The Library of Congress blog provides a scan of Marius Robinson’s account of her speech in the Anti-Slavery Bugle (as well as how it was reported by other papers at the time).
What I was most struck by were the ways accounts at the time spoke about the audience’s reaction to her speech:
From the line “The power and wit of this remarkable woman convulsed the audience with laughter,” it’s immediately clear how skilled she was at public speaking.
The way that The Liberator’s account above emphasizes “eat” and the article below says “all she could say was, if she had a pint of intellect, and man had a quart, what reason was there why we should not have our pint full? [Roars of laughter]” really show the way she used humor to deliver her points.
The blog also talked about the way The Home Journal account of her speech that was circulated widely altered her final line, changing the meaning entirely to something that cast white men in a “paternalistic, protective role.” (Still better than re-writing the speech in a racist dialect and adding entire sections to cater to a southern white audience, but gross nonetheless.)
It also concludes with her most famous obituary, which it says was at least partly aiming to correct misconceptions about her from Gage’s version of her speech. It reads “Sojourner Truth was no more remarkable for her longevity than for her intellect and moral worth. Her mind was uncommonly penetrating, clear, logical and original. She saw the pith of a matter instantly and reasoned upon it with great swiftness. On every subject she entertained clean-cut and independent opinions which she defended with ability and obstinacy. Although she could not read a word, her language was not only grammatically correct, but singularly perspicuous and nervous. Her enunciation and pronunciation were faultless.”
FYI: perspicuous means “plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation” and another meaning for nervous is “marked by strength of thought, feeling, or style” (both according to Merriam Webster Dictionary)
All of this is to say that I hugely appreciate the way that the posts above sent me down a research rabbit hole myself and helped me gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for Sojourner Truth’s words, social justice work, and legacy.