Sarah Moore Grimké & Angelina Grimké Weld
Who Were They?
Sarah and Angelina Grimké were born to wealthy slaveholders in South Carolina, Sarah in