1. When was Ain’t I a Woman? delivered?
May 29, 1851.
2. Where was the speech delivered?
At the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
3. What is the primary form of the text?
Speech.
4. Who delivered the speech?
Sojourner Truth.
5. What two groups does Truth say are talking about rights?
Negroes of the South and women of the North.
6. What does Truth predict will happen to white men?
They will be “in a fix.”
7. What does Truth say nobody ever does for her?
Help her into carriages or over mud-puddles.
8. What physical labor does Truth claim she has done?
She ploughed, planted, and gathered into barns.
9. What does Truth say no man could do better than her?
Head her in work.
10. How much could Truth work and eat compared to a man?
As much as a man, when she could get it.
11. What punishment does Truth say she could bear?
The lash.
12. How many children does Truth say she bore?
Thirteen children.
13. What happened to most of Truth’s children?
They were sold into slavery.
14. Who alone heard Truth’s grief as a mother?
Jesus.
15. What does Truth repeatedly ask to prove her womanhood?
“Ain’t I a woman?”
16. What does the audience whisper when Truth mentions “this thing in the head”?
“Intellect.”
17. How does Truth compare her intellect to a man’s?
She compares her pint cup to a man’s quart.
18. What would be mean, according to Truth, about intellect?
Not letting her have her half-measure full.
19. Who does the “little man in black” say women can’t have equal rights with?
Men.
20. Why does the man in black say women can’t have equal rights?
Because Christ wasn’t a woman.
21. Where did Christ come from, according to Truth?
From God and a woman.
22. What did man have to do with Christ’s birth?
Nothing.
23. Who was the first woman God made, according to Truth?
Eve.
24. What was Eve strong enough to do alone?
Turn the world upside down.
25. What does Truth say women together should do?
Turn the world right side up again.
26. What does Truth advise men to do?
Let women do it.
27. How does Truth conclude her speech?
“Old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.”
28. Which version of the speech was published first?
The 1851 Anti-Slavery Bugle version.
29. Who transcribed the 1851 version?
Rev. Marius Robinson.
30. What dialect is used in the 1851 version?
No Southern dialect.
31. Does the 1851 version include the phrase “Ain’t I a woman?”
No.
32. Which version is considered closest to the original speech?
The 1851 version.
33. What is the main emphasis of the 1851 version?
Women’s strength, equality, and Christian reasoning.
34. When was the 1863 version published?
35. Who rewrote/transcribed the 1863 version?
Frances Dana Barker Gage.
36. What dialect is used in the 1863 version?
An exaggerated Southern slave dialect.
37. How many times is “Ain’t I a woman?” repeated in the 1863 version?
Four times.
38. Why is the 1863 version less historically accurate?
Because Truth was from New York, not the South, and she spoke Dutch early in life.
39. Which version is more dramatic and widely circulated?
The 1863 version.
40. What does Truth use to challenge gender stereotypes?
Her physical strength and labor.
41. What religious argument does Truth use against male superiority?
Christ came from a woman.
42. What biblical figure does Truth reference to argue women’s power?
Eve.
43. What does Truth’s cup analogy illustrate?
Equality despite differences in capacity.
44. What does Truth say about the treatment of Black women compared to white women?
Black women receive no chivalry or special treatment.
45. What does Truth’s speech highlight about intersectionality?
Race and gender oppression.
46. What audience reaction does Truth anticipate?
Laughter at their errors.
47. What does Truth’s speech demand?
Rights for both women and Black people.
48. What rhetorical device does Truth repeatedly use?
Anaphora (“And ain’t I a woman?”).
49. What does Truth’s reference to bearing the lash highlight?
The brutality of slavery.