sojourner truth

Sojourner Truth Part 2 Equality among all people is important. Sojourner Truth was a women’s rights activist from the United States during the time of the civil war and slavery who gave numerous speeches speaking about African American men and women’s rights. In one of her more well-known speeches she spoke about the freedom and equality of all people, men and women, black and white, no matter who you were. Truths purpose in her speech is to persuade the audience that men and women are equivalent and deserve the same rights and opportunities as the other. In Truths speech she uses a logical appeal to persuade her audience every individual is equal and all are entitled to the same respect and admiration because if not treated equally, some people are put above others, making them possibly more in control or more powerful. In her speech she says if black men get rights and black women are not given theirs, “the colored men will be masters over the women” showing that in a way, it would be like slavery all over again. Saying the word “master” had an effect on her audience because of the meaning of the word during this time period and the poor connotation of the word in general. This makes it easier to persuade her audience of the importance of equality because it’s almost common sense and the audience can better understand. Also, Truth uses an ethical appeal to convince her listeners women are equal to men by giving an example of how long she has been around, showing she is intelligent and knows what she’s talking about. Truth lived through slavery, the civil war, and the fugitive slave law of 1850. She mentioned that she was “above 80 years old” and that she has spent “40 years a slave and forty years free”. By telling this to her audience it makes her a credible speaker showing she’s been around, seen, heard, and gone through a lot herself. Being black and being a woman during her time it was obvious she was never treated fairly or with respect. But being who