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Portrait of Sojourner Truth sitting in an all black dress with a white shawl, next to flowers. "I sell the shadow to support the substance"
Portrait of Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth, a Black abolitionist and nurse, delivers "Ain't I A Woman" speech.

1851

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Portrait of Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth's speech at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention rises to fame as an assertion of her Blackness and her womanhood. She levels a critique of both the women's suffrage and abolition movements, as suffrage focuses exclusively on white women, while the abolitionist movement fails to attend to gender dynamics. This speech is known as her "Ain't I A Woman" speech. Less often cited are the extent of disabilities Sojourner Truth lived with as a result of the violence she experienced during slavery. Much of these disabilities impacted her speech and were often used by the white power elite to dismiss the power of her words.