The Woman's Convention in Akron, Ohio was thes stage for Sojourner Truth to chastise society for its sexist and racial prejudices. She realizes the change that will come from Northern women and slaves. Seeing some women gaining ground on the basis that women "need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches", Soujourner asks a somewhat paradoxical question. No one "helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!", but isn't she a woman? By questioning logic, Soujourner reveals that men do not view her as a lady but almost a creature of a lesser race. They hold prejudices against her because she is a slave, and does not deserve the helping hand that white women receive. She even defends womanhood by explaining the power she and other women have. She has "ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns," and "borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery." When she cried out in protest "none but Jesus heard [her]!" And while some had argued that women and slaves should not have rights because they lacked intellect, she rebutted by explaining that it intelligence should not be a way to measure the amount of rights a person can have. In the face of the religious traditionalists she concludes by explaining that it was after all God and a woman that birthed Christ, as "Man had nothing to do with Him."
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