Ain't I A Woman?

[engagedinattempting]

I read a short speech recently and want to share it with you. It addresses issues that still plague us generations after it's delivery; issues our leaders have either not had the intelligence and courage to deal with effectively or have willfully allowed to remain unresolved in service to some larger, hidden agenda: women in most of the world are still paid less than men; voting is under attack in the U.S. through arguably illegal voter roll purges; pastors still use their tax-exempt church pulpits to attack those they don't understand, fear or hate and invoke the words of this god or that to lend weight to arguments too silly to stand on their own merits.

The speech was delivered extemporaneously 161 years ago by an African-American woman. She used no notes, shooting from the hip by necessity because she was illiterate. Born into slavery as Isabella and sold at auction for the first time at nine years of age, she and a flock of sheep were judged to be worth $100. 'Belle escaped slavery in 1827 and renamed herself Sojourner Truth in 1843. By 1851 she had been entertaining and instructing for years, and still had plenty to say.



Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman?
Delivered 1851
Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with 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! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp
Alfre Woodard reads the speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vr_vKsk_h8
Portions of the speech with a little history from Kerry Washington: http://www.history.com/topics/sojourner-truth/videos#aint-i-a-woman


From 1851 to the Civil War, Truth spoke forcefully for abolition and women's rights. She thought both black and white women should be able to vote, considered a radical idea even in abolitionist circles. When friends suggested she take a weapon to speak before a hostile group in 1862, she declined:

I carry no weapon; the Lord will reserve [i.e., preserve] me without weapons, I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.

She met President Lincoln in 1864, and, though a Lincoln supporter, didn't mince words when he showed he showed her a Bible presented to him "by the colored people of Baltimore," saying:

This is beautiful indeed; the colored people have given this to the head of the government, and that government once sanctioned laws that would not permit its people to learn enough to enable them to read this book."

Attributed to Truth in the year 1867 are comments on voting, women's rights (threatened today in U.S. by the "war on women") and even the wildly futuristic notion of a woman leader:

I must sojourn once to the ballot-box before I die. I hear the ballot-box is a beautiful glass globe, so you can see all the votes as they go in. Now, the first time I vote I'll see if the woman's vote looks any different from the rest—if it makes any stir or commotion. If it don't inside, it need not outside."
****************************************************************************
"In the courts women have no rights, no voice; nobody speaks for them. I wish woman to have her voice there among the pettifoggers. If it is not a fit place for women, it is unfit for men to be there."
****************************************************************************
"I have done a great deal of work, as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay.... We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much."
****************************************************************************
"I am sometimes told that "Women ain't fit to vote. Why, don't you know that a woman had seven devils in her: and do you suppose a woman is fit to rule the nation?" Seven devils ain't no account; a man had a legion in him."

Truth on cooperation between people and nations, 1867:

Let ... individuals make the most of what God has given them, have their neighbors do the same, and then do all they can to serve each other. There is no use in one man, or one nation, to try to do or be everything. It is a good thing to be dependent on each other for something, it makes us civil and peaceable."

She spoke publicly for as long as her health permitted, advocating against all manner of inequality. She was a proponent of prison reform and far ahead of her time in speaking out against capitol punishment. Near the end of her life, Truth had a comment on religion, saying:

Religion without humanity is a poor human stuff."

And death? Sojourner Truth:

I am not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star."

Some images of Truth are here: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sojournertruth/ig/Sojourner-Truth/



Sources

Truth bio:
http://www.biography.com/people/sojourner-truth-9511284?page=2
http://www.history.com/topics/sojourner-truth?cmpid=PaidMedia_Outbrain_HIS_TopicArticles

Truth bio & quotes:
http://www.poemhunter.com/quotations/famous.asp?people=Sojourner%20Truth

Truth quotes:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/200277.Sojourner_Truth
http://africanamericanquotes.org/sojourner-truth.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sojourner_truth.html

Gender pay inequality:
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/gender-income-gap.aspx
http://www.now.org/issues/economic/factsheet.html

Voter purges:
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/section/category/voter_purges_and_challenges
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/06/12/498039/gop-front-group-suing-states-to-force-voter-purges/?mobile=nc
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/12/us-usa-voting-florida-idUSBRE8571GT20120612

