70+ Famous Sojourner Truth Quotes About Slavery And Women’s Rights

I am glad to see that men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is stirring, I will step into the pool.

If the first woman god ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, these women together ought to be able to turn it right again.

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.

And a’n’t, I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen ’em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but jesus heard me! and a’n’t I a woman?.

If it is not a fit place for women, it is unfit for men to be there.

I must sojourn once to the ballot-box before I die. I hear the ballot-box is a beautiful glass globe, so you can see all the votesas they go in. Now, the first time I vote I’ll see if the woman’s vote looks any different from the rest–if it makes any stir or commotion. If it don’t inside, it need not outside.

Let others say what they will of the efficacy of prayer, I believe in it, and I shall pray. Thank god! yes, I shall always pray.

Then I will speak upon the ashes.

After turning it in her mind for some time, she came to the conclusion, that she had been taking part in a great drama, which was, in itself, but one great system of robbery and wrong. ‘yes,’ she said, ‘the rich rob the poor, and the poor rob one another.’ true, she had not received labor from others, and stinted their pay, as she felt had been practised against her; but she had taken their work from them, which was their only means to get money, and was the same to them in the end. For instance–a gentleman where she lived would give her a dollar to hire a poor man to clear the new-fallen snow from the steps and side-walks. She would arise early, and perform the labor herself, putting the money into her own pocket. A poor man would come along, saying she ought to have let him have the job; he was poor, and needed the pay for his family. She would harden her heart against him, and answer–’i am poor too, and I need it for mine.’ but, in her retrospection, she thought of all the misery she might have been adding to, in her selfish grasping, and it troubled her conscience sorely; and this insensibility to the claims of human brotherhood, and the wants of the destitute and wretched poor, she now saw, as she never had done before, to be unfeeling, selfish and wicked.

I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me. And aren’t I a woman?

Truth burns up error.

Where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter.

The Lord gave me ‘Sojourner,’ because I was to travel up an’ down the land, showin’ the people their sins an’ bein’ a sign unto them. Afterwards, I told the Lord I wanted another name ’cause everybody else had two names, and the Lord gave me ‘Truth,’ because I was to declare the truth to people.

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

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.

When I left the house of bondage I left everything behind. I wasn’t going to keep nothing of Egypt on me, an’ so I went to the Lord an’ asked him to give me a new name. And he gave me Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land showing the people their sins and bein’ a sign unto them. I told the Lord I wanted two names ’cause everybody else had two, and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people.

He was soon drawn into a circle of associates who did not improve either his habits or his morals.

I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.

The Spirit calls me, and I must go.

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.

I know and do what is right better than many big men who read.

The slaveholders are terrible for promising to give you this or that, or such and such a privilege, if you will do thus and so, and when the time of fulfillment comes, and one claims the promise, they, forsooth, recollect nothing of the kind; and you are, like as not, taunted with being a liar.

When I preaches, I has just one text to preach from, an’ I always preaches from this one. My text is, ‘When I found Jesus.’

Truth is powerful and it prevails.

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?

If de fust woman god ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the platform) ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! and now dey is asking to do it, de men better let ’em.

If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it?

Oh no, honey, I can’t read little things like letters. I read big things like men.

Where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon.

When I got religion, I found some work to do to benefit somebody.

Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.

Her unwavering confidence in an arm which she believed to be stronger than all others combined could have raised from her sinking spirit.

Absurdity of the claims so arrogantly set up by the masters, over beings designed by god to be as free as kings; and at the perfect stupidity of the slave, in admitting for one moment the validity of these claims.

Though it seems curious, I do not remember ever asking for anything but what I got it. And I always received it as an answer to my prayers.

And what is that religion that sanctions, even by its silence, all that is embraced in the ‘peculiar institution’? if there can be any thing more diametrically opposed to the religion of jesus, than the working of this soul-killing system – which is as truly sanctioned by the religion of america as are her minsters and churches – we wish to be shown where it can be found.

The Lord only knows how many times I let my children go hungry rather than take secretly the bread I liked not to ask for.

Many slaveholders boast of the love of their slaves. How would it freeze the blood of some of them to know what kind of love rankles in the bosoms of slaves for them! witness the attempt to poison mrs. Calhoun, and hundreds of similar cases. Most ‘surprising ‘ to every body, because committed by slaves supposed to be so grateful for their chains.

Good man! Genuine gentleman! God bless George Thompson, the great-hearted friend of my race.

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.

And ar’n’t I a woman?

Now, if you want me to get out of the world, you had better get the women votin’ soon. I shan’t go till I can do that.

If the Lord comes and burns – as you say he will – I am not going away; I am going to stay here and stand the fire, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! And Jesus will walk with me through the fire and keep me from harm.

Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause christ wan’t a woman! whar did your christ come from?” rolling thunder couldn’t have stilled that crowd, as did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with outstretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still louder, she repeated, “whar did your christ come from? from god and a woman!.

It is the mind that makes the body.

If my cup won’t hold but a pint and yourn holds a quart, wouldn’t ye be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?

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!

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.

There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.

I did not run away, I walked away by daylight….

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.

We have all been thrown down so low that nobody thought we’d ever get up again; but we have been long enough trodden now; we will come up again, and now I am here.

Let … individuals make the most of what God has given them, have their neighbors do the same, and then do all they can to serve each other. There is no use in one man, or one nation, to try to do or be everything. It is a good thing to be dependent on each other for something, it makes us civil and peaceable.

Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright; we are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom’s light; we mean to show jeff davis how the africans can fight…

I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.

Yes,’ she said, ‘the rich rob the poor, and the poor rob one another.

Because of them I can now live the dream. I am the seed of the free, and I know it. I intend to bear great fruit.

Children, who made your skin white? was it not god? who made mine black? was it not the same god? am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is black?…does not god love coloured children as well as white children? and did not the same saviour die to save the one as well as the other?.

Oh lord,’ inquired isabella, ‘what is this slavery, that it can do such dreadful things? what evil can it not do?’ well may she ask, for surely the evils it can and does do, daily and hourly, can never be summed up, till we can see them as they are recorded by him who writes no errors, and reckons without mistake.

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?

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 your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

When I left the house of bondage I left everything behind. I wanted to keep nothing of Egypt on me, and so I went to the Lord and asked him to give me a new name.

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.

God will take care of the poor trampled slave, but where will the slaveholder be when eternity begins?

We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.

Christ came from God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him.

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? look at me! look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! and ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! and ain’t I a woman? I have borne five 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?.

You may hiss as much as you please, but women will get their rights anyway.

And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! 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?

It is written that there shall be a separation, and the sheep shall be separated from the goats. The other preachers have the sheep; I have the goats. And I have a few sheep among my goats, but they are very ragged.

I am not going to die, I’m going home like a shooting star.

I can do as much work as any man … We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much. What we want is a little money. You men know that you get as much again as women when you write, or for what you do. When we get our rights, we shall not have to come to you for money, for then we shall have money enough of our own.

I have done a great deal of work, as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay…. We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring. Because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.

Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.

I am a woman’s rights. I have as much as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?

Oh God, you know I have no money, but you can make the people do for me, and you must make the people do for me.

I tell you I can’t read a book, but I can read de people.

There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored
men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will
take a great while to get it going again.

The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another.

What we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord.