Grimke Sisters Work Together to Abolish Slavery and Give Women Equality

Such denials of equal opportunity gave rise to advocates of women's rights. Women's rights activists, such as Abby K. Foster, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Angelina Grimke, were deeply disappointed that they could not have a voice in the World Anti-Slavery Conference. Like most female radicals during this time, these women

By the early 1800’s, sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimke had already made a name for themselves as anti-slavery abolitionist. Speaking in tents and at religious gatherings. They Used their Quaker faith to help instill an equal mindset. The sisters, who were educators, were also authors. Several of their publications were for the supplication of the rights of African Americans. Written in a pamphlet by Angelina entitled: “Appeal to the Christian Women of the South” she wrote:

Women did not have a voice at all nor were they able to speak on important government matters. They were restricted solely to their activities within the domestic sphere, expected to be good house wives, mothers, and care only for the home and children. Standing up firmly for women, Angelia and Sarah Grimke held distinct positions in the antislavery movement because they were the daughters of a Southern Slaveowner. The ideals about women rights began with these two women, but it did not stop with them. Despite the debate about the place of women in the abolitionist movement, abolitionism did provide women with some sympathetic male allies like Fredrick Douglass, who took them serious and publicized their causes.

Sarah and Angelina Grimké were two women that were very active in the abolition movement during the 1830’s. The Grimké sisters grew up with the wealthy class in Charleston, South Carolina, their father was the chief justice of the state supreme court. Even though they grew up with the Southern gentry the sisters were extremely independent and festered a hatred. In the 1820’s the sisters moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and joined the Quakers’ Society of Friends. During the infancy of the abolitionist movement in the 1830’s, the Grimké sisters went on speaking tours denouncing the practice of slavery. They described themselves to fellow abolitionist as white southerners in exile from slavery (pg. 281). While the abolitionist movement

There are several similarities and differences between Grimké and Truth. Starting from the younger years, Agelina E. Grimké, a white woman, was born and raised in family that owned slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. Opposite of her, Sojourner Truth, a black woman, was born a slave in Ulster County, which is in Upstate New York. While both women are different ends of the spectrum, they wanted the same for every person, this included, equal rights and freedom for every man, woman, and slave. It is said that Grimké’s work in antislavery helped her advocate women’s rights as well. “The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own” (Grimké 771). Truth, “had a visionary experience that left her convinced God wanted her to speak the truth about the evils of Americans’ sins against blacks and women” (Truth 775). Both women have given speeches to audiences of both men and women about antislavery and women’s rights.

Angelina Grimké Weld was an American women rights activist, abolitionist and a leader of the women suffrage movement. She was born in 1805 and spent most her life as an advocate for women rights in the United States. Her most notable works were realized when her article appeared in the local dairies in 1836. In 1838, she notably gave a speech to other abolitionists in Pennsylvania (Weld). The speech was an act of courage since there were protesters outside the hall who were hurling stones. Her speech was incisive towards the end of slavery and advocacy for equal rights among all irrespective of gender. She made the speech since she was against the oppression that was being subjected to women during the early 19th century.

The sisters were born in South Carolina to a wealthy slaveholding family, the sisters moved to Philadelphia in 1832.

Sarah published An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States, also published by the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1836, Angelina began to speak in front of small groups of women in New York City. This caused huge controversy as they began to speak to crowds of men and women. In 1837, the sisters toured New England which caused great controversy. Sarah’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman: Addressed to Mary Parker, President of the Boston Anti-Slavery Society, and Angelina’s Letters to Catharine Beecher, in Reply to an Essay on Slavery and Abolition, Addressed to A.E. Grimke. They were criticized for speaking out, but they said they had the right as women to speak, this established them as leaders of the women’s rights movement. In February 1838 Angelina became the first American women to address a legislative body. In May 1838, Angelina married abolitionist Theodore Weld in Philadelphia; their ceremony had sexual equality and attended by blacks and whites. Sarah lived with Angelina and Theodore for the remainder of her life. They helped write Theodore’s American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. In the 1840’s and 1850’s The Grimke sisters and Theodore started schools at Belleville and then at a community near Perth Amboy. In 1862 they all moved to Faimount near Boston. In 1870 the sisters joined a group

