Blog Post

Sojourner Truth’s piece "Ain't I a Woman?" is something I would expect to hear from a woman writer today, it was so empowering and uplifting.  Truth stressed that woman have proved themselves time and time again by “bearing the lash,” and “plowing and planting” right alongside the men. Because the women had to suffer with the men, they should be rewarded with their rights with the men as well. I love how Truth managed to turn “that little black man’s” biblical argument against him. “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again,” is such a powerful line.

“Keep The Thing Going While Things Are Stirring” got me thinking about how it is in the nature of humans to oppress people who are different when they have the opportunity. Truth realizes that, “if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as before.” I find this so statement to be so ironic and truthful. Even people with a long history of oppression will jump at the chance to oppress another group of people to feel powerful. Truth realizes that the cycle of oppression and prejudice must be stopped and that makes this piece relevant in today’s culture, where people are still being treated differently because of superficial differences.

I found this reading to be closely linked to this issue and how this realization about the nature of oppression helped to spark the feminist movement.

http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/wave.html