Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech is an inspirational plea for equality.
I was shocked to learn the version I’d originally read was a revision penned by Frances Gage some 12 years after Truth’s speech was delivered at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. A seemingly more accurate version was published by Marius Robinson a mere month after the 1851 event.1
Several elements of Gage’s 1863 version have cast doubt on the accuracy of the whole, such as the number of Truth’s children (13 vs. 5) and the use of a Southern dialect (Truth grew up in New York speaking Dutch).2
Sojourner Truth’s speech is a well-known contribution to the abolitionist movement3 but I wonder if it’s Robinson’s rendition or Gage’s that deserves credit for that influence. In 1851, Truth speaks for equality of gender. In 1863, two years into the Civil War, Gage likely embellished the original speech to include references to black/white, North/South and to the horror of bearing the lash.
Gage’s version is by far the most widely adopted and, as Union propaganda, broadly embraced as the truth.4
Denmark Vesey is another great figure in history. Likely enslaved in the Caribbean prior to arriving on American soil, Vesey purchased his freedom here after winning a lottery at the age of ~32. He worked as a carpenter and was a leader in the Church. In the Summer of 1822 he was accused, convicted and executed for planning a major slave revolt. The controversy surrounding how the proceedings were handled, conflicting records, etc. even descriptions of the color of his skin make it nearly impossible to know the truth about that insurrection.5
Anna Williams was an enslaved woman sold to Georgia slave traders in 1815 at the age of ~23, separating her from her husband and children. She jumped from an upstairs window of the tavern were she was held, fracturing her arms and breaking her back.6 In 1828, she filed a freedom suit claiming she’d been illegally enslaved. Her attorney was Francis Scott Key (author of our National Anthem). They won the case, thereby winning freedom for Anna and her children.7
The Anna Williams film opens with “There’s something to stories. Sometimes it’s just facts. Sometimes there’s truth burning to be told in its own way.”8 Did you learn Anna’s story in your history classes?9
Frances Gage was a leading American reformer for equal rights. Frances Perkins was a worker's-rights advocate and the fourth Secretary of Labor, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet.
My name is Frances Gage Perkins Hart.
The truth burns to be told.
Let’s do this!
Ironically, not everything in the video withstands factchecking. For example, I can find no evidence the F Street Tavern in Washington, DC was owned by the Georgia slave trader George Miller.
The Wikipedia piece claims Williams’ life is taught in public middle and high school history classes. Maybe in Nebraska? http://annwilliamsfilm.com/images/teachers/anna-teaching-guide.pdf