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It is hard for the old slave holding spirit to die. But die it must.

Sojourner Truth

I am above eighty years old … I suppose I am about the only colored woman that goes about to speak for the rights of the colored women. I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Age Myself Right Talk Woman
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Black God Himself Men Right Woman
The Spirit calls me, and I must go.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Myself One Liner Spirit
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Myself Old Responsibility Talk
I don’t read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can’t see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter!
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Ideas Myself Nation Reading See Vote
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Help Man Myself Need Place Woman
What we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Generosity God Poor
Where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Advice Racket
I am above eighty years old; it is about time for me to be going. I have been forty years a slave and forty years free and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Equality Freedom Myself Right Slave Time
This is beautiful indeed; the colored people have given this to the head of the government, and that government once sanctioned laws that would not permit its people to learn enough to enable them to read this book.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Beautiful Book Enough Government Law Learning People Reading
Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Human Humanity Poor Religion
And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen 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?
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Children Cry Grief Mom Myself Slave Woman
You have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better when it closes up again.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Better Feeling Give Up Ourselves Right Thinking Yourself
We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Eat Equality Man Woman Work
Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Darkness Determination Easy Fight Freedom Hard Life Light Sing
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
SOJOURNER TRUTH

Alone Enough God Right Strong Woman World

It is hard for the old slave holding spirit to die. But die it must.

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It is hard for the old slave holding spirit to die. But die it must.

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Popular Authors

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