TEXT: Truth, “I Am a Woman’s Rights” (1851)
- Short speech delivered by Truth at a Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio and transcribed by Marius Robinson for the abolitionist newspaper, Anti-Slavery Bugle
- A different version of this speech appeared in 1863 with a refrain that now has become famous: “Arn’t [or Ain’t] I A Woman?”
INTRODUCTION
Frederick Douglass, delivered this speech, sometimes called, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” or the Fifth of July speech, on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York. The speech, delivered to a local antislavery women’s group, began with a sympathetic account of the American Revolution and its great promise for freedom but then pivoted to a second half (partially excerpted below) which detailed the gross hypocrisy of American enslavement on the legacy of that freedom struggle. Many historians consider this effort to be Douglass’s finest oration, and arguably one of the most powerful American political speeches ever written.
SOURCE FORMAT: Public speech