USH - The Grimké Sisters - Church

The Grimké sisters were 19th-century American Quakers, educators, and writers. They were early advocates of abolitionism and women’s writers. Sarah Grimké was born in South Carolina on November 26, 1792 and died on December 23, 1873 at the age of 81. Her sister, Angelina Grimké was born in 1805 (also in South Carolina) and died in 1879 at the age of 74. Throughout their lives, the two sisters traveled throughout the North, sharing their stories from the first-hand experiences they had with slavery from their family’s plantation. They were among the first women to actually publicly act in social reform movements, and subsequently received abuse and ridicule for their abolitionist activity. They thus realized that women would need to create a safe place for themselves in the public arena in order to be effective reformers that were actually respected for what they believed. They thus became early activists in the women’s rights movement.

These beliefs went directly against what they had been raised to believe. Their father was a strong advocate of slavery and also strongly believed in the subordination of women. He was a wealthy planter who had hundreds of slaves and fathered at least 14 children. During his life, he also served as the chief judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Sarah, being 13 years older than her sister, was the 6th child, while Angelina was her youngest sibling. Sarah was always against slavery, having even tried to board a steam boat at the age of five in order to go to a place without slavery after she had seen a slave being whipped. Later, she even taught her personal slave how to read. Sarah wanted to become an attorney, following in her father’s footsteps. She studied constantly, but her parents forbade her to study her brother’s books or any language. After her studies ended, she became part mother and part sister to Angelina.

After her father’s death, Sarah became involved in the Quaker movement, and did convert Angelina as well. Later in their lives, after they had become more involved in the abolitionist movement, a letter from Angelina was posted in The Liberator, something that angered the Quaker community. Given the option of either recanting the statement and thus gaining standing with the Quakers or more actively opposing slavery, they chose the second option. Neither of the sisters initially sought to become feminists, but they felt role was more forced upon them. Devoutly religious, their works are predominately religious in nature with strong biblical arguments. Both were powerful writers who neatly summarized the abolitionist arguments which would eventually lead to the Civil War. Indeed, Sarah’s work was much ahead of it’s time, but it addressed many issues familiar to the modern feminist movement. (Sarah emphasized feminism over abolitionism, where Angelina remained primarily interested in the abolitionist movement).