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.