Previous
Christianity as an Excuse for Oppression
Find the Perfect Quote
LitCharts makes it easy to find quotes by
character
and theme. We assign a color and icon like this one
to each theme, making it easy to track which themes apply to each quote below.
Need another quote?
Need analysis on another quote?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Request it
Request it
Request analysis
Request analysis
Request analysis
Ain’t I a Woman? Quotes
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In the opening line of her speech, Black abolitionist and feminist activist Sojourner Truth describes the “racket” within the women’s rights movement that she has come to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention of 1851 to discuss. Sojourner Truth notably refers to her audience as “children” as she begins speaking. Truth was a well-known speaker at the time, and, as her name suggests, she sojourned across the country speaking her truth. (She was born Isabella Baumfree but chose the name Sojourn Truth for herself after having a religious awakening). An abolitionist and supporter of the fight for equal rights for women, 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 laborum.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this quotation, Sojourner Truth points out the racism and hypocrisy within the movement for women’s rights. Here, she takes issue with how men hypocritically claim that women deserve “the best” while actively working to undermine the struggle for women’s rights. Men, in Truth’s estimation, sought to coddle and infantilize the women around them as a way of paying lip service to women’s beauty and integrity. By claiming that women deserved “the best”—but never doing more for women than small acts like helping them over mud-puddles—men were hypocritically ignoring the focus of the women’s rights movement, which was aimed at 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. Li
And ain't I a woman?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This line is the repeated refrain at the heart of Sojourner Truth’s speech. Throughout the speech, Truth describes her experiences being sidelined in society for being Black and being a woman, being tortured and brutalized under slavery, and being torn apart from her children. As she does so, she continuously repeats the phrase “and ain’t I a woman?” to highlight the hypocrisy and racism within and around the women’s rights movement. Men suggest that women should have the “best place everywhere”—but under slavery, Truth was treated maliciously and subjected to unbearable horrors. And now that she’s free, those same men 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 inventor
I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This quotation is significant because it introduces the speech’s central symbol—the nearly “thirteen children” that Truth had taken away from her and “sold off to slavery.” This passage is meant to underscore the cruelty and inhumanity that Truth was forced to endure as an enslaved person—even though she is a woman, and, according to women’s rights activists, should have been spared from such horrors. Truth offers this anecdote in order to underscore the hypocrisy of the self-concerned white women within the women’s rights movement as well as the ignorance and paternalism of white men who claim that women should be 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 laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleni
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights its men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Sojourner Truth turns her attentions to the hypocrisy, sexism, and racism within the Christian Church. Here, Truth suggests that the Church purposefully twists religious doctrine in order to justify its cruelty toward women. She begins her argument by calling out a metaphorical “little man in black.” She’s not speaking of a literal man in the audience, but rather of the Church clergymen—who traditionally wear black garments—who try to dictate what rights women should and should not have. These men, Truth asserts, twist the Bible’s teachings in order to justify their own exclusionary protocol. So when a preacher 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 conseq
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!
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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
No matches.
