SOURCE: “Sojourner Truth: A Practical Public Discourse,” in Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition, edited by Andrea A. Lunsford, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, pp. 227-45.

In the following essay, Lipscomb contends that Truth's speeches and oratory were part of a practical public discourse tradition that sought to inspire action on issues important to the speaker.

At a time when it was uncommon for women—and in particular black women—to speak publicly, Sojourner Truth was a major force in speaking on pressing matters of public policy. Much has been written about her as an abolitionist and as a champion of women's rights in the nineteenth century. To date, however, no research has focused on her oratory as deliberative rhetoric¹—the sort of rhetoric that many theorists place in “settings mainly civic” (Bitzer 71) and that “gives primary emphasis to communication on public problems” (Halloran 246). A former slave who...