LAD #17

• In this famous speech, Truth is discussing the different perceptions in regards to white and black women. She points out that white women are treated with respect and courtesy from men (helped into carriages, lifted over ditches). Meanwhile, black women receive nothing of this sort- Truth speaks of how she labors tirelessly to raise a family, essentially working as hard as any man does. Hence the repeating line, "Ain't I a woman?" She is saying that she, as a black women, deserves the same courtesy that white women do. She is asking for fair share for the black women. To close her speech, she references Eve from the Bible, saying that if the first woman God created was powerful enough to turn the world upside down (create sin), then the women of today are powerful enough to turn it back right side up.