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The Interrogative Refrain: Rhetorical Questions in Sojourner Truth's Akron Address
In May 1851, at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth delivered an extemporaneous speech that demonstrated the formidable argumentative force of erotesis, or the rhetorical question. Rather than seeking informational replies, Truth deployed interrogative syntax to dismantle paternalistic assertions regarding gender fragility and racial hierarchy. Clergymen in attendance had argued that female disenfranchisement was natural, citing women's supposed physical helplessness and theological inferiority. Truth confronted these rationalisations not through abstract syllogisms, but by turning lived hardship into an inescapable interrogative refrain that forced her audience to confront their own contradictions.
The central thrust of her oratory rested on the visceral interrogation of physical labour and bodily endurance. She pointed to her muscular arms, declaring that she had ploughed, planted, and gathered into barns without any man assisting her.