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.
By Britt Middleton
Posted: 05/29/2012 07:00 AM EDT
Filed Under Civil War, This Day in Black History, Women's Rights, National News, slavery

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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