers of religions that read the Bible, knows. The use of popular allusions greatly increased Truth’s audience’s understanding of her plea for women’s rights. 

Truth’s use of pathos to appeal to her audience’s emotions has an enormous effect on the emotional connection she makes with the audience in order to persuade them of her message. To start off her speech, she describes her life as a slave and how difficult it was. She states, “I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a’n’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well!”(p.3) She describes the hard times and conditions she experienced as a slave in order to make the audience feel sympathy for her which would allow them to open up to her and truly hear the message about equal rights for women. Sojourner Truth also describes a devastating experience she had with her children. Truth includes, “I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen ‘em mos’ all sold off ot slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a’n’t I a woman?”(p.3) The feelings from this personal event could only be felt by another mother, so it connects all the mothers in the audience together and greatly speaks to them. This great emotional appeal to the mothers in the audience and the fact that they are also women is a powerful combination for support for the advocation of women’s rights for all women, no matter the skin color. Appealing to the audience’s emotions with personal stories to make them sympathetic towards her really opened up their ears to listen to what she had to say about the issue of women’s rights.

Finally, Truth employs a strong and angry tone in her speech in order to show the audience how important the issue at hand really is. Towards the beginning of her speech, Truth scolds the people on the relevance of some things when it comes to women’s rights. She includes, “What’s dat got to do wid womin’s rights or n_____’s rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t ye be mean to not let me have my little half-measure full?”(p.3) The tone that she uses towards the audience affects how they view what she is saying. Since she scolds them for not giving her all of the little amount of freedoms that she gets, the audience realizes that she is serious about advocating for women’s rights and that they should really consider addressing the issue. She also describes the hypocrisy of what men say about how women should be treated. She expresses how men think that women, “...needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to have de best place everywhat.” but that, “Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place!”(p.3) In this, she uses an angry tone to criticize how men say one thing about how women should be treated and then do another thing that completely goes against what they previously said. Or they don’t treat all women fairly and what they said only applies to white women and not black women. The angry tone that Sojourner Truth uses in her speech implies urgency and sincerness to the audience about how the unfair treatment of women is a major problem in their society and needs to be addressed very quickly.

To conclude, Sojourner Truth adequately uses allusions from the Bible, appeals to the audience’s emotions (pathos), and utilizes an angry tone in order to convey her message that women deserve the same rights as men and should be treated fairly. Because of the rhetorical choices Truth uses in her speech about women’s rights, her audience was greatly moved and believed that she accomplished her goal of speaking out against those who were denying women of the rights and freedoms that they deserve.