| I insist that the first excerpt be the full account of the famous
speech by Sojourer Truth. The terms used and the use of dialect may
well offend some, and I am sorry, but this is the way it was then,
and I think we should realize that. (The Convention spoken of was
held in Salem, Ohio in the early 1850's.) From pages 114-117:
Sojourner Truth, Mrs. Stowe's "Lybian Sibyl," was present at this
Convention. Some of our younger readers may not know that Sojourner
Truth was once a slave in the State of New York, and carries to-day
as many marks of the diabolism of slavery, as ever scarred the back
of a victim in Mississippi. Though she can neither read nor write, she
is a woman of rare intelligence and common-sense on all subjects. She
is still living, at Battle Creek, Michigan, though now 110 years old.
Although the exalted character and personal appearance of this noble
woman have been often portrayed, and her brave deeds and words many
times rehearsed, yet we give the following graphic picture of Sojourner's
appearance in one of the most stormy sessions of the Convention, from
REMINISCENCES BY FRANCES D. GAGE.
SOJOURNER TRUTH.
The leaders of the movement trembled on seeing a tall, gaunt black
woman in a gray dress and white turban, surmounted by an uncouth
sun-bonnet, march deliberately into the church, walk with the air of
a queen up the aisle, and take her seat upon the pulpit steps. A buzz
of disapprobation was heard all over the house, and there fell on the
listening ear, "An abolition affair!" "Woman's rights and niggers!"
"I told you so!" "Go it, darkey!"
I chanced on that occasion to wear my first laurels in public life
as president of the meeting. At my request order was restored, and
the business of the Convention went on. Morning, afternnon, and
evening exercises came and went. Through all these sessions old
Sojourner, quiet and reticent as the "Lybian Statue," sat crouched
against the wall on the corner of the pulpit stairs, her sun-bonnet
shading her eyes, her elbows on her knees, her chin resting upon her
broad, hard palms. At intermission she was busy selling the "Life of
Sojourner Truth," a narrative of her own strange and adventurous life.
Again and again, timorous and trembling ones came to me and said, with
earnestness, "Don't let her speak, Mrs. Gage, it will ruin us. Every
newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed up with abolition and
niggers, and we shall be utterly denounced." My only answer was, "We
shall see when the time comes."
The second day of the work waxed warm. Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal,
Presbyterian, and Universalist ministers came in to hear and discuss
the resolutions presented. One claimed superior rights and privileges
for man, on the ground of "superior intellect"; another, because of the
"manhood of Christ; if God had desired the equality of woman, He would
have given some token of His will through the birth, life, and death of
the Savior." Another gave us a theological view of the "sin of our
first mother."
There were very few women in those days who dared to "speak in meeting";
and the august teachers of the people were seemingly getting the
better of us, while the boys in the galleries, and the sneerers among
the pews, were hugely enjoying the discomforture, as they supposed,
of the "strong-minded." Some of the tender-skinned friends were on
the point of losing dignity, and the atmosphere betokened a storm.
When, slowly from her seat in the corner rose Sojourner Truth, who,
till now, had scarcely lifted her head. "Don't let her speak!" gasped
half a dozen in my ear. She moved slowly and solemnly to the front,
laid her old bonnet at her feet, and turned her great speaking eyes
to me. There was a hissing sound of disapprobation above and below.
I rose and announced "Sojourner Truth," and begged the audience to
keep silence for a few moments.
The tumult subsided at once, and every eye was fixed on this almost
Amazon form, which stood nearly six feet high, head erect, and eyes
piercing the upper air like one in a dream. At her first word there
was a profound hush. She spoke, in deep tones, which, though not
loud, reached every ear in the house, and away through the throng at
the doors and windows.
"Wall, chilern, whar dar is so much racket dar must be somethin'
out o' kilter. I tink dat 'twixt de niggers of de Souf and de womin
at de Nouf, all talkin' 'bout rights, de white man will be in a fix
pretty soon. But what's all dis here talkin' 'bout?
"Dat man ober dar say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages,
and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody
eber helps me in carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best
place!" And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a
pitch like rolling thunder, she asked, "And a'n't I a woman? Look
at me! Look at my arm! (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder,
showing her tremendous muscular power). I have ploughed, and planted,
and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a'n't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man -- when I could get it --
and bear de lash as well! And a'n't I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, and when I cried
out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a'n't I a woman?
"Den dey talks 'bout dis ting in de head; what dis dey call it?"
("Intellect," whispered some one near.) "Dat's it, honey. What's dat
got to do wid womin's rights or nigger's rights? If my cup won't hold
but a pint, and yourn holds a quart, wouldn't ye be mean not to let me
have my little half-measure full?" And she pointed her significant
figure, and sent a keen glance at the minister who had made the
argument. The cheering was long and loud.
"Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much
rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Whar did your Christ
come from?" Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crown, as did
those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms
and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated,
"Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing
to do wid Him." Oh, what a rebuke that was to that little man.
