August 1, 2023: SiblingStudying: The Grimké Sisters

[On August2nd, this AmericanStudier’s amazing youngersister celebrates her birthday. So this week in her honor I’llAmericanStudy interesting American siblings!]

On the twosisters who exemplified the courage and power of American abolitionism.

As I’veargued before in this space, it might seem from our 21stcentury perspective as if it were relatively easy or at least didn’t take agreat deal of courage to be an abolitionist in mid-19th centuryAmerica, but that perception would be entirely wrong. WilliamLloyd Garrison being dragged through the streets of Boston is onlythe most overt of many similar examples of just how unpopular and even hatedabolitionists and abolitionism were by many Americans (from every region). Yeteven within a community defined by its courage and impressiveness, certainindividuals and voices can still stand out, can truly exemplify the kinds ofimpassioned and heroic activism that represent the best of what Americans canbe and do. And within the abolitionist community, two such individuals were the Grimkésisters, Angelina and Sarah.

Virtuallyevery detail and stage of the sisters’ lives defines their courage. Born to aprominent Charleston, South Carolina judge and his wife, part of an establishedand comfortable Southern family—and thus by definition in the period aslaveholding family—both sisters by their mid-20s had come to see theinstitution of slavery as a moral and national disgrace, and both choseself-exile (first to Philadelphia and then to many other Northern cities) fromtheir family and home. Told repeatedly that women could and should not speak inpublic, particularly not to “promiscuous” (mixed-gender) audiences, the sistersgave shared speaking engagements throughout the north nonetheless; Sarah alsowrote a series of “Letterson the Equality of the Sexes” to protest such gender biases. Notified thatshe could never return to Charleston or risk imprisonment and arrest, Angelinawrote an Appeal tothe Christian Women of the Southtomake her case in that way. When she learned that educator and abolitionistCatherine Beecher supported colonization for freed slaves and other Americanblacks, Angelina wrote Letters toCatherine Beecher, calling out the colonization idea as justanother kind of racism. And this all before they had lived in the North for tenyears!

Perhaps asingle 1838 event best sums up the sisters’ courageous activism; I’ll quote theabove-linked Gilder Lehrman Institute article on it: “Two days after their wedding,Angelina and Theodore [Weld] attended the anti-slavery convention inPhiladelphia. Feelings ran high in the city as rumors spread of whites andblacks parading arm in arm down city streets, and by the first evening of theevent, a hostile crowd had gathered outside the convention hall. Sounds ofobjects being thrown against the walls reverberated inside. But Angelina Grimkerose to speak out against slavery. ‘I have seen it! I have seen it!’ she toldher audience. ‘I know it has horrors that can never be described.’ Stones hitthe windows, but Angelina continued. For an hour more, she held the audience’srapt attention for the last public speech she would give. The next morning, anangry mob again surrounded the hall, and that evening, set fire to thebuilding, ransacked the anti-slavery offices inside, and destroyed all recordsand books that were found.” The sisters and Weld, like Garrison and many otherabolitionists, continued their efforts for many decades—but an individualmoment like this can make clear both the forces against which they strove andtheir determination to share their voices and arguments nonetheless.

Nextsiblings tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Sibling stories you’d highlight?

PPS. I’dbe remiss in not highlighting here a great recent book that offers a verydifferent take on the Grimké family, Kerri Greenridge’s TheGrimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (2022).