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On this day in history, May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth delivers famed 'Ain’t I a Woman' speech
Sojourner Truth, the African American abolitionist, women’s rights advocate and social activist revered to this day for her presentation on racial inequalities, delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech on this day in history, May 29, 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
The powerful performance is still used today as a call for equal treatment of women, according to many sources.
Truth’s words are recognized as one of the most abolitionist and pro-women’s rights speeches in American history, the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center notes.
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“She suggested that the women’s rights movement had marginalized African American women and stated, ‘You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold,’” the site indicates.
Truth was born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Baumfree — and subsequently changed her name to Sojourner Truth.
Sojourner Truth headshot from 1864. Truth’s speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” is recognized as one of the most abolitionist and pro-women’s rights speeches in American history, the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center notes. (Associated Press)
She would come to be considered one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the 19th century, says the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
She spent her early childhood on a New York estate owned by Col. Johannes Hardenbergh.
Like other slaves, she experienced the challenges of being sold and mistreated, says the same site.
“I did not run away, I walked away by daylight.”
In 1827, after her master did not honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York Anti-Slavery Law of 1827, she fled.
She reportedly told her master, per the same site, “I did not run away, I walked away by daylight.”
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After choosing to convert her religion, in 1843 she changed her name to Sojourner Truth, the site noted.
Truth continued her commitment to the expanding antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was involved in the women’s rights movement.
Truth continued her commitment to the emerging and expanding antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was involved in the women’s rights movement.
At the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, Truth delivered her noteworthy and famous abolitionist and women’s rights speech.
She continued to advocate for African Americans and women’s rights during and after the Civil War, says the National Park Service.
This excerpt from Truth’s famous speech has been distributed on many sites.
“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere,” she supposedly said.
“Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?”
She went on, “I have borne 13 children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”
There are two conflicting versions of Truth’s famous speech — neither of which was transcribed at the time Truth actually gave it, says History.com.
An account reported in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, the first to be published, reportedly did not actually include the namesake phrase, “Ain’t I a Woman?” the same site recounts.
There are two conflicting versions of Truth’s famous speech.
On May 2, 1863, Frances Gage, a White abolitionist, published an account of Truth’s words in the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
In this account, Gage wrote that Truth used the rhetorical question, “Ar’n’t I a Woman?” to point out the discrimination that Truth experienced as a Black woman, says History.com.
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Various details in Gage’s account, however, including that Truth said she had 13 children (she had five) — and that she spoke in dialect — have since cast doubt on its accuracy, the same site chronicled.
“There is little doubt that Truth’s speech — and many others she gave throughout her adult life — moved audiences.”
Some years later, the slogan was further distorted to “Ain’t I a Woman?” — which the same site says reflected the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent.
“Truth was, in fact, a New Yorker,” notes History.com. “Regardless, there is little doubt that Truth’s speech — and many others she gave throughout her adult life — moved audiences,” the same site says.
In the 1850s, Sojourner Truth settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, says Brittanica.com
Truth’s words continue to impact American society as a beacon of hope and equality, even though there are discussions about the actual messaging of her 1851 speech.
When the Civil War began, Truth was dedicated to recruiting soldiers for the Union Army, says the New York Historical Society Museum and Library.
“Although she was a pacifist, she believed that the war was a fair punishment from God for the crime of slavery.”
“Although she was a pacifist, she believed that the war was a fair punishment from God for the crime of slavery. She also knew the Union needed fighters to win,” reports the same source.
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In 1864, Truth went to Washington, D.C., where SHE worked for the National Freedman’s Relief Association, striving to improve the lives and prospects of free Black people, the same site indicated.
That fall, she was invited to meet President Abraham Lincoln, the site also says.
President Abraham Lincoln with General George B. McClellan at his headquarters at Antietam, October 3, 1862. In the fall of 1864, Sojourner Truth was invited to meet with President Lincoln. (Getty Images)
After the war, Truth lobbied the U.S. government to grant land to newly free Black men and women, says the New York Historical Society Museum and Library.
