Rhetorical Analysis – Sojourner Truth – 50 Points
Before Next Class
Read both accounts of Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” as written by Maurius Robinson (1851) and Frances Dana Gage (1863)
BOTH Robinson’s account and Gage’s account can also be read at this link:
https://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sojourner-truth/her-words/
Just be VERY CAREFUL about which account is which – VERY IMPORTANT.
Instructions:
Write about the L/E/C of each account of Truth’s words (Robinson’s Account AND Gage’s Account). Give examples of each rhetorical element.
What about Truth’s use of Christianity to support her argument? Does it enhance or distract from her argument to an 1851 audience? To a 21st century audience (are religious references still relevant?).
Consider what Dr. Painter et al. say about the two different accounts – what is lost? Gained? Maintained? How exactly? Is Truth’s authority challenged in any way? Directly or indirectly? Be specific when giving your observations.
Write 2 – 4 pages.
Additional Links for Assignment:
Dr. Tammy L. Brown
https://www.miamioh.edu/cas/academics/departments/history/about/faculty/brown/index.html
https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/scholarscommons/exhibits/show/the-women-s-suffrage-movement-/notallwomen
Tammy L. Brown for the 170th anniversary of Seneca Falls, could have been written for 2020. It’s titled “Celebrate Women’s Suffrage, but Don’t Whitewash the Movement’s Racism”:
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/celebrate-womens-suffrage-dont-whitewash-movements-racism
“In May 1851, African-American abolitionist Sojourner Truth spoke at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio. During her famous speech on the abolition of slavery and the promotion of women’s rights, Truth allegedly bared her breast and proclaimed, “Ain’t I a woman?”
It was a melodramatic act and statement, but as historian Nell Painter argues, it never happened. Instead, it was a quaint fiction crafted by convention organizer Frances Dana Gage and other white feminists who depicted Truth to white audiences as a genuine albeit primitive ally in the fight for women’s rights. Thus, the 1851 convention marked a modicum of progress, but this progress is tainted by white suffragists’ attempts to control Truth’s voice.”
Dr. Nell Painter
http://www.nellpainter.com/publications/truth_art_chied.html
“The writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, for example, in an 1863 article for The Atlantic Monthly, recounted Truth’s famous confrontation with Frederick Douglass. When Douglass told a public meeting that ending slavery might require violence, Truth rose from the audience to caution patience:”But Frederick, is God dead?”
Similarly, the feminist Frances Dana Gage recorded Truth’s challenge to a meeting of white advocates of women’s rights: “And ar’n’t I a woman?” Gage depicted the meeting as hostile to black people.
Dr. Painter began to have doubts about these accounts when she read contemporary articles about the women’s-rights meeting: None of the journalists present mentioned Truth’s question.
Since then, the historian Carleton Mabee’s biography Sojourner Truth (New York University Press, 1993) has shown that Gage fabricated the incident. His book also says that, while Truth probably did confront Douglass, her words may have been different from those in Stowe’s version.”
“She argues that in the 19th century, amid wrenching struggles to end slavery, most writers saw in Truth proof that blacks and whites could live together. Abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe emphasized her moderation, depicting her as a peaceful Christian who appreciated white efforts to end slavery; feminists such as Frances Dana Gage stressed her role as a link between the causes of black and women’s rights.”
OPTIONAL SOURCES
ALSO:
https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/the-readings
Watch video by Denice Jannah – This reading is interesting because she was born in Surinam and spent some her childhood there, but most of her life, she has lived in the Netherlands, where the language is Dutch. Jannah speaks multiple languages, including Dutch and English, like Truth did, so some of the word sounds may be very similar to the ones heard when Truth was speaking in 1851. The only caution here is that Jannah reads the 1863 version of the speech written by Gage.
Additional Links to look at:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm
https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/
https://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sojourner-truth/her-words/
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth
https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Frances_D._Gage
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-beecher-stowe
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll32/id/10571/
http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/OCLWHi1085.xml;Question Assignment=;brand=default
