Rosanna Orta

Ms. Orta

English 6H

December 10, 2020

Valuing the Strengths of All People: A Rhetorical Analysis

Sojourner Truth, in the speech Ain’t I a Woman (1851), compares the plight of enslaved

people and that of women to provoke change in both women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.

Truth supports her argument by giving examples of the work and loss that she has been required

to endure as an enslaved woman. The author’s purpose is to point out the physical and emotional

strength that women have in order to convince them that women should have the same rights as

men. The author writes in confident and challenging tone for the Christian white men who are in

attendance at the Women’s Rights Conference at Akron, Ohio. In the speech, Truth makes an

effective argument about the strength that women possess.

In the beginning, the speaker opens by spotlighting the claim that women are delicate.

She uses first person point of view to call attention to her experiences as an enslaved woman and

compares them to the arguments that women need to be cared for by stating, “Nobody ever helps

me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!” By using her anecdotal

experience as both a woman and an enslaved person, she appeals to pathos so that the audience

considers whether or not they really consider all women as delicate beings who are incapable of

having voting rights.

Later in the passage, the speaker refutes the argument against women’s rights. She

alludes to the religious history of the birth of Jesus Christ when she says, “Then that little man in

black there, he says women can't have as much rights as 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.” When she uses this religious allusion, she appeals to logos

and provokes reflection in the audience because they are forced to reckon with the logic of their

religious foundation for denying women’s rights.

In the end, Truth reiterates her experiences as a woman. She employs the use of the

rhetorical question, “Ain’t I a Woman?” in order to require the audience of men to contrast her

experiences as an enslaved woman to their supposed beliefs of what women can endure. Her use

of the rhetorical question inspires change in the belief that women are weak.

Throughout the speech, Truth highlights the strengths that women possess to prove that

they deserve equal rights. As people from the dominant perspective continue to use ideas of

supposed weakness and capability about women and people from the minority experience as an

excuse to maintain their dominance, it is important to remember that each person’s life brings

strengths that have come as a result of their oppression. People should no longer be required to

have more rights than others simply because one person’s type of strength is valued more than

another.

Works Cited

Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I a Woman?." Civil Rights and Conflict in the United States: Selected

Speeches. Lit2Go Edition. 1851. Web. December 08, 2020.