Frances Harper And Sojourner Truth

Both Frances E.W. Harper and Sojourner Truth’s struggle for women’s rights was greatly affected by the amount of education they received. The amount of respect given to them by audiences and how they presented their speeches were two of their main obstacles throughout their journey. Frances E.W. Harper was given a formal education from an early age, she became one of the most well-known African American female poets of her time as well as an avid speaker on slavery and women’s rights. Sojourner Truth similar to Harper was an advocate for women’s rights and slavery, but she had no education. Frances Ellen Watkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825. She was orphaned at the age of three and went to live with her aunt and uncle, her uncle was a shoemaker, preacher and teacher. Watkins learned the “female” trades like sewing and domestic responsibilities, as well as a formal education at the school her uncle founded. She began writing poetry and published her first collection of poems in 1845, called Forrest Leaves. She also travelled with the antislavery lecture circuit. Watkins married Fenton Harper, she gave up travelling with the lecture circuit to raise their daughter, Mary. When her …show more content…
There is no completely accurate original version of the speech; however, many versions of the speech have been written. Frances Dana Barker Gage wrote her version of the speech very differently, she gave Truth the dialect of a southern slave, but Truth was born and raised in New York and only spoke Dutch until she was nine. Therefore, she most likely would not have spoken with the dialect of a southern slave. Some reports claim that the audience, which consisted mostly of privileged white women, did not want Truth to speck; however, other reports say that she was welcomed happily. No matter how they welcomed her Truth left the audience in

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