Sojourner Truth -- Thank You -- Every Day and EveryWhere.

Aint I a Woman?

Aint I a woman?
A found poem from Sojourner Truth's most famous speech, adapted into poetic form by Erlene Stetson


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. . .

And ain't I a woman?
Look at me
Look at my arm!
I have plowed 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 to it--
and bear the lash as well
and ain't I a woman?
I have born 13 children
and seen most all sold into slavery
and when I cried out a mother's grief
none but Jesus heard me. . .
and ain't I a woman?
that little man in black there say
a woman can't have as much rights as a man
cause Christ wasn't a woman
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
together women ought to be able to turn it
rightside up again.


I did not realize that Sojourner Truth lived in Massachusetts...
There is a page with the above poem and some links which no longer work.
One of the links on the right side of the page, or heehee, let me say Stage (Page) Left, does work, and it leads to a photo of a Sojourner Truth Statue and a page with information about a scholarship and much more...

Special thanks to TCP for bringing this version of these Sojourner Truth words to light....