Turning again to another objector, she took up the defence of Mother
Eve. I can not follow her thruogh it all. It was pointed, and witty,
and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence deafening applause; and
she ended by asserting: "If de fust woman God ever made was strong
enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder
(and she glanced her eye over the platform) ought to be able to turn
it back, and get it right side up again! And now dey is asking to do
it, de men better let 'em." Long-continued cheering greeted this.
"'Bleeged to ye for hearin' on me, and now ole Sojourner han't got
nothin' more to say."
Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner, leaving more than
one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with gratitude. She
had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us safely over the
slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in our favor. I have never
in my life seen anything like the magical influence that subdued the
mobbish spirit of the day, and turned the sneers and jeers of an
excited crowd into notes of respect and admiration. Hundreds rushed
up to shake hands with her, and congratulate the glorious old mother,
and bid her God-speed on her mission of "testifyin' agin concerning
the wickedness of this 'ere people."
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re .0 Ann
I don't know about modern reprint editions, but the MIT Hayden Library
has all the volumes of 'History of Woman Suffrage.' I consulted these
as a part of my research regarding the summer soapbox note 194.
Regarding the extent of male influence/participation in 19th and 20th
century Suffrage/Women's rights movements, a standard reference work is
feminist Sylvia Strauss' 'Traitors to the Masculine Cause.' (1982)
Strauss' work was pivitol regarding information on Holyoake and Ellis
which follows.
On Suffrage:
The Suffrage movement was started by a man. George Holyoake. Attendant
movements were oft-times male driven.
George Jacob Holyoake, who worked with Robert Owen, claimed parentage
in his memoirs, Sixty Years of an Agitators Life' (1893).
He said that as late as 1840, there was no sign of a woman's movement -
despite a number of social injustices (ie in US/England, married women
had few rights; couldn't sue, sign contracts, make wills, initiate
divorce, own property outright, husband could collect her work income).
Holyoake was amazed that women, aware of these things, hadn't got up
and organized against the various injustices (ie form a political
movement).
He queried, "Why have they not formed a society for their own
protection"? Rhetorical questions: "If they want political rights why
do they not themselves ask for them? Where are the women's political
unions, self-originated and self-sustained"?
Holyoake encouraged women to start their own journals, with a female
staff. (1) He challenged women "to take their affairs into their own
hands ... to draw up a list of their legal disabilities and then to
take the constitutional means of redress by forming societies and
organizing public meetings. (2)
Holyoake's journal 'The Free Press' kept up continual pressure over the
years on these issues.
In 1867, The Reform Bill passed in England, enabling 1 million urban
males (working class) to vote. John Stuart Mills motion for female
suffrage was defeated 194 to 73.
Mills speech (5/20/1867) countered the arguements of Suffrage critics
points, among them (to the arguement that the majority of women do not
want suffrage):
"If this be so it only proves that nearly all women are still under
this deadening influence [their age-old conditioning], that the opiate
still benumbs their mind and conscience. How do we know how many more
thousands there are who have not asked for what they do not hope to
get, either for fear of being ill thought of by men or by other women?
... At all events, those who do not care for the suffrage will not use
it."
Susan B. Anthony on Female Resistance:
"They are more conservative even than men, because of the narrowness
and isolation of their lives ... and, stronger than all, perhaps, their
religious tendencies ... in all the generations [Everybody has]
combined to retard the development of women, with the inevitable result
that those of every class are narrower, more bigoted and less
progressive than the men of that class." (3)
"...The pioneers in the professions found their most trying opposition
from other women... Married women almost universally were opposed to
laws which would give them control of their property.. (4)
"In the indifference, the inertia, the apathy of women lies the
greatest obstacle to their enfranchisement." (5)
Strauss mentions feminist sexologist Havelock Ellis, where I came
across a devastating find:
Strauss said Ellis was finding that public opinion, which was turning
against the militant suffragettes of the early 20th century, was
re-enforcing his views on women's role. Continual evidence showed that
the *majority of women opposed the vote - a 1911 poll of 18,000 women
showed only 5500 favored Suffrage*. Ellis felt women didn't want
suffrage, their viewing it as a denial of their femininity. He started
to embrace conservative views about roles and motherhood, in light of
the female response. (6)
The "Anti-Suffrage Essays by Mass. Women, 1916" have articles like
'Woman Suffrage a Menace to Social Reform."
Women were pretty conservative it appears, and the issue does not seem
to have been the big *cause celebre* among that era's women that many
contemporary feminists (Strauss excluded) have made it out to be.
Indeed, less than a THIRD of 18,000 women in 1911 were FOR it.
Sources:
1. In the 1820's, Lowell, Ma factory women had 'The Lowell Offering'
but no journals promoting women's causes (edited by women) were in
general circulation.
2. Strauss, Sylvia, 'Traitors to the Masculine Cause' (1982) citing
Holyoake's 'Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life,' London: T. Unwin, 1906,
p. 222-23.
3. Anthony, S.B., Harper, I.H. 'History of Woman Suffrage 4.
1883-1900.' xxii
4. Ibid, xxiii
5. Ibid, xxiv
6. Ellis, Havelock, 'The Task of Social Hygiene,' Darby, Pa: Arden
Libr., 1912, p. 81
Russ P.
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