Sojourner Truth 2

Sojourner Truth lived at a time when the society's dominant values dictated that African-Americans were, by definition, inferior: morally, physically, and intellectually. Some justified human slavery on these grounds. "Inferiority" meant that one was, because of their color, ethnicity, or gender, less capable all around and therefore less deserving of equal rights: even basic human rights such as freedom from want and fear. Even so-called "free blacks" (African-Americans who were not slaves owned by individuals) in the north and south were deprived of their rights. One historian has said that even though the free black population in the United States lived in a situation superior to the slave's, they were still essentially "slaves to their communities" and the subjects of racial oppression. They could not vote, or own property, or work without interference. So in Truth's time, African-Americans, even when free, did not enjoy equality.

Similarly, women were seen as inferior to men and their rights were denied for reasons very closely related to those applied to African-Americans. By the standards of the times a "real woman" was white and, mostly likely, Protestant. Her duties were confined to the home, in raising of children and caring for her husband. The "real woman" did not work outside of the home, or exert herself in physical and intellectual activities (some opponents of women's education argued, in fact, that education would destroy the female's ability to have children and might lead to insanity). Most of all, women were supposed to remain silent on public issues: they did not have the vote and it was thought highly improper for a woman to speak out in public on any issue.

The "ideal" and the reality were always at odds, but the myth of the "real woman" was almost always oppressive to the vast majority of women in the United States. It hurt the life-chances of those who did exert themselves and worked out of necessity -- outside of the home and inside...