America’s suffrage leaders were women who recognized that the right to vote is essential to any meaningful form of citizenship. The 19th Amendment was ratified August 18, 1920.
Sojourner Truth was born a slave in the state of New York in 1797. She had the confidence and determination to gain her freedom and overcome hardship to become a leading suffragist.
She is best-remembered for her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, which she delivered at a suffragist convention in 1851 in Akron, Ohio.
Although the version of the speech that has come down to us was embellished, it remains one of the most intriguing entries in the history of American rhetoric. It has inspired debate and been performed countless times.
She died in her house in Battle Creek, Michigan on November 26, 1883, at the age of around 86, nearly six decades since she had walked to freedom—and contributed a distinctive voice to the movement for women’s suffrage.
