"I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man." – Sojourner Truth, Akron (1851), as reported by Marius Robinson
FIELD NOTES – Dr. Eleanor Hartley LOCATION: The Gate of Justice; the Hall of Declarations SUBJECT: The canon question Christine's city admitted the virtuous. She was writing against a book that called women wicked, and she answered it with a catalogue of women who were not: queens who ruled well, wives who were loyal, saints who were steadfast, scholars, prophetesses, warriors in good causes. At the end Justice brought in the Queen of Heaven to rule them all. It was a magnificent answer, and it was an answer to the accuser's question, on the accuser's terms. The Gate today admits any woman who is truly forgotten and can be named. That rule was never voted on. It happened, the residents say, the first time someone stood under the arch and named a woman Christine would not have chosen, and the Gate accepted her, and Christine did not object. Since then the city has taken in poisoners and tyrants as well as saints; women who held other women down; women who were simply ordinary. The wal...
From the lore of Cité des Dames.