Maya Angelous Reads "Ain't I A Woman" by Sojourner Truth

Posted By MsJacquiiC on Sep 8, 2012 at 1:50 AM

This was a 2009 English project for Black History Month. Reading the most profound words of freedom fighter Sojourner Truth, Maya Angelou was an inspiration; her tone and words express feelings like no other.

"Ain't I a Woman?" is the name given to a speech, delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth, (1797–1883), born a slave in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851, and was not originally known by any title. It was briefly reported in two contemporary newspapers, and a transcript of the speech was published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle on June 21, 1853.

The speech received wider publicity in 1863 during the American Civil War when Frances Dana Barker Gage published a different version, one which became known as Ain't I a Woman? because of its oft-repeated question. This later version was the one recorded in most history books.

Keywords

• angelou
• freedom
• maya angelou
• slavery
• sojourner
• sojourner truth
• speech
• truth
• woman

Black & African American

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