Stand: Sojourner Truth and John

¶ … Stand:

Sojourner Truth and John Brown

"Ain't I a Woman" and "John Brown's Final Speech" are both appeals for understanding from two individuals who knew they were right and refused to back down. Though one speaker was a black woman speaking to an appreciative crowd and the other was a white man speaking to the court that had condemned him to die, they both shared an understanding of humanity and individual rights that would not be accepted by the general public for over one hundred years. Both speeches are short, direct and spoken with the conviction of someone who had learned the hard way how to fight for a just cause.

In "Ain't I a Woman," Sojourner Truth points out two ironies in the treatment she has received in her life. First she marvels at the attitude of white men toward white women -- how the women must be coddled and given the best of everything. As a former slave, Sojourner was never in her life given this sort of treatment, and, as she says, "Ain't [she] a woman?" Then she points out the hard labor and suffering she has endured. Even if she didn't deserve coddling just for being a woman, surely she earned it by surviving hardships that would have destroyed many of the men in the room. And why doesn't she get the treatment that she as a woman should be entitled to? Because she's a black woman.

She then goes on to talk about the injustices women of her day faced, namely a lack of education, and points out the absurdity of the logic given by men that women are inferior because Christ wasn't a woman. She slices through this logic with a great deal of humor and insight, and it is because of this humor and insight that the crowd leapt to its feet when she was done, and why we still talk about her today. Her ability to survive the trauma in her life and view it with total honesty, deep perspective, and sharp wit earned her the respect of her own generation and those to come.

"John Brown's Final Speech" is entirely different in topic and tone, but it too addresses the injustices of society. Like Sojourner Truth, John Brown points out the great hypocrisy of white society -- if he had gone the lengths he did for the sake of rich white people, he would have been deemed a hero. But since he was fighting for the rights of the slaves, those standards did not apply.