Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-07-11
SPEECH OF soJOURNER TRUTH.
Delivered Mt the New York Womnn's
Suffrage Convention.

more in de land dat haint got none at
all. | believe that women should have
their rights. We have had so much
good luck to have slavery partially de-
stroyed, not entirely. I want root and
branch destroyed. We will then feel
that we are free indeed that we can
fill every place that is open to all that
have got their rights. l feel that I've
got to answer for the sins done my body,
just as much as a man has ] have a
right to have just as much as a a
Laughter and applause.
Well, my children. am old enough
to be the mother Of all here. Laugh
ter. You see the colored man has got
his rights but has the colored woman?
Laughter. The colored man has got
his rights, but nobody makes Il fuss
about the colored woman's rights. Zap
plause.l Why, de colored man will be
massa ober de woman, an it will be jus
as bad as before. Laughter. Now,
while this stir is going on, | want TO
keep it ~stirrin' till it goes right-[laugh-
ter1-because, if you stop, it wall be
terrible hard work to start de engine
agin. [Laugbter.] So | appeal on
half of de woman. The white woman
knows a good deal the colored woman
don't know it-that is, those that are
lately 'm~ancipated. The colored men
will learn like the rest of the men, that
they are a kind Of masters. They will
try to be masters over the colored
woman. (Laughter.1
want the colored woman to under
stand that If she earns anything it is her
own. But if a colored wife goes out to
do a little washing-that is about as
high as black folks get-(laughter
when she comes back with a little money
the husband comes in, Where have
you been - "To work" Well, you
got paid"" eyes" "Theu let me
have it," "Bu, I want to buy so and
50 for the children" "Well, | don't
want words about it. So hand it over"
[Laughter.1 So he takes it and walks
away, nobody knows where. Then he
comes in at night. Scot anything to
eat?" "No." What's the reason"
No money" swell, you nigh, ha'
got it." That's the way it is; II woman
can't claim anything that she can call
her own. Why? She stands on the
same faoting that he docs. She caa put
her money in her pocket he can get it.
He can spend his'n and he can hold
bern. She can't get what she wants
tor her and her children. The man
claim, her money, body, and everything
for himself. Laughter and applause.
It's not right. Now's the time to
make a strong appeal for woman's
rights. How beautiful it will be when
you can see women sitting like the law
yers and judges. You see 4 poor wo-
man coming up to be tried by men. II
you are going to be tried BY men, why
can't YOU have a part in the matter and
try him too? When the poor woman
stands before the bar perhap, the man
who looks down upon her has n nose
red like II cigar. [Laughter.1 No wo-
man dares to speak in her behalf. They
ask her certain questions for their
amusement, and no m are to speak.
Wen haven't all the majesty. | want
women in their places. daughter.
They would know what to ask and
wha, to say, which the men don know
for | have been standing and listening.
and have seen the poor women so off
and the men 60 "he, he, he [Gig-
gling.1
Now | want women there TO Sit and
hear-not these pe,tifoggers. | mean
these lawyers, judges, and jurymen. IF
1t amt decent for women to be there it
amt decent for men to be here, laugh
ter, you oughtn't TO be anywhere if it
isn't decent for women to be there.
~lApplause.1 This is the trouble with
some Of the men. They are so mean
they don't a the women to know it.
Let nobody be ashamed to get to the
oar aud give testimony. Nobody will
be daunted You know it is u sister
sits in judgment. She will not ask you
any question if it is unworthy. Zap
~plause.
have been here eighty years-that
is long enough for anybody. There is
II great deal Of work TO be done, so ]
will have TO tarry. | was forty years q
slave and forty years free, and I would
wish to live forty yearslouger if could
have equal rights for these that live. |
suppose that's tue reason l stayed-to
fight this battle for the right. AS
said a good many years ago, there are
some men who believe that if women
got their rights men would have no
rights LETT. They seem to be half scared.
[Lauyhter.] They are so frightened
hat some Of them turned to crying.
GLaughter.l
Did God ever have men to have wo.
mems righss2 [''No, No!'l Men have
all the rights says l. Are you afeard
that ONE will take your rights?
They don't van EN-. have done as
much work rs the biggest part of men.
II do as much work as a man, why
can't be paid so? Applause If l
write and make accounts as well as a
man, why can'tI have rs much money ?
They don't do more than /, why should
they get more pay? There is a Ger.
man woman, they do as much work as
II man, but be gets a dollar and she gets
u half. Because she is n woman. She
eats Is much as q nan il she can get it.
lAgplause and ~laughter.1 Nobody
must sit in judgment bow much she
must eat, or how much sense-you
cant help that. laughter l have
seen some women that bad better sense
than the men h, d. (Laughter.] 1
have talked with them. Give them a
chance. That is what the men fear
they fear that women will degrade them.
They ought to outgrow men for a while,
to bring them to their place. [Great
laughter and applause.
The cause must move. Yes, it must.
They used to say to me: "Sojourner, its
no use. You will never see de freedom
OBJ de slave" SWELL" says I, "let me
be in de body or out OBJ de body, I shall
see it." When the dark days were here
I thought l should not live to see it.
Did me and you know that it would
ONE to pass, men would be better, and
women would be better? But men fear
TO give women their rights. Even the
children are brought up to say to the
women: "0h, you are only a woman;
you don't know" They talk so to their