Sojourner Truth- Ain't I a woman

Ain't I a woman is a very deep essay based on the feelings and lack of attention for an enslaved woman. Sojourner Truth feels that she is not treated the same as other woman are and she wishes that someone would show her some attention. "That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere Nobody ever helped me into carriages or over mud puddles or gives me a best place. . ."(Truth, "Ain't I A Woman?"). It is obvious that she is treated differently from other woman because of her ethnic background being African American and that she is a slave. We have heard about how slaves were treated and neglected by society but never have I heard an account on how they felt about things that we consider to be normal and on things that happen everyday.

Emerson and Thoreau's philosophies can be related to this essay in some ways. Emerson thought that "the differences among the members of a race are greater than the differences between races"(Brewton,"Emerson, Ralph Waldo [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]."). He thought that all the different characters and behavioral patterns were far different that the skin tone between races. This belief gives us an insight on to his views on racism. Emerson does not seem to be a racist man and this is significant because of how many people owned or had just lost their slaves at this time. Many people believed that "blacks" were the scum of the Earth and some did not consider them human. "Civil disobedience means to protest what one believes to be an unjust law or an unfair sociopolitical system through nonviolent means, fully aware the the consequence may entail imprisonment and/or brutality by the powers-that-be"(Mannion,"Henry David Thoreau - Philosophy."). Since Thoreau wrote an essay on civil disobedience I find it hard to believe that he thought slavery was just and fair to the slaves. I am not saying that he was giving his life for the freedom of slaves but he considered it to not be something God wanted.

This book does not share the political style of writing these men were famous for but it does show the emotional and spiritual side of their philosophies. Truth was not afraid to speak what had been killing her whole life and she was able to get her message across. Truth must have hit a keynote with this speech or we would not be reading it today.

Brewton, Vince. "Emerson, Ralph Waldo [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]."Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 24 July 2003. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.

Mannion, James. "Henry David Thoreau - Philosophy." Netplaces. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. Truth, Sojourner.

"Ain't I A Woman? Famous Speech by Sojourner Truth." Find Famous Quotes, Funny, Movie and Motivational. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.