Don't Mess With the Grimke's

I have often wondered what my convictions would be, how loud or confident my voice might be and what actions I would have taken had I lived in the Southern United States pre-abolition; or in any other time and place of injustice, inhumanity and hatred for that matter. I relish in the stories of those who saw through the veil of prejudice and were bold enough to speak loudly even though their voice may not be heard. The sound of these voices is what I want to impart to you here.

More specifically, I would like to introduce you to Sarah and Angelina Grimke. These sisters were 2 of 14 children raised in the heart of Dixie in Charleston, South Carolina in an elegant home on a nice plot of land and fathered by the Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Another, darker feature of this lifestyle was the frequent sight and sound of the torture and mistreatment of family and nearby slaves. “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.” She recalled often seeing a young boy whose ability to walk was impaired by the effects of whippings as well as the cries and screams of family slaves. A neighboring workhouse is where slaves were suspended by their arms being pulled along a large treadmill.

 Angelina turned to Quakers for a more loving approach to the world and quickly pledged to sacrifice all her possessions for this important cause of abolition and feeling as though she could no longer live in the midst of slavery moved to Philadelphia with her older sister, Sarah. The sisters began to seek out anti-slavery advocates and found a very few. In 1835 various riots occurred in New York and Philadelphia with those who were outraged by the stirring abolitionist movement. But the sisters found hope in an abolitionist appeal published by William Lloyd Garrison and sent a letter of encouragement to him in response. In turn, Garrison published the letter in Liberator Magazine without consent which is what initially thrust the sisters into the limelight. 

From there, they became the first women in the American Anti-Slavery Society. This society offered them the opportunity to travel on a circuit to various churches and community organizations speaking out to crowds of hostile, sympathetic and some in support. Regardless of their stance on the issue of slavery, one thing became clear very quickly about their audiences; they did not approve of women voicing an opinion on a political issue, a strictly male area. The Grimke’s found that it was necessary to first defend their right to speak as women before they could be heard. 

Angelina made history once again as the first woman to address a legislative body before the Massachusetts legislator “on behalf of the 20,000 women of Massachusetts whose names are enrolled on petitions [which] relate to the great and solemn subject of slavery.” “on behalf of the 20,000 women of Massachusetts whose names are enrolled on petitions [which] relate to the great and solemn subject of slavery.” “on behalf of the 20,000 women of Massachusetts whose names are enrolled on petitions [which] relate to the great and solemn subject of slavery.” The message was clear and very different from most abolitionists; they opposed not only slavery but discrimination as a whole.

In the sisters’ abolitionist career, the culmination of tension between the two opposing sides came the first evening of the anti-slavery event in Philadelphia. After rumors spread through the city of abolitionist parades with multiple races banded together, a hostile gathering of the angry and offended had begun to grow. On the first night of the event, the angry crowd began to protest by throwing objects and stones at the building. Rocks, bricks and other object broke through the windows but Angelina Grimke remained calm and steadfast. She pressed on in with her sure voice against discrimination “I have seen it! I have seen it!” she told her audience. “I know it has horrors that can never be described.”

That evening was their final public stand and although they stepped out of the public eye, the sisters remained an integral part of the movements of both feminism and abolition.