We listened to Avery Sharpe's Sojourner Truth "ain't I a woman?" Visit http://averysharpe.com/
http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/truth.htm
1797-1883
Aint I a woman?
A found poem from Sojourner Truth's most famous speech, adapted into poetic form by Erlene Stetson click here to see the full text of the speech, in non-poem format.
That man over there say
a woman needs to be helped into carriages
and lifted over ditches
and to have the best place everywhere.
Nobody ever helped me into carriages
or over mud puddles
or gives me a 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 head 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 born 13 children
and seen most all sold 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 again.
A Biography of Truth, from Stamp on Black History collection.
The Truth Memorial statue page
From a Women's Studies collection
(The following is quoted from an editor's note in the anthology where this poem is found)
"There is no exact copy of this speech given at the Women's rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1852. The speech is adapted to the poetic format by Erelene Stetson from the copy found in Sojurner, God's Faithful Pilgrim by Arthur Huff Fauset, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1938)."
The poem and note, along with other great women's poems, can be found in Ain't I a Woman: A Book of Women's Poetry from Around The World, Illona Linthwaite, Editor. New York: Wing Books, 1993, page 129.
Here is another link referencing the speech and its author: http://www.kyphilom.com/www/truth.html
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1 comment:
Sareth Chhoth
Professor Sabir
English 1B
9 October 2012
Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman
I believe that the song is about women’s rights. From what I heard from the song, the song was talking about women’s rights to vote among other things. This song is about the woman activist named Sojourner Truth and her famous speech about woman suffrage. This song is meant to educate or make the youth aware of the struggles that women had to suffer during that time. From this song, the youth could be knowledgeable about Sojourner Truth.
The speech is about her saying that men said how they should treat woman but she was never treated that way. The speech also mentions that men said that women should be allowed to have the same rights as men. Sojourner Truth is a woman but not treated as one, saying that she worked like a man or was never helped into carriages or over puddles. That is why the title of the speech is called Ain’t I a Woman.
Just like Avery Sharpe believes that the youth needs to know about Sojourner Truth, I also believe that. I first learned about Sojourner Truth in middle school or high school about her struggles to achieve equal rights for woman. She is an important person when it comes to the history of woman’s rights. In my opinion, this is just like Martin Luther King Jr., people need to learn about historical icons and what they contributed in their cause.
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