Rhetorical Analysis of 'Ain't I A Woman?'

nalysis of Ain’t I a Woman?

In 1851, the groundbreaking speech Ain’t I a Woman? was given by Sojourner Truth at a convention to support women's rights, her speech paved the way for a new kind thinking; this speech was only able to achieve its level of influence because of the way Truth used diction, syntax, and literary and rhetorical devices in her.

Sojourner Truth was a brave and headstrong woman who went through more than her fair share of hardships. From escaping slavery to seeing her own sons sold back into the life that she worked so hard to leave behind. It is all these experiences that makes her speech so powerful. In the beginning of her speech she talks about the notion that women are fragile and need to be taken care of, she counters this idea with the fact that as a slave nobody took care of her, nobody helped her, she had to work just as hard as the men and endured the same violent

punishments. If she can do that why should she not be considered equal to men? Additionally Truth states that women and blacks alike shouldn’t be penalized for their intelligence because we are all human and everyone should be able to use what they got. Furthermore, she challenges a well supported idea that because christ was a man men should have more rights. Her counter was that Jesus was born from women, only god and women were involved in his creation, therefore without women Jesus wouldn’t have walked among men.
To Illustrate her claims Truth uses different literary appeals such as logos and ethos, she uses logos when reasoning that because women could do all that men could do without special treatment they should have rights.

She uses ethos by citing the bible and drawing conclusions from it, this helps support her case because at the time almost everybody worshiped the bible and its ideas and values, having those ideas and values include women's rights would be a wake up for many 19th century americans. Because Truth was illiterate she had very low diction, which in this case helps her because it further proves the fact that a lack of intellect isn’t a reason for denying rights. Throughout her speech Truth repeats the rhetorical question, “and ain’t I a woman?” her repetition of this phrase gives emphasis to the point that despite everything she’s done she is still a woman. Because she is a thriving woman that never had the sheltered life that so many people thought was appropriate for women she was different. She paved the way for future generations of independant

women.
Ain’t I a Women? was an impactful and revolutionary speech that brought up ideas that challenged the social norm. Truth was passionate and determined about her cause and it lead to many great things. Using the power of word choice she sets the stage for the women's rights movement.