Sojourner Truth Rhetorical Analysis

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1. Paraphrase the speech in your words. Sojourner Truth’s infamous speech details the inequalities women and blacks faced in America during that time. In the beginning, Truth brings up a case where a man says women should be treated with utmost care and respect. She later delineates the fact that she never receives this kind of treatment from any man and is often abused and tortured. She goes on to say that she does just as much labor and takes as many beatings as a man, but still doesn’t receive the low-level status of a woman. She then makes a reference to pints and quarts which highlights the fact that she’s only asking society to let her enjoy the little rights that she is barely granted as a black woman. In the end of her speech, Truth provides a biblical reference to Eve to encourage other women in her situation that when they come together, they can get through any situation that comes their way.
2. Why does she say the men are going to be in trouble soon? Sojourner Truth says the men are going to be in trouble soon because of all the talk that’s going on between the African …show more content…

The man states that women “need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and [should] have the best place everywhere” but Truth refutes this and expresses how no one has yet to perform those same acts of kindness to her. Another situation that lead to Truth asking her question is when she describes the hardships she faced and the pain she endured as an enslaved worker. She says “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me…I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well… 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

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