Historical Context
The First Wave of Feminism is a period of demands for women's rights, mainly the suffragette movements that demanded the right to vote , but also political participation and public life .
Little is said, however, that the fight for the rights of black women already existed at this time.
So today we are going to learn about the story of Sojourner Truth . She was a determined advocate for abolition and women's rights in the 19th century.
Slavery
Born a slave, she was bought and sold 4 times and subjected to hard physical labor, violent punishments and rape.
In 1827, a year before New York's law freeing enslaved people went into effect, Truth fled with her baby Sophia to a nearby abolitionist family , the Van Wageners.
First black woman to go to court against a white man and win
The family bought her freedom for twenty dollars and helped her sue the man who enslaved her five-year-old son, Peter. He had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama. She won the court case.
The Conventions and the Mission
After becoming a Christian and developing a charismatic oratory , she joins an abolitionist organization that supported women's rights and begins giving speeches.
Speech: Ain't I a Woman?
In 1851, she attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention, where she delivered her famous speech, " Ain't I a Woman?" Her speech demanded equal human rights for all women.
“I am a woman's right.
I have as much muscle as any man and I can do as much work as any man.
I have ploughed and reaped and husked and chopped and cut, and can any man do more than this?
I've heard a lot about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and I can eat as much too, if I can get it.
I am as strong as any man is now.
…”