This Day in Black History: May 29, 1851

Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth delivered her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech in Akron, Ohio.

Posted: 05/29/2012 07:00 AM EDT

Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth addressed the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio with her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. Truth, who escaped from slavery in 1826, went on to be acclaimed for her oratories about racial equality.

In her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, Truth spoke extemporaneously on the rights of African-Americans and women during and after the Civil War, proclaiming, in part: “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?” The speech is regarded as one of the most important in women’s rights history.

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(Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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