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Ain't I A Woman? - Soft Enamel Pin

Item details

Each Pin is 1.75” tall and 1.25"wide
Two-pin back with black rubber clutches

Materials

rubber, soft enamel

Sojourner Truth born Isabella ("Bell") Baumfree; c. 1797 – November 26, 1883, was an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. The truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

In 1851, Truth joined George Thompson, an abolitionist, and speaker, on a lecture tour through central and western New York State. In May, she attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, where she delivered her famous extemporaneous speech on women's rights, later known as "Ain't I a Woman." Her speech demanded equal human rights for all women as well as for all blacks. The convention was organized by Hannah Tracy and Frances Dana Barker Gage, who both were present when Truth spoke. Different versions of Truth's words have been recorded, with the first one published a month later in the Anti-Slavery Bugle by Rev. Marius Robinson, the newspaper owner, and editor who was in the audience. Robinson's recounting of the speech included no instance of the question "Ain't I a Woman?" Nor did any of the other newspapers reporting of her speech at the time. Twelve years later, in May 1863, Gage published another, very different, version. Truth's speech pattern had characteristics of Southern slaves, and the speech was vastly different from the one Robinson had reported. Gage's version of the speech became the historic standard version and is known as "Ain't I a Woman?" because that question was repeated four times. It is highly unlikely that Truth's own speech pattern was Southern in nature, as she was born and raised in New York, and she spoke only upper New York State low-Dutch until she was nine years old. 

Each Pin is 1.75” tall and 1.25"wide
Two-pin back with black rubber clutches

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