Ain’t I a Woman – Sojourner
Truth
After Being Convicted – Susan
B. Anthony
By:
Abbey Spiezio
Tom Gray
Sean Michael
Ain’t I a Woman?
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• SPAM
• RHETORIC DEVICES
• APPEALS
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
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.
Purpose
• ¨ To gather women together for a
common cause (their rights).
• ¨ To speak up for African American
women.
Audience
• ¨
Women at the Women’s Convention
Medium
• ¨ Held at Women’s Convention in Akron,
Ohio.
Rhetoric Devices
• Argumentation
• Repetition
• Rhetorical Question
• Metaphor
• Biblical Allusion
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)
Repetition
• ¨ And Ain’t I a Woman? (2nd paragraph)
• ¨ Where did your Christ come from? (4th
paragraph)
Rhetorical Question
• ¨
• ¨
• ¨
And Ain’t I A Woman?
But what’s all this here talking about
Where did your Christ come from?
Metaphor
• ¨ “If my cup won’t hold a pint, and yours
holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to
let me have my little half measure full?” (3rd
paragraph)
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)
Appeals
• Pathos
• Ethos
• Logos
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)
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)
Logos
• ¨ “Where did your Christ come
from? From God and a woman! Man had
nothing to do with him!” (4th paragraph)
After Being Convicted
• HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• SPAM
• RHETORICAL DEVICES
• APPEALS
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
Speaker
• ¨ Susan B. Anthony in 1873.
• ¨ Anthony was born in 1820 into a strict
Quaker household.
• ¨ Began a public crusade on behalf of
temperance.
Purpose
• ¨ A persuasive and motivational speech
arguing that women have just as much a
right to vote as men do.
Audience
• ¨
New Yorkers
Medium
• ¨ Open Venue
• ¨ Stump Speech throughout 29 postal
districts in Monroe County, New York.
Rhetorical Devices
• Allusion
• Anaphora
• Repetition
• Rhetorical Question
Allusion
• ¨ “The preamble of the Federal
Constitution says,” (2nd paragraph)
Anaphora
• ¨ “To them this government” (5th
paragraph)
Repetition
• ¨ Oligarchs--member of a small
governing faction (ruling by a few). (5th
paragraph)
Rhetorical Question
• ¨
“Are women persons?” (7th paragraph)
Appeals
• Logos
• Ethos
• Pathos
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)
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)
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)
Questions
1. What is one thing that Anthony references
in her speech?
2. How many years did she give many
speeches for?
3. What does she relate this discrimination
to, and is also fighting for?
4. Do you think this speech would have been
as effective if she did not use anaphoras?
5. What does Anthony have against the
government?
6. What are two rhetoric questions used in
“Ain’t I a woman?”
7. What do you think the purpose of the
allusion is in “Ain’t I a woman?”
8. Why do you think Sojourner Truth uses
repetition in her speech?
9. 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.