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This essay examines how nineteenth-century depictions of orator Sojourner Truth evince rhetorics of domination that reinforce hegemonic definitions of race and gender. Three rhetorical topoi were employed to constrain and control the challenge that Truth posed to the dominant culture: descriptions of her delivery as pastoral; exaggerated physical depictions of her as grotesque; and depictions of her as the Sibyl. Critical analysis of these commentaries reveals the rhetorical strategies that are evoked to preserve dominant power in the face of demands for gender and racial equality and makes visible discursive tactics that still powerfully shape public consciousness today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]