Rhetoric: Analysis of Sojourner Truth's Speech

Autumn Bloom, Yahoo! Contributor Network

Sep 11, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

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Sojourner Truth used several elements in the way of rhetoric

throughout her speech at the 1851 women's convention in Akron,

Ohio. The audience for her speech was one that was familiar with the

difficulties of the time, and were there for the purpose of discussing

the woman's role in the community. Having an automatic insight into

the context from which Sojourner Truth was speaking was helpful to

her listeners, and gave a weight to the emotion, as well as the logic

applied in her address. Her experiences as a black woman in America

aptly provided her with the understanding and qualification to speak

on the subject at hand. Sharing more about herself and her life helped

her listeners to associate with her identity, and allowed them to

imagine themselves in her shoes. Her use of pathos in this way

provided a powerful and engaging address that has influenced many

throughout the generations (Ramage, P. 83).

In this gathering of people, a scene of men and women alike were

addressing innovative ideas about a woman's place in the community,

and among those rights were those of African American women. One

of the primary voices for this group of ladies was Sojourner Truth. At

the time, the idea of women's rights in Americawere beginning to be

addressed more publicly. For the first time in United States history,

African American women were coming forward and speaking out with

their thoughts on their rights and responsibilities as American citizens

and as human beings. It took a lot of courage and gumption for

Sojourner Truth to speak her mind to the masses about her right to be

a part of the women's movement in the United States of America, as

an African American female. Understanding the context of these

circumstances that African American women in America were

experiencing, is the first step for any reader of the 21st century to be

able to fully understand the rhetorical situation that is still today

encompassed in Sojourner Truth's speech (Truth).

Still, to fully understand the situation and perspective from which

Sojourner Truth was speaking, one would have to grasp and also

empathize with her personal identity. John D. Ramage, the author of

"Rhetoric: A User's Guide" stated that "the most obvious aspects of

our given identity include our genetic and family structure; the time,

place and circumstances of our birth; and our pasts. The readymade,

meanwhile includes those identities that we have not ourselves

constructed, that have been prefabricated by others and are on offer

through the workplace, the marketplace, and the cultural space we

occupy" (Ramage, P. 42). Certainly Sojourner Truth exhibited both a

given identity and a readymade identity, and she discussed the effects

of both within the confines of her own life and how that applied to the

rights of African American women in the United States (Truth). By

introducing her audience to her experiences through her identity,

Sojourner Truth was also effectively establishing ethos by providing

credibility for herself both within, and for the purpose of, her speech

(Ramage P. 83).

The primary purpose of the conference was to address women's

rights. The audience was primed and ready to discuss this topic, and

was eager to hear from speakers and specialists alike. However,

change does not come without hard work, and hard work very often

does not exist without sacrifice of one sort or another. Sojourner

Truth shared her story of struggle and strength in the midst of

despairing loss, blatant disrespect, backbreaking labor, and slavery.

She brings this point home to the men and the women at this

conference by exerting her feminine identity through the prase "Ain't

I a woman?" (Truth). She shared the story of how she bore children,

and loved them deeply. She sacrificed her time, her hard work, and

her own offspring simply because of her ethnicity. She shared her

motherly emotions when she said, "I have borne thirteen children, and

seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my

mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"

(Truth). This statement alone allowed the majority of the women in

attendance to identify at least on some small level the emotions she

must have felt at the loss of her own children to the life of slavery.

This new comprehension and growing appreciation for her emotions is

called pathos, and was a significant rhetorical element that was well

used in Sojourner Truth's speech that day (Ramage, P. 83).

By repeating the phrase "And ain't I a woman," Sojourner Truth

applied yet another directive of rhetoric focused on commonplaces

that helped to tie the entire speech together across the varying topics.

Ramage stated that "Most importantly, rhetoric's proverbial wisdom

consists of general statements applicable across a range of situations

and times" (Ramage, P. 12). Unquestionably, Sojourner Truth's

catchphrase asserting her womanhood assisted in tying all of the

elements of rhetoric together.

If one can assume that the male population at the conference was not

moved by her stories of motherhood and loss, one can also assume

that her appeals at logic, or logos, spoke more adequately to the men

in attendance (Ramage, P. 83). This only furthered to assert her

claims that women, even African American women, were brave and

strong and worthy of respect and rights in the United States of

America. She addressed this most primarily through her answer to the

comment that women had no place in society because Christ was

male, not female. She stated, "Where did your Christ come from?

Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had

nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong

enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women

together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up

again!" (Truth). Truly this logical and emotional argument answered

many of the audience member's questions about women's rights and

their entitlement to respect and dignity within the community.

Even though Sojourner Truth covered a wide variety of topics within

the confines of her short speech, the overall area under discussion

remained the same, namely her passion for the rights of African

American women in the United States of America. She provided a

sense of consistency and continuity to her audience, and in so doing

ensured a secure example of logos within her speech. By

incorporating both pathos and logos, Sojourner Truth was able to

present a successful and convincing use of rhetoric within her speech.

John D. Ramage stated in his book that by using both pathos and logos

in conjunction with one another, the spokeswoman or man would lend

a larger presence to their argument. In his discussion on this matter,

Ramage stated that "Presence, as the term implies, has to do with the

effects of a message on the sensibilities of its audience. In the

broadest sense, presence results from the selection of what to discuss

and what to ignore in one's argument" (Ramage, P. 83). There is no

question that Sojourner Truth's message was effectively and

adequately presented to her audience at the time, and continues to be

so even today.

Altogether combined, these individual elements, or acts, come

together to construct the "way" of rhetoric.