Rhetorical Analysis Of Ain T I A Woman

Why was it so hard for women to get more rights in the 19th century? “Ain’t I A Woman?” is a speech given at a women’s convention in 1851 in Akron, Ohio, by Sojourner S. Truth. Truth was an African American and a former slave who dealt with hardships because of her race. Around the time that she gave this speech there was a national debate about whether women should have more of the rights that men have. This debate about women’s rights was more aimed towards white women; African American women’s rights really were not included. Truth made her speech critical and persuasive, engaging and emotional to challenge the audience’s reasoning behind why African American women were denied the same rights as the white women and men and to argue that

She confronted a man who said that “Women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman!’” (Truth). After making the audience think by asking the rhetorical question, “Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from?” (Truth), she then answered her own question: “ From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him” (Truth). Truth was pointing to the role of women as mothers to demand respect for their place in society and history.Then she talked about her personal experiences pointing out many events that had an impact on her, and made her stronger as a woman: “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

Rather than simply making a statement, she confronted the audience with a question that demanded to be answered. This repetition of her question also helped keep the whole purpose of the speech in the audience’s mind. She brought up examples to support her argument, and then she related them back to her central idea by repeating the question “And ain’t I a woman?” (Truth). Later in Truth’s speech she pointed out a man who explained why he believed women could not have the same rights as men, and he used Christ as his justification for it. She took his point and turns it back on him. She asked, “Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from?” (Truth). By asking this question twice the meaning changed. The first time she asks the question the audience thought of it as a joke. The audience felt like Truth was poking at the man to make him look unintelligent. But by asking the same question again, she showed the serious nature of the