Conversational, Personal, Impassioned

No double-talk or hidden meanings here: "Ain't I a Woman?" was a simple speech from a woman who didn't mince words. Truth stood up, said her piece, and sat back down.

This is not to say she wasn't feeling it. The topic—equality and freedom—was something she felt so strongly about that she dedicated her entire life to it. She managed that fine line of staying calm while still making her points heard and felt.

She starts off with,

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? (1-3)

Those opening lines are a great example of her laid back, yet straightforward and serious tone and set the stage perfectly for her conversational tone. 

Things got personal when she started juxtaposing her own experiences with the rose-colored image of the ideal woman that society was fond of. It's kind of hard to not be a little worked up when talking about how she was forced to "work as much and eat as much as a man…and bear the lash as well!" (11) So, tell her again how she doesn't have the rights of a man when her experience is showing her just as capable.

Sojourner was obviously emotional about how the Black woman was neglected in talks of freedom and rights, but she was about as straightforward as you could get, making her points as though picking up the middle of a conversation with her audience.

The best example?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. (15-16)

She wasn't talking at the audience, so much as talking with them and inviting them to see things from her point of view.

And it worked.