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According to the biblical Book of Genesis, Eve was the first woman. God created her from Adam’s rib, intending for her to be Adam’s companion in the Garden of Eden. But the serpent tempted Eve to eat a forbidden apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve then offered the fruit to Adam, who ate it. God had told the two of them not to eat from the tree—and once they did, he angrily cast them out of the garden forever. In her speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth invokes Eve to strengthen her argument in favor of equal rights for all women. Truth claims that Eve was strong enough to “turn the world upside down”—and so, by that logic, the women fighting for abolition and equal rights during Sojourner’s day should be able to “get it right side up again.” Truth suggests that Eve’s deeds don’t speak to women’s fallibility, sinfulness, or simpleness, as religious leaders often used her story to claim they did. Instead, Truth presents Eve as a powerful woman whose actions resulted in a reordering of the world. So in Truth’s estimation, women are strong and powerful enough to reorder the world once again. Truth’s invocation of Eve speaks to the speech’s central themes of men’s hypocrisy and religion as an excuse for the subjugation of women.
Eve Quotes in Ain’t I a Woman?
The Ain’t I a Woman? quotes below are all either spoken by Eve or refer to Eve. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Ain’t I a Woman? Quotes
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!
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In this passage, Sojourner Truth invokes the oft-maligned biblical figure, Eve, to strengthen her own argument about the fractures and faults within the movement for women’s rights. In this passage, Truth invokes the biblical story of Adam and Eve from the Book of Genesis, referring to Eve as “the first woman God ever made.” In Christianity—especially in the sermons delivered by male clergymen during Truth’s era—Eve is often used as a figure marked by original sin and wickedness. Eve went against God’s word (eating the forbidden fruit and thus introducing original sin into the world), and for millennia, she has Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore
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Eve Character Timeline in Ain’t I a Woman?
The timeline below shows where the character Eve appears in Ain’t I a Woman?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Ain’t I a Woman?
The first woman that God ever made—Eve—was, in Truth’s estimation, strong enough to “turn the world upside down” all on her own....
(full context)
