Straight-Shooting

Truth was definitely a woman who liked to keep it simple. She didn't go off on tangents, despite the spontaneity of her speech. She just got up and told it like it was, even with uncomfortable subjects like hard labor and being whipped.

For example, she laid it out, saying:

I have ploughed 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 it—and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? 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 me! (9-13).

There's really no way to make light of horrendous stuff like that.

The audience was mostly white people who had the time and money to organize conferences and campaign for women's rights. They had no frame of reference whatsoever with the type of life Sojourner was describing, and were probably especially horrified that a woman had gone through that.

Because, after all, women were regarded as dainty little things…and Truth spoke the truth that women were tough as nails.