Ain't I a Woman?

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. . . .

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 thirteen 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.

                    --Sojourner Truth