The following is an excerpt from Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” given at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. Which of the following is the best answer to this question: Is the structure of Sojourner Truth’s appeal effective? That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages or over mud puddles or gives me a best place…. And ain’t I a woman? Look at me. Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could heed me… and ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get to it—and bear the lash as well and ain’t I a woman? I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery and when I cried out a mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me… and ain’t I a woman? That little man in black there say a woman can’t have as much rights as a man ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with him! If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone, together women ought to be able to turn it rightside up again.

No, because she fails to appeal to morality or logic.

No, because she makes an emotional attack on a previous speaker.

Yes, because it is clear, convincing, and engaging.

Yes, especially because she invites the audience to feel pity for her.