Ain't I a Woman
by Sojourner Truth


That man over there say
a woman needs to be helped into carriagesand lifted over ditches
and to have the best place everywhere.Nobody ever helped me into carriages
or over mud puddles
or gives me a best place. . .

And ain't I a woman?
Look at meLook at my arm!
I have plowed and plantedand gathered into barns
and no man could head me. . .
And ain't I a woman?
I could work as muchand 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 slaveryand when I cried out a mother's grief
none but Jesus heard me. . .
and ain't I a woman?
that little man in black there saya woman can't have as much rights as a man
cause Christ wasn't a womanWhere did your Christ come from?
From God and a woman!Man had nothing to do with him!
If the first woman God ever madewas strong enough to turn the world
upside down, all alonetogether women ought to be able to turn it
rightside up again.