(Hannam 296) During the Anti-Slavery Movement, she had valuable experience in public speaking and running poilitical organizations through her work in the abolishionist movement. (298 ) in the process women were generally discouraged from taking active part in public life and expected to join women only groups in support of male organizations (ibid) While Elizabeth Cady Stanton is best known for her long contribution to the woman suffrage struggle, without her struggles these issues wouldnt have been effective in winning property rights for married women, equal guardianship of children, and liberalized divorce laws. These reforms made it possible for women to leave marriages that were abusive of the wife, the children, and the economic health of the family.

Grimké's call for women's rights isn't the first such demand we've seen this semester.  Compare her arguments to those of Abigail Adams.

In the same year, Sarah had to answer the burning questions from ministers addressing why she stepping out of the woman’s proper place. To answer the questions Sarah created a paper titled, “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women”; “Woman, in all ages and countries, has been the scoff and the jest of her lordly master. If she attempted, like him, to approve her, she was ridiculed as pedantic, and driven from the temple of science and literature by coarse attacks and vulgar sarcasm,” (Grimké and Parker 66). This paper was the beginning of Sarah’s role in women’s rights; she would not get to see women rights grow as it did because Sarah passed way in 1873. Some people say that her letter and more paved the way for more women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, to help end slavery and start the women rights movement.

On February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, a woman by the name of Susan Brownell Anthony was born to parents Daniel and Lucy (Read) Anthony. She was the second born of a strongly rooted Quaker family of eight (Hist.Bio.-1). Because they lived in a Quaker neighborhood, Susan was not heavily exposed to slavery. The family made anti-slavery talks an almost daily conversation over the dinner table. She also saw men and women on the same level (Stoddard 36). “A hard working father, who was not only a cotton manufacturer, but a Quaker Abolitionist also, prevented his children from what he called childish things such as toys, games and music. He felt that they would distract his children from reaching their peak of

Angelina Weld Grimké was born in Boston, Massachusetts February 27, 1880 to Archibald Henry Grimké and Sarah E. Stanley. As a result, Grimké was born into a rather “unusual and distinguished biracial family” (Zvonkin, para. 1). Her father was the son of a slave and her master, who also happened to be the brother of the two famous abolitionist Grimké sisters: Angelina and Sarah. Grimké’s mother, Sarah, was from a prominent, white middle class family; she left Grimké and her African American husband due to racial pressure from her white family and, as a result, Grimké was raised entirely by her father.

In “An Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States”, Angelina Grimke immediately addresses all women as her “Beloved Sisters”, white or black. She establishes her audience right away and attempts to connect them through the powerful use of the sisterhood mentality. She begins to remind all women of their important duties in the world and then questions why women are stripped of political rights and duties solely because they are women, even though they are a crucial part of society. She goes on to explain slavery as a brutish crime “by which man is robbed of his inalienable right to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the diadem of glory, and honor, with which he was crowned, and that sceptre of dominion which was placed in his hand when he was ushered upon the theater of creation.” (Grimke). Grimke uses this vivid explanation of slavery to connect the oppression of African-Americans to the oppression of women and how women cannot forget that it is their duty to help their fellow oppressed citizens, regardless of their skin color. She says that it is not only their moral duty but also their political duty to act as members of “The Great Human Family”. She then begins to specifically describe how slave women are

During the antebellum era, issues of race and equality persisted to plague social progress in the United States. Instrumental in leading the assault against women and African Americans, white slave owning male in the American antebellum South reign supreme in both the private and public spheres respectively. Although that is not to suggest that African Americans held any real power within the public sphere, instead the African Americans depicted in the movie, Twelve Years a Slave, were used as tangible property. As tangible property, the masters in the movie used their slaves to gain social perfection within the public sphere. Women, however, were purely relegated to the private sphere. Twelve Years a Slave did an exemplary job of expanding the notion of a women and slaves as intellectual and physical property within the broader construct of American antebellum society.