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Ain't I a Woman?" is the name given to a speech, delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth, (1797-1883), born a slave in New York State. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known anti-slavery speaker. Her speech was delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851, and was not originally known by any title. In her speech, Truth argued that while American culture often placed white women upon a pedestal and gave them certain privileges (most notably that of not working), this attitude was not extended to black women. "Aint I a woman? A found poem from Sojourner Truth's most famous speech, adapted into poetic form by Erlene Stetson click here to see the full text of the speech, in non-poem format. That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages and 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 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? that little man in black there say a woman can't have as much rights as a man cause Christ wasn't a woman Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him! 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." There is no exact copy of this speech given at the Women's rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1852. The speech is adapted to the poetic format by Erelene Stetson from the copy found in Sojurner, God's Faithful Pilgrim by Arthur Huff Fauset, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1938). The poem and note, along with other great women's poems, can be found in Ain't I a Woman: A Book of Women's Poetry from Around The World, Illona Linthwaite.