Sojourner Truth

Antonia Sanders
October 9, 2009
AP English III
Sojourner Truth
Both Aren’t I Woman and 1881 Account by Frances Gage (or is it by Sojourner Truth? The Debate Continues) speeches are giving the same message but they both have different meaning. One is written in the perspective of a Caucasian woman and one is the original message that Sojourner Truth has wrote. I would say that the original one would be the one I could relate to better by text is wrote by Sojourner Truth.
In that case I would simply go with the passage that had the most slang written in it. I think that she wrote this story with the slang in it because I know for a fact that most slaves where illiterate and non educated. I can also relate better with that passage because I understand it better and I clearly get what she is saying. “I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen ‘em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a’n’t I a woman?” While saying this quote Sojourner uses a courageous tone because she saying even though she has lost her own children and have seen them get sold into slavery she still stood a strong woman. She also uses ethos to show her audience even though she has been through rough times that she is a woman who won’t let anything get her down. “Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhere. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud puddles, or gibs me any best place!” And raising herself to her full height , and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunders, she asked “Ans a’n’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power)”. Well in this quote she’s actually going off. She uses a simile when she compares her voice to thunder to explain and show how she can act just like a man but she can do it better, and she shows off her tremendous muscles. She says how nobody helps her do not a damn thing, but look she can do bad all by herself. She doesn’t need a man to help her do this and that she’s a “woman” and those are things that make you a woman. Sojourner speaks with empowerment in her quotes and uses them with pathos and ethos. She doesn’t give in certain details to how she is feeling about certain things but her punctuations and diction shows it in a way. “And her voice to a pitch like rolling thunders, she asked “And a’n’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at me! Look at my arm!”. The word thunder describes how high and loud she was talking, and all the exclamation marks points out that she was angry which is significant.
In the other story Sojourner Truth: Aren’t I a Woman? I agree that Frances Gage wrote that story. The way she writes the message changes the whole meaning. Her text is more formal and more literate. I find it way more boring to read her story than I would the other one because the way she states things. “What’s that got to do with woman’s rights or Negroes’ rights?” I usually don’t hear a lot of African Americans referring to themselves as “Negroes” that’s why I find it a little awkward for Sojourner Truth to have wrote this story, and that I believe Frances Gage wrote it over but in her own words. Her words don’t make me get excited and inspired from reading it at all.