Historical racism, slurs in link
Evidently Sojourner Truth's best known speech was mangled by a fake transcription done by a white feminist. You can compare the real speech with the mis-transcribed one here. It inserted an accent Truth did not have and used slurs she did not use either.
Historical racism
The mis-translation was done by Frances Dana Barker Gage, who helped organize the event and was there when Truth spoke.
There's certainly nothing wrong with speaking in a dialect, but Truth was born in New York and her first language was Dutch. She didn't speak how the speech is commonly shown.
A lot of history is just unlearning what was gotten wrong on purpose.
Historical racism
The correct rendering of the speech comes from a reporter named Marius Robinson who was friends with Truth and contributed to abolitionist newspapers. He went over his transcription with Truth herself, who lent her approval. The false one was written more than a decade later.
Something I find amazing about Truth's speech is it was extemporaneous.
