Sojourner Truth
I am reading a book right now that is interesting. It is "Wicca's Charm", by Catherine Edwards Sanders, a Christian perspective on why Wicca and neo-pagan religions are so popular, and she does a really good job at explaining it, without accusing people of being Satan worshipers. Among all the good stuff she is writing, I found this and thought it was great:
“A biographer of Sojourner Truth states that in 1851 she attended a women’s-rights convention in Akron, Ohio. She sat at the back and listened to several men make the case against women’s rights. One man quoted a newspaper article that suggested “a woman’s place is at home taking care of children.”
This comment surprised Sojourner because no one had ever given her the opportunity to stay at home and take care of her children.
Her biographer wrote: “All morning she’d listened to preachers – men who ought to know better – use the bible to support their own dead-end purposes. She was furious and ready to do battle using God’s own truth.”
After a while Sojourner spoke.
“That man over there… he says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, over mud puddles, or gets me to any best places… And ain’t I a woman?”
She continued as she turned to the men, “Look at me!” She bared her right arm and raised it in the air. The audience gasped as one voice. Her dark arm was muscular, made strong by hard work. “I have ploughed, and I have planted… And I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me… And ain’t I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children and seen them sold into slavery, and when I cried out in a mother’s grief, none heard me but Jesus. And ain’t I a woman?…
“You say Jesus was a man so that means God favors men over women. Where did your Christ come from?… Man had nothing to do with him.”
I am sure most of you might have heard that story before, we just didn't learn much about black history or women's rights here in Hick County when I was growing up. I found a good link of other Sojourner Truth information HERE.
“A biographer of Sojourner Truth states that in 1851 she attended a women’s-rights convention in Akron, Ohio. She sat at the back and listened to several men make the case against women’s rights. One man quoted a newspaper article that suggested “a woman’s place is at home taking care of children.”
This comment surprised Sojourner because no one had ever given her the opportunity to stay at home and take care of her children.
Her biographer wrote: “All morning she’d listened to preachers – men who ought to know better – use the bible to support their own dead-end purposes. She was furious and ready to do battle using God’s own truth.”
After a while Sojourner spoke.
“That man over there… he says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, over mud puddles, or gets me to any best places… And ain’t I a woman?”
She continued as she turned to the men, “Look at me!” She bared her right arm and raised it in the air. The audience gasped as one voice. Her dark arm was muscular, made strong by hard work. “I have ploughed, and I have planted… And I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me… And ain’t I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children and seen them sold into slavery, and when I cried out in a mother’s grief, none heard me but Jesus. And ain’t I a woman?…
“You say Jesus was a man so that means God favors men over women. Where did your Christ come from?… Man had nothing to do with him.”
I am sure most of you might have heard that story before, we just didn't learn much about black history or women's rights here in Hick County when I was growing up. I found a good link of other Sojourner Truth information HERE.
posted by Amethyst Rising at 12:36 PM
6 Comments:
The truth is that this, the Earth, is a feminine planet, much like Mars is masculine.
That's not to say that the concept of "feminism" is dominant, indeed feminism is simply another form of unbalanced control. It's just to say that there is and always has been an equal balance in the business of the Earth, with the gentleness and finesse that only feminine polarity can bring about.
Human beings, having free will and choice, can choose to either be a part of the Earth's business, or be apart from it. In recent centuries, I think that a lot of humankind has chosen to be apart from it (i.e: not thinking that they are a part of the functions of the Earth for whatever reason).
This brings about an unbalance in humankind, a masculine dominance, that unfortunately creates a harsh control over what humans can have. The Earth's business has been damaged by this, as has humankind, and women especially have suffered over the centuries because of the power that the idea of Man has controlled, including the Bible's "original sin", birth as being disgusting or sinful, the concept that taking care of the home and children is a demeaning and demoralizing thing, and other such ideas that are as false as they are idolic, and therefore damaging to spirit.
If we just try to be one with the Earth's business, or align ourselves with the "hum" of the Earth, I think that we will see that women are the true miracle workers in this world, and the balance could easily be restored if we just listened to them.
Very well put.
I hate to see the women who, in the pursuit of "equality", turn their backs on the basic feminine gifts of nurturing, healing, negotiation, and natural wisdom. "Equal" doesn't mean "same"...
I also hate that a lot of men, especially men in powerful positions, make light of the need for those talents in the modern world...
Hm, I think I have a different definition of feminism than many people. I mostly want equal pay and equal rights to work, vote, live . . . and to not be harassed just because I'm a woman . . . but I love this post; I had heard that story YEARS ago in college and it was nice to read it again. Hope all is well!
I remember Sojourner's rant from a poster in my English class in high school. The resident Bible Club tried to get it taken down because it made a negative comment about Christianity that they claimed wasn't "factually correct." (The part where she talks about her children being sold off.) The teacher refused, and the poster was just stolen. So he just bought another one! Cheers!
More like a negative comment about some Christian's behavior, which the religion as a whole likes to sweep under the rug... These anti-women attitudes are still rampant in Christianity! I realize now that running away from Christianity because I don't think that these attitudes are what the bible protrays is not the answer... Remaining in the church and working to get the truth out is more effective...
I agree, Am. Everything is perfect, until humans touch it, and that includes ideas.
Perhaps it would be better if we never lived at all so that pain wouldn't exist, but then why are we here? Maybe there is an underlying perfection in our mistakes, and the oppressions over time, so that we might learn from them? How can we find out, I wonder?
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