“She understood that Black people could never be truly free until they achieved economic prosperity, and she knew that owning land was an important first step. She also continued to travel throughout the United States, giving speeches about women’s rights, prison reform, and desegregation,” the same site recounted.
“She fought for her son’s freedom after he had been illegally sold.”
Truth was the first African American woman to win a lawsuit in the United States, says the Library of Congress. “This was when she fought for her son’s freedom after he had been illegally sold,” the source said.
Truth passed away at age 84 in Michigan — with thousands of mourners in attendance.
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In Dec. 1883, just after her death, The New York Globe published an obituary, which read, in part: “Sojourner Truth stands preeminently as the only colored woman who gained a national reputation on the lecture platform in the days before the [Civil] War,” according to the Library of Congress.
Unveiled in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall on April 28, 2009, a bronze bust of Sojourner Truth was the first sculpture honoring an African American woman in the U.S. Capitol, says the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
It was donated by the National Congress of Black Women and Congress authorized its placement in the Capitol (Public Law 109-427). President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on Dec. 6, 2006, says the same site.
“California-based sculptor Artis Lane, who designed the Rosa Parks Congressional Medal of Honor, was commissioned to create the bust. Lane depicted Truth with a smile to show Truth’s confidence and determination.”
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A look at flooding in Downtown Milwaukee by Milwaukee School of Engineering
Sewer caps were bouncing from the corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Milwaukee Street by Milwaukee School of Engineering as a storm went through downtown Milwaukee
After a month of historic rainfall in Milwaukee, the city’s Department of Public Works is introducing two measures aimed at assisting in flood prevention.
The city will transition to bagged leaf pickup in the fall and will implement a set monthly street sweeping schedule on the city’s “exception streets” that allow parking on both sides.
The new leaf bagging policy changes Milwaukee’s current leaf collection policy of asking residents to rake leaves into the street for pick-up.
Leaders from the Department of Public Works discussed the measures and fielded questions from council members at the city’s Public Works Committee meeting April 29. Many of the questions were related to concerns over flooding across the city, and what more could be done to stop it.
Several council members voiced frustrations shared by residents in their districts who have repeatedly experienced flooding that impacts their homes and workplaces.
“When we add up all of this pain and suffering, there is a major impact to the city of Milwaukee,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who represents the 14th Distrtict.
Milwaukee City Engineer Kevin Muhs said city leaders are still working out logistics for the changing protocols for leaf pick-up and street sweeping, but wanted to give residents a heads-up that the new measures will be coming.
The new leaf pick-up will start in the fall, while the change in street sweeping schedule will likely take at least a year to fully implement – and potentially as long as three years – as it will require paying for and installing new signage across 25% of the city, Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke said.
The street sweeping change will be a gradual roll-out, impacting some streets before others, Department of Public Works spokesperson Tiffany Shepherd said. Vehicles that illegally park during the monthly street sweeping on the “exception streets” will be ticketed and towed.
The announcement of the new measures come after a record-breaking April rainfall for Milwaukee. From April 1-28, Milwaukee logged 9.39 inches of rain surpassing its April record – from NOAA data available since 2000 – of 7.38 inches, set in 2013.
April storms caused about 2.7 billion gallons of sewer water to flow into local waterways and Lake Michigan – a part of Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel system that prevents backups in resident basements, Kruschke said.
The changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping aim to reduce a contributing factor to flooding, since leaf debris can clog sewer drains and catch basins.
Kruschke said that during 2025-26 leaf pick-up, the city collected 13,569 tons of leaves – about 1,500 tons more than the previous year. However, he said, DPW crews were not able to access leaves in many areas of the city where vehicles are permitted to park on both sides of the street.
He pushed back against the notion that the city isn’t doing enough for leaf clean-up and other types of flood prevention.
