There is speculation that this speech has been edited from its original version by
Francis Gage. Apparently, the word "
ain't" wasn't even in existence at the time of this speech.
I for one don't know if I can believe that the speech was editted, but Nell Painter explores this in her book, Doers of the World. Apparently, Gage "slangified" Sojourner Truth's speech. I haven't read the book myself, so I haven't seen Painter's explanation of why she did this, but it seems to me that it may be to make it seem more like a black woman wrote it. Another possible explanation was that this was the slang when the speech was editted, and Gage designed it to appeal to the average poorly educated black woman.
Anyhow, I personally do not have proof of these claims, but I suggest reading the book if you would like to see the proof. I learned of this speech in my women's studies class, and the thing that was most interesting was that there were people in the class who had never heard of Sojourner Truth before, and actually had to ask what race she was...
Whether the speech was editted or not is fairly irrelevant (although admittedly unfair to the author), because the message is still quite valid. Whether this was the original text, Truth's argument is artfully presented and an important piece of the time. It is important to realize that the women's movement isn't the WHITE women's movement, as some history books might make you believe. There were many black women including Sojourner Truth fighting for women's rights, the foremost being suffrage, even though they were unable to gain these rights as African Americans.