Language

The reading from Wednesday and Friday's class made me think about the use of language. I know Joan Dayan wrote about the legal manipulations and their connection to manipulation for the better or for the worse, but it was her theory that allowed me to see a connection to Sojourner Truth. When Gage wrote about the speech given by Sojourner Truth, she wrote in a way that let the reader feel the "natural human" that Dayan writes about.
Truth spoke about her views on anti-slavery. She was a victim of being a "natural human" and not a "civil person" unless committing a crime because she was a slave. The form of language that Gage used as she wrote Truth's speech emphasized the civil disabilities vs. the civil human rights that Truth faced a person. Truth was disabled because of her position in society as a slave and never received civil human rights, unless she was to commit a crime. The speech was Truth's way of showing why slaves should not be victims of legal manipulation. The way Gage wrote Truth's speech, visually showed a difference between white and black language, but the speech also showed that the meaning behind Truth's words are as powerful as any other white person's words.
What I learned from the reading this week is that in every way each African American other is perceived or wanted to be perceived, was in a way that proves to current readers, that the slaves had no right to be treated differently. Truth is a specific example that shows one of the many faces of slavery. After Dayan's reading, I realized that slaves should have been treated as a natural human and a civil person, and not one or the other because a slave has committed a crime.