Sources. Sojourner Truth, address at the Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio (1851), in the transcription by Frances D. Gage (1863), via Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ain%27t_I_a_Woman%3F); Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2, the Funeral Oration of Pericles, tr. Richard Crawley (1874), Project Gutenberg #7142; both retrieved 2026-09-26. The Gage text is one transcription among several, and it was written down twelve years after the speech. The protocol, the model evaluation and the reply are SLS original.

1. The two speeches you may evaluate

Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (Gage, 1863; the whole speech)

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? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

Pericles, the Funeral Oration (Crawley, 1874; the passages the argument rests on)

“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.

“In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast thrown out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state acquired by these habits proves. For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause.

2. Assessing the reasoning: three questions before you name a fallacy

1. What is the central claim? State it in one sentence.
2. Is the evidence relevant, sufficient, and from a source in a position to know? Relevant: does it bear on this claim? Sufficient: is there enough of it? In a position to know: has the source seen what it reports?
3. Is the rhetoric doing legitimate work? An emotional appeal can make an audience care; it becomes a problem when it stands in for a missing reason.

Only after these do you decide whether a named fallacy is present. Most speeches contain none. A speech with no fallacy can still rest on weak evidence.

3. Model evaluations (SLS original; not real students’ work)

Sojourner Truth. Central claim: the reasons offered for keeping women from equal rights do not survive contact with her own life and with what the speakers themselves believe. Evidence: her own experience (“I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!”; “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery”). It is relevant, because the claim under attack is that women are too delicate for public life, and she is a counterexample. It is not sufficient to prove a general claim about all women; it does disprove the general claim she is answering, which was universal. She is also a source in a position to know what she reports. Reasoning: she uses an analogy, “If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?”, which shifts the burden onto the person denying her rights. Fallacy? None. The question “Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!” is not a personal attack; it uses the speaker’s own premise against his conclusion. Note: because this is Gage’s transcription, the wording is not certain, and an evaluation should say so.

Pericles. Central claim: Athens deserves the sacrifice, because its way of life is itself the reason to fight. Evidence: a portrait of the city’s institutions (equal justice, open careers, free private life), then “Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation.” The portrait is relevant. It is not independently checked, because the speaker is a leader of the state he praises, who has a stake in the answer, so the source is in a position to know but not disinterested. Fallacy? Possibly hasty generalization in “I doubt if the world can produce a man who … is equal to so many emergencies”: a sweeping claim with no sample offered. That is worth saying, and worth balancing: it is a boast in an oration, not an argument in a debate. Rhetoric: the emotion arrives last, after the case, so it rewards reasoning instead of replacing it.

4. Protocol (SLS original)

1. Evaluation (about 90 seconds, recorded). The central claim; your assessment of the evidence for relevance, sufficiency and source; either a named fallacy with the exact words, or a sentence explaining why the reasoning holds.
2. The closing question. It must connect the speaker’s move to a broader issue. “What did she mean by X?” is a clarification and does not qualify; “If lived experience can refute a universal claim, what would count as a fair test of the opposite claim?” does.
3. Two replies (about 100 words each). Challenge a claim with a question that advances the conversation, and name the specific defect if you think there is one.

5. Question stems

• Is the evidence about the group the claim is about?
• What would a third option be? (The ten-second test for a false dilemma.)
• Does each step have a mechanism, or has the speaker only asserted the endpoint?
• Would the speaker accept this description of their own position?

6. A model challenge and reply (SLS original)

Challenge. “Your evaluation says Pericles offers no independent evidence for the claim that Athens is greater than its reputation. I agree, but I would push on what the audience is being asked to do with it. If the claim is a boast to a grieving crowd, is it fair to test it as if it were an argument in a debate?”

Reply. “That is fair, and I would qualify my evaluation. The speech is an argument in the form of a funeral oration, and the boast is the premise of its final request: that the audience should be ready to die for Athens. A premise that carries a request that heavy should be tested, even at a funeral.”