Ain’t I a Woman – Sojourner Truth After Being Convicted – Susan B. Anthony

1
Aint I a Woman Sojourner TruthAfter Being
Convicted Susan B. Anthony

• By
• Abbey Spiezio
• Tom Gray
• Sean Michael

2
Aint I a Woman?

• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• SPAM
• RHETORIC DEVICES
• APPEALS

3
Historical Context

• Sojourner was born a slave and gained her freedom
  in 1827
• Speech was made in response to a male audience
  member
• The speech was not generally accepted at the
  convention she spoke it at

4
Speaker

•       Sojourner Truth in 1851.
•       Born in 1797, she had great presence as a
  result of her very low voice and tall height
  (5ft. 11).
•       She was an ex-slave turned abolitionist.
•       Truth spoke for African American rights,
  but was also an advocate for Womens rights.

5
Purpose

•       To gather women together for a common
  cause (their rights).
•       To speak up for African American women.

6
Audience

•       Women at the Womens Convention

7
Medium

•       Held at Womens Convention in Akron, Ohio.

8
Rhetoric Devices

• Argumentation
• Repetition
• Rhetorical Question
• Metaphor
• Biblical Allusion

9
Argumentation

•       That man over there says that women need
  to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
  ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.
  Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
  mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And
  ain't I a woman? (2nd paragraph)

10
Repetition

•       And Aint I a Woman? (2nd paragraph)
•       Where did your Christ come from? (4th
  paragraph)

11
Rhetorical Question

•       And Aint I A Woman?
•       But whats all this here talking about
•       Where did your Christ come from?

12
Metaphor

•       If my cup wont hold a pint, and yours
  holds a quart, wouldnt you be mean not to let me
  have my little half measure full? (3rd
  paragraph)

13
Biblical Allusions

•       Where did your Christ come from? From God
  and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
  (5th paragraph)
•       If the first woman God ever made was
  strong enough to turn the world upside down all
  alone, (6th paragraph)

14
Appeals

• Pathos
• Ethos
• Logos

15
Pathos

•       Look at me Look at my arm! I have plowed
  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
  could get to it--and bear the lash as well and
  ain't I a woman? I have born 13 children and seen
  most all sold into slavery and when I cried out a
  mother's grief none but Jesus heard me. . .and
  ain't I a woman? (2nd paragraph)
•       If the first woman God ever made was
  strong enough to turn the world upside down, all
  alone together women ought to be able to turn it
  rightside up again. (5th paragraph)

16
Ethos

•       that little man in black there say a
  woman can't have as much rights as a man cause
  Christ wasn't a woman (4th paragraph)

17
Logos

•       Where did your Christ come from? From God
  and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him!
  (4th paragraph)

18
After Being Convicted

• HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• SPAM
• RHETORICAL DEVICES
• APPEALS

19
Historical Context

• She traveled through the US and to Europe giving
  75-100 speeches a year for 45 years
• Anthony was one of seven children born in West
  Grove, Massachusetts
• She was born into a Quaker Society but left it as
  she saw hypocrisy in it
• Anthony joined with Stanton in organizing the
  first women's state temperance society in America
  after being refused admission to a previous
  convention on account of her sex in 1851

20
Speaker

•       Susan B. Anthony in 1873.
•       Anthony was born in 1820 into a strict
  Quaker household.
•       Began a public crusade on behalf of
  temperance.

21
Purpose

•       A persuasive and motivational speech
  arguing that women have just as much a right to
  vote as men do.

22
Audience

•       New Yorkers

23
Medium

•       Open Venue
•       Stump Speech throughout 29 postal
  districts in Monroe County, New York.

24
Rhetorical Devices

• Allusion
• Anaphora
• Repetition
• Rhetorical Question

25
Allusion

•       The preamble of the Federal Constitution
  says, (2nd paragraph)

26
Anaphora

•       To them this government (5th paragraph)

27
Repetition

•       Oligarchs--member of a small governing
  faction (ruling by a few). (5th paragraph)

28
Rhetorical Question

•       Are women persons? (7th paragraph)

29
Appeals

• Logos
• Ethos
• Pathos

30
Logos

•       Susan B. Anthony primarily used logos in
  her work in order to support her opinion that
  women had just as much a right to vote as men
  did.
•       It shall be my work this evening to prove
  to you that in thus voting, I not only committed
  no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my
  citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United
  States citizens by the National Constitution,
  (1st paragraph)beyond the power of any state to
  deny. (1st paragraph)
•       It was we, the people not we, the white
  male citizens nor yet we, the male citizens but
  we, the whole people, who formed the Union.(3rd
  paragraph)

31
Ethos

•       Friends and fellow citizens I stand
  before you tonight under indictment for the
  alleged crime of having voted at the last
  presidential election, without having a lawful
  right to vote. (1st paragraph)

32
Pathos

•       It is not a republic. It is an odious
  aristocracy a hateful oligarchy of sex the most
  hateful aristocracy ever established on the face
  of the globe an oligarchy of wealth, where the
  rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning,
  where the educated govern the ignorant, or even
  an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the
  African, might be endured but this oligarchy of
  sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons,
  the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the
  wife and daughters, of every household - which
  ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects,
  carries dissension, discord, and rebellion into
  every home of the nation. (5th paragraph)

33
Questions

• What is one thing that Anthony references in her
  speech?
• 2. How many years did she give many speeches for?
  
• What does she relate this discrimination to, and
  is also fighting for?

34

• Do you think this speech would have been as
  effective if she did not use anaphoras?
• What does Anthony have against the government?
• What are two rhetoric questions used in Aint I
  a woman?

35

• What do you think the purpose of the allusion is
  in Aint I a woman?
• Why do you think Sojourner Truth uses repetition
  in her speech?
• What is the main point that Sojourner is trying
  to make in her speech?
• 10. T / F Sojourner believes that woman can
  work just as hard as man.