Through luck and hard work, Douglass was able to gain something of an education, but his experience, like his release from bondage before Emancipation, he stated was hardly the norm. Equality and freedom needed to be extended to all Black Americans. Sojourner Truth's speech "Ain't I a Woman?" chronicles the seemingly endless catalogue of hardships she endured as a female slave, without any self-pity. Although a member of the supposedly weaker sex, and the mother of many children, she was still expected to work hard. As a Black woman, she was forced to work doubly hard against societal racism and prejudice against her gender. She worked as hard as a man but was not rewarded for her labor, monetarily, because she was a slave according to the letter of the law. The efforts of her labor were ignored because supposedly a woman 'couldn't work' due to the fragility of her sex: "Look at me! Look at my arm! 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...

They believed they should be viewed equally by the law, and not be penalized because of their origins, appearance, or birth. Equality was not something given by birth; however, rather it was something that had to be protected by the law, something both Douglass and Truth were painfully aware of, as their lives had been limited, rather than furthered, by the American legal and political system of justice.
Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, American Slave. 1845.

12 Mar 1007

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/07.html

Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I a Woman?" 1851. About.com. 12 Mar 2007. http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blsojourner_truth_womanspeech.htm