Ain't I a Woman?

"Ain't I a Woman?" is a speech, generally considered to have been delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), born into slavery in the state of New York. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, and did not originally have a title.

The speech was briefly reported in two newspapers at the time, and a transcript was published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle on June 21, 1851. In 1863, during the American Civil War, Frances Dana Barker Gage published a significantly different version with speech more typical of southern African Americans. This version became known as "Ain't I a Woman?", because of its oft-repeated question (which does not appear in the earlier version). This later, better known and more widely available version was the one commonly referenced in popular culture and, until historian Nell Irvin Painter's 1996 biography of Truth, by historians as well.

In her speech, Truth questions the treatment of white women compared to black women. Seemingly pointing out a man in the room, Truth says, "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere." In the Gage version, she exclaims that no one ever does any of these things for her, repeating the question, "And ain't I a woman?" several times. She says that she has worked and birthed many children, making her as much a woman as anyone else. Despite giving birth to children just like white women did, black women were not treated with the same respect as white women. Black women were women, but because their race was seen as inferior, being a woman did not mean much if they were not white.

There is no official published version of her speech; many rewritings of it were published anywhere from one month to 12 years after it was spoken.