Sarah and Angelina Grimké

Basic Information

On November 26, 1792, Sarah Grimké was born into an affluent family in Charleston, South Carolina (Alexander, 2018). Thirteen years later, Sarah’s sister, Angelina Grimké, was born on February 20, 1805 (Michals, 2015). Sarah and Angelina were notable activists for abolitionism and women’s rights (“Grimke Sisters,” n.d.). They maintained a close relationship throughout their lives until Sarah’s death in 1873 (Alexander, 2018). 

Background Information

The Grimké sisters were born and raised on a slave holding plantation with their 12 other siblings and parents, John Grimké and Mary Smith (Michals, 2015). John Grimké was a prominent attorney who later on became the chief judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina (Whipps, n.d.). He believed that women were inferior to men and thus, limited the education that his daughters could receive (Michals, 2015). The sisters’ parents however, hired private tutors for their daughters for lessons on painting, sewing, and music (Alexander, 2018). Despite their father’s stance on educating women, the Grimké sisters were secretly taught various subjects, to read, and to write by their brothers (Alexander, 2018). The sisters and their siblings were required to work in the fields periodically with the slaves to shell corn or pick cotton (“Grimke Sisters,” n.d.). Witnessing the horrors and effects of slavery, Sarah exclaimed, “Perhaps I am indebted partially to this for my life-long detestation of slavery, as it brought me in close contact with these unpaid toilers,” (“Grimke Sisters,” n.d.). Additionally, in defiance of laws in South Carolina prohibiting slaves from reading, Sarah read stories from the bible to slave children and taught her handmaid, who was also a slave, to read during the night until her father found out (“People & Ideas: Angelina and Sarah Grimké,” n.d.). 

The sisters, who both experienced and observed inequality and injustice based on gender and race early on in their lives, decided to convert to Quakerism (Alexander, 2018). Sarah was first introduced to Quakerism when she traveled to Philadelphia with her father in 1819, meeting many Quaker members of the region (Alexander, 2018). It was there that she learned that Quakers were against slavery and felt that it was their responsibility to ease the suffering of others in society (Alexander, 2018). Additionally, Quaker women were allowed to hold power by becoming leaders and preachers within the church (Alexander, 2018). This experience was significant to Sarah, as she felt that their ideals aligned with hers’, so much that she decided to move to Philadelphia in 1821 to join the the Quaker ministry (Whipps, n.d.). Angelina followed suit in 1829, moving to Philadelphia and joining Sarah in pursuit of Quakerism. The two then joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (Michals, 2015). 

Contributions to the First Wave

The Grimké sisters’ thrust into publicity began when Angelina wrote to William Lloyd Garrison after reading his article about the struggles of abolitionists (Whipps, n.d.). Her letter was published in Garrison’s abolitionist journal, The Liberator, without her permission (Whipps, n.d.). Angelina followed her limelight by publishing her Appeal to the Christian Women of the Southern States in 1836, where she addressed “southern women as friends and colleagues” (Whipps, n.d.). In Angelina’s appeal, she discusses the morality of slavery and persuaded Christian women to petition for the abolition of slavery, “Because moral, like natural light, is so extremely subtle in its nature as to overleap all human barriers…that in principle it is as sinful to hold a human being in bondage who has been born in Carolina, as one who has been born in Africa,” (Grimké, 1836). In the same year, the Grimké sisters moved to New York to begin working for the abolitionist cause “and were the only women to attend the 19-day intensive training during the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Convention in November” (Whipps, n.d.). Shortly after their training, the sisters began to attend female anti-slavery meetings in New York and spoke to crowds in favor of abolitionism in public (Whipps, n.d.). The sisters were also mentored by Theodore Dwight Weld, a fellow abolitionist (Whipps, n.d.), who married Angelina later on in 1838 (Michals, 2015). Angelina’s marriage with Weld prompted the Quaker religious group to dismiss them, as Weld was not a Quaker (Alexander, 2018). 

The sisters additionally played a part in organizing the New York Anti-Slavery Convention of American women, allowing them to strengthen their connections with other female abolitionist movement activists (Whipps, n.d.). Their first tour in 1837 began in the Northern cities of the US, leading to the creation of more female anti-slavery associations through its success and gathering signatures on their anti-slavery petition (Whipps, n.d.). Angelina addressed the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838, presenting their petition with 20,000 signatures from women in Massachusetts to end slavery (Wagner, 2019, p. 72). There, she spoke about the power and ability of women to band together and use their power against slavery, despite also being considered as second-rate citizens in society at the time (Wagner, 2019, p. 72). 

Despite their success as a trio, Angelina, Weld, and Sarah retired from giving speeches and moved to New Jersey, where the sisters became teachers and began living on a farm (Michals, 2015). They however continued to attend antislavery meetings and wrote abolitionist tracts, such as American Slavery As It Is 1839 (Michals, 2015). Angelina and Weld had three children and soon after, began raising their African American nephews, who were fathered by their brother Henry and a woman he enslaved named Nancy Weston (Alexander, 2018). In 1864, the trio and their children moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts (Michals, 2015), where Sarah also became the vice president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association in 1968 (Alexander, 2018). In 1870, a few years before the death of Sarah, the sisters and a group of female activists attempted to vote in a local election (Alexander, 2018).

My friends, it is a fact that the South has incorporated slavery into her religion; that is the most fearful thing in this rebellion.

~ Angelina Grimké Weld (Wagner, 2019, p. 171)

Analysis and Conclusion

The Grimké sisters were influential and original thinkers that helped lead a revolution for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights. Despite their comfortable background, the sisters did not turn a blind eye to the injustices and inequalities that they witnessed and experienced. Angelina and Sarah also published several books against slavery that gained much attention and disdain from leaders in the South; the same leaders were so offended that they burned the books and threatened to arrest the Grimké sisters if they were to set foot in South Carolina again (Alexander, 2018). Their success towards reaching and connecting with Christian and women who were in favor of slavery were in part due to their backgrounds; allowing them to connect with empathy and religion. The sister’s turned their privilege into a passion to help those who were less unfortunate for the rest of their lives. Their contributions to the revolution for abolitionism and women’s suffrage continue to be acknowledged today through their historical efforts. 

References

Alexander, K.L. (2018). Sarah Moore Grimké. Retrieved from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sarah-moore-grimke

Angelina Emily Grimké (1805-1879). (n.d.). photograph. Library of Congress. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653379/

Grimké, A. (1836). Appeal to the Christian Women of the South [3rd Edition]. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9915/pg9915-images.html

Grimke Sisters. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/grimke-sisters.htm.

Michals, D. (2015). Angelina Grimké Weld. Retrieved from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/angelina-grimke-weld.

People & Ideas: Angelina and Sarah Grimké. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/godinamerica/people/angelina-grimke.html. 

Penguin Books. (2019). Angelina Grimke’s Address to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1838. In The Women’s Suffrage Movement (pp. 72–73).

Whipps, J. (n.d.). Sarah Grimké (1792—1873) and Angelina Grimké Weld (1805—1879). Retrieved from https://www.iep.utm.edu/grimke/.

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792-1873). (n.d.). photograph. Library of Congress.  Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653378/