“Our staff has been working around the clock, 12-hour days, pretty much nonstop, basically since October,” Kruschke said.
“Mother Nature has not been our friend in April, period,” he said.
In addition to rolling out changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping, the Department of Public Works is partnering with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on projects throughout the Milwaukee area, and continues to seek opportunities to improve stormwater management, Muhs said.
“We’ve not just been sitting around. … Obviously, the Deep Tunnel is the most siginificant initial investment in managing water drain routes in the city’s history, but that type of work is continuing to happen,” Muhs said.
Kevin Shafer, MMSD executive director, said among those projects is the construction of a 30-million gallon stormwater basin at North 35th Street and West Capitol Drive that, along with two other basins completed in 2018, will slowly drain water from major storms into Lincoln Creek. Another project underway, in partnership with Milwaukee County, is carving a basin in Jackson Park to store floodwater before it moves into the Kinnickinnic River.
Each project costs $40 million to $50 million, Shaker said. MMSD began accelerating them after the city’s August 2025 record-breaking rainfall.
“We’re going to need them six, seven years from now,” he said.
Still, Shafer acknowledged that Milwaukee’s recent severe rainfall totals from April 2026 and August 2025 are more than the city’s infrastructure has been able to handle.
“We’ve got great partnershps throughout the communities, but 15 inches of rain, 7 inches of rain – there’s no system in the country that can handle that much rainfall,” he said.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.
Eight-time Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves will return to the metro Sept. 22 to headline Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. May 8 through Axs. American Express card holders have access to a presale starting at 10 a.m. May 5.
A Texas native, Musgraves spent years trying to establish herself, self-releasing several albums and competing on the long-forgotten “Nashville Star” in 2007. In 2012, she finally landed a deal with Mercury Nashville and hit the road with Lady Antebellum. Her 2013 major-label debut, “Same Trailer Different Park,” earned rave reviews and adoring fans thanks to Musgraves’ likable singles, including her breakthrough “Follow Your Arrow,” the rare country hit about tolerance.
Her second album, 2015’s “Pageant Material,” covered similar territory, but Musgraves took a bold move toward pop music with 2018’s widely acclaimed “Golden Hour.” It went on to win all four of its nominated categories at the Grammy Awards, including album of the year and best country album.
In 2021, Musgraves released “Star-Crossed,” which examined her painful divorce from fellow country singer Ruston Kelly. She opened her first arena tour at the former Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul the following year. “I Remember Everything,” her 2023 duet with Zach Bryan, entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1, making it the first country duet to do so since “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
On Friday, Musgraves will issue “Middle of Nowhere,” an album that finds her “leaning intentionally into open space and traditional western elements, and as always, earnestly examining the human experience.”
It features collaborations with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings and Gregory Alan Isakov. She has invited three Texas mariachi brothers who were recently detained and released by ICE to open for her this weekend at a series of shows in her home state.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Purdue University has received a $20 million commitment from the Ricks Family Foundation to establish the Purdue Institute for Healthcare Systems Innovation at the Indianapolis campus.
The institute in the Mitch Daniels School of Business aims to improve health care efficiency and effectiveness, the university said in a news release issued Wednesday afternoon.
Dr. Christina Ricks and her husband, David A. Ricks, the chair and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., are the primary leaders of the foundation.
James “Jim” Bullard, a dean for the Daniels School of Business, said in the release, “Considering the health care situation in the U.S. today, there is a clear need for rigorous, market-informed research that challenges conventional thinking and drives new solutions. This institute will allow Purdue to lead that work and make a lasting difference.”
As Purdue works to develop its relatively new Indianapolis campus, the university recently announced that plans for a 12-story apartment building on recently acquired canal property in Indianapolis are now on hold as the university develops its campus, Mirror Indy reported.
This story was formatted for WISHTV.com using AI-assisted tools. Our editorial team reviews and edits all content published to ensure it meets our journalistic standards for accuracy and fairness.
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