The Truth about Sojourner Truth?

I feel as though I have learned about Sojourner Truth through the course of my entire life, both as a nationally and locally significant figure (I grew up near her hometown in Ulster County, NY and subsequent area homes as she was sold to different slave owners; additionally, I visited the Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls in which she was featured). I do not recall reading any of her speeches though before now (the problem with the lack of primary source documents in NYS public school curricula is a discussion for another day) and it was incredible to read her words. Even as a creative writing student, I would have difficulty composing such an elegant yet forceful speech, but she does so with grace despite her illiteracy.

However, even though her points are, for the most part, powerful and assertive, I sensed a few instances in which she may have been yielding to higher powers. In the speech she delivered at the 1851 Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, she began by asking “May I say a few words?,” indicating deference toward the convention’s president and audience and a bit of hesitancy before she began. Though this gentler approach is beneficial for the reception of her ideas, a more commanding presence may have added to the power of her ideas. It is difficult to determine though because I did not hear the speech delivered and only a small bit of information can be drawn from the written account. Also, her comparison of a woman’s intellect to a pint and a man’s to a quart and her statement in 1867 that “white women are a great deal smarter, and know more than colored women, while colored women do not know scarcely anything” suggest that women, and specifically women of color, are inherently less intelligent than men, a message that seems to go against the efforts for equality of women of all races to men of all races. By saying “when we get our rights we shall not have to come to you for money,” she seems to imply that men should support women’s rights because of an incentive, rather than a deep-rooted belief that women should receive equal treatment and opportunities. In these regards, I question her motives but I probably would have acted similarly in her position, as my conviction tends to lie in my writing to a greater extent than in my speaking.

As both of the pieces by Truth in our book are speeches, I wanted to hear them spoken. So I searched on YouTube and found what some have called Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, which contains elements of the May 1851 speech found in The Essential Feminist Reader. I came upon an interesting point: the speech from our book was first published by Marius Robinson; twelve years later, France Dana Barker Gage published the “Ain’t I a Woman?” version, in which this question is uttered four times and Truth’s speech has substantial Southern influences, even though Truth was born and raised in the North and most likely did not speak with a Southern dialect. Ironically, the “Ain’t I a Woman?” version became the more well-known standard, though it most likely lies further from the truth than the Robinson version in our text. I have included a YouTube video in which Alice Walker read the “Ain’t I a Woman?” version. The questions this information raises for me are: Why did the “Ain’t I a Woman” version become more popular and well-known; what enticed people to this version? Was Truth “becoming too white and intellectual” and needed to be “grounded” or placed within a stereotype of Southern black women’s speech, in accordance with what was mistakenly believed to be her Southern roots? I do not have the answers to these questions, but find them interesting to consider. Any ideas?