Sojourner Truth Rhetorical Analysis

Sojourner Truth was a prominent speaker arguing for abolitionism and women’s suffrage. In her speech, Ain’t I a Woman, Truth speaks on women’s rights in 1851, at the Akron, Ohio Women’s Convention. Sojourner Truth talks of women’s suffrage in order to convince those in the audience against the cause that women’s suffrage is an issue, and assure those for the cause that they are in the right, and need to stand together in the fight for equality. She does so through emphasizing her credibility and creating a feeling of sympathy from the audience.

Truth shows her credibility as a black mother by recalling anecdotes of her life in which she was treated as less because of her skin color and sex, applying these to establish the wisdom she has gained through the hardships she wants to be a thing of the past. She uses her experiences to convince the audience of the reality of this injustice, citing the children she had to give away and the religious reasons men hold women inferior. Sojourner comments on how a man would refer to women as dainty and fragile, as they need to be “helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.” She talks of how no one has ever done that to her, so even with mentalities of superiority, they still don't treat

women equal to each other.
Sojourner Truth also inspires sympathy and passion from the audience by recalling the pain and loss she has experienced during her life.

She says that “when [she] cried out with [her] mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me.” This makes the audience sympathise with her, as the feeling of a grief through the loss of children is something that everyone can be disturbed by, and hope to never feel. She uses religion to show that mankind didn’t hold her equal, as a black woman, but Jesus listened. Many people want to be good, according to their religion, so this display of a religious figure displaying more humanity than those who had power to stop the situation inspires anger and a passion for

justice.
Sojourner Truth had a talent for inspiring audiences, despite her lack of a formal education. She showed her credibility through her experiences, and used those experiences to make the audience feel sympathy. Her ability to create such effective speeches gives an amazing example of how to masterfully write argumentatively through ethos, the appeal to ethics, and pathos, the appeal to emotions.