Summarize the "Ain't I a Woman" Speech
At the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth gives a speech in which she remarks upon two major injustices: racial prejudices and sexist prejudices. She admits that there has been some effort made to improve women's rights in the North, but she also points out the opposition against these reforms. She disagrees with their way of thinking, claiming that there are people who have helped women out of carriages and over ditches, but no one has ever helped her. She poses the question, "Ain't [she] a woman?" She goes on to defend womanhood by giving examples of her strengths as a woman; she explains that she is able to farm and work as hard as men, as much as men, and even has the strength to do things they can't do like give birth to thirteen children and watch them helplessly when they are sold into slavery. She shuts down anyone who thinks that women are less intelligent than men, claiming that intelligence is irrelevant concerning respect, because respect should be a universal and unconditional endowment.
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