Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?
In Sojourner Truth's speech entitled "Ain't I a Woman?", Truth notes that she is speaking during a time period where both blacks and women are fighting for rights. However, one group of people that many fail to recognize or fight for are black women. If white men are considered superior to everyone, with white women and black men inferior to them, black women are considered inferior to everyone. In her speech, Sojourner Truth argues that she is a women. She can do women's work and men's work, she has delivered children, she is every bit as capable to be successful as anyone. After proving her points, she informs her audience that although one man stated that woman cannot have as many rights as men because Christ was a man; Christ came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with Christ's birth, therefore women should be treated with respect equal to men. Truth hoped that her and other women fighting for women's rights would help black and white women in their ultimate quest for equality to men.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
LAD #18
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
In Frederick Douglas' Fourth of July Speech, he introduces American people to a different side of one of the United States' most celebrated and patriotic holidays. While whites rejoice on the Fourth of July and celebrate their independence, blacks can only note the hypocrisy of the entire holiday. Frederick Douglas wonders how Americans can celebrate their independence on the Fourth of July while blacks remain slaves; people toiling for unsympathetic masters who beat them, separate them from their families, do not provide them with enough food, and do not pay them. Douglas comes to the conclusion that the Fourth of July is not really a holiday of independence. On the contrary, whites became independent of Britain's hold on them, while they hypocritically did not provide equality and freedom to their slaves. Douglas states that while whites celebrate the Fourth, blacks are left to mourn their mistreatment and unfair position in American society.
In Frederick Douglas' Fourth of July Speech, he introduces American people to a different side of one of the United States' most celebrated and patriotic holidays. While whites rejoice on the Fourth of July and celebrate their independence, blacks can only note the hypocrisy of the entire holiday. Frederick Douglas wonders how Americans can celebrate their independence on the Fourth of July while blacks remain slaves; people toiling for unsympathetic masters who beat them, separate them from their families, do not provide them with enough food, and do not pay them. Douglas comes to the conclusion that the Fourth of July is not really a holiday of independence. On the contrary, whites became independent of Britain's hold on them, while they hypocritically did not provide equality and freedom to their slaves. Douglas states that while whites celebrate the Fourth, blacks are left to mourn their mistreatment and unfair position in American society.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)