Ain't I a Woman? - by Sojourner Truth

Ain't I a Woman?

That man over there say

a woman needs to be helped into a carriage

and lifted over ditches

and to have the best place everywhere.

Nobody ever helped me into carriages 

or over mud puddles

or gives me the best place...

And ain't I a woman?

Look at me

Look at my arm?

I have plowed and planted

and gathered into barns

and no man could hear me...

And ain't I a woman?

I could work as much

and eat as much as a man - 

when I could get to it -

and bear the lash as well

and ain't I a woman?

I have borne thirteen children

and seen most all sent into slavery

and when I cried out a mother's grief

none but Jesus heard me...

And ain't I a woman?

that little man in black there say

a woman can't have as much rights as a man

cause Christ wasn't a woman

Where did your Christ come from?

From God and a woman!

Man had nothing to do with him!

If the first woman God ever made

was strong enough to turn the world

upside down, all alone

together women ought to be able to turn it

rightside up agin.

~ Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) was born into slavery in the USA in 1797. Aged nine, she was sold away from her enslaved parents and siblings. However, she escaped in 1826 with her infant daughter Sophia. Much to her grief, she had to leave her other young children behind because of legal problems. She was legal made free in 1827 and left New York in 1843, travelling with only a small bundle of cloths and 25 cents! After that, she became a prominent anti- slavery activist and also a women's rights activist. Sadly she passed away in 1883 in Michigan, USA. 

This poem was adapted from her speech which she made at the Women's Rights conventions in Ohio, 1852.

Sources

~ Great Poems, pg. 136: Kate Miles