Church talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHDFi3jjRJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVyaIS20PU
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/cspanjunkie/why-i-hate-barack-obama-pastor-steven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve5B-LX8sM0

War on women:
http://www.politicususa.com/proof-war-women.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77043.html

First woman elected to U.S. Congress:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/congress/a/jeanette_rankin.htm

Women Reps silenced by GOP majority in Michigan (WoW?)
http://www.freep.com/article/20120614/NEWS15/120614049/Michigan-house-representatives-abortion-comments?odyssey=nav%7Chead
http://039.housedems.com/multimedia/videos/gop-tactics-on-house-floor-silence-women-legislators-for-fighting-back

Truth burns up error."

~ Sojourner Truth

 

[mcb]

I read a short speech recently and want to share it with you. It addresses issues that still plague us generations after it's delivery; issues our leaders have either not had the intelligence and courage to deal with effectively or have willfully allowed to remain unresolved in service to some larger, hidden agenda: women in most of the world are still paid less than men; voting is under attack in the U.S. through arguably illegal voter roll purges; pastors still use their tax-exempt church pulpits to attack those they don't understand, fear or hate and invoke the words of this god or that to lend weight to arguments too silly to stand on their own merits.
...

From our leaders' point of view, this is all well and good. Nothing to do with intelligence or courage. It's all "service to some larger, hidden agenda." I am sure there are some leaders with conscience, but if they are too successful at changing things, they tend to find themselves dead.

I spent a little bit of time earlier this year looking at the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She caught on to what was going on with the phony religious system and the Bible, and how it was used against women. She wanted to empower women with this knowledge first, and then go on to change the system. She wasn't killed but she was thwarted. The details of how it was accomplished make an interesting study.

 

[Buddy]

It's all "service to some larger, hidden agenda."

I agree with Megan.

In "The Gnostic Gospels", Elaine Pagels shows us how 'catholicism as practiced' is based on a realization that the masses appear to want to be herded and to share herd consciousness AKA a "common sense." In fact, one meaning of the word "catholic" is: universal, i.e., 'one religion for all'.

Contrast with most types of gnosticism saying there is no human authority, socially authorized or otherwise, and anyone who claims authority suffers a genetic defect related to reasoning and sense. Gnosis is always Individual and is represented and expressed by Individuals using a consistent Sophistic (arête) rhetoric that a listener can feel, e.g.:

Truth had a comment on religion, saying:
[quote author=Sojourner Truth]

Religion without humanity is a poor human stuff."

Quantumists and Gnostics say: It (the Father, God, the Kingdom of God, quantum reality) is in us and we are in It. Organized religion structures that have lost their "inner" (quantum included middle) are dead already and will be washed away as I see it.

Thanks for this presentation, Patrick! :)

 

[engagedinattempting]

Thanks for your replies, Megan and Buddy.

[...]I spent a little bit of time earlier this year looking at the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She caught on to what was going on with the phony religious system and the Bible, and how it was used against women. She wanted to empower women with this knowledge first, and then go on to change the system. She wasn't killed but she was thwarted. The details of how it was accomplished make an interesting study.

Stanton came up several times during my look at Truth and I'll read more about her. Learning a bit about people not too far removed from our present time helps me to better grasp the feeling of their lives and the issues they faced than looking at ancient folks. Reading LKJ's ideas about how straight-up pos/neg chance coupled with inevitable human improvements would produce a far better world than what we see around us seemed so obviously true that I'm still flummoxed by my inability to determine that independently; seeing that yesterday's issues remain today's issues provides verification that this must be the case.

Happy learning!

 

[mcb]

...Reading LKJ's ideas about how straight-up pos/neg chance coupled with inevitable human improvements would produce a far better world than what we see around us seemed so obviously true that I'm still flummoxed by my inability to determine that independently...

Ain't that the truth! But don't be flummoxed. It takes time. I puzzled over the state of humanity for a very long time before I discovered Laura's work. I eventually found some pretty solid evidence of "interference" but that's as far as I got before finding the Cassiopaea website in a Google search, 9 years ago. Most of that understanding came from freeing myself from false religious teachings, much as Stanton had done in the 19th century. Given the lack of resources and support back then, her accomplishments are truly amazing.

Stanton tried to work with others, but the "others" betrayed her. The situation here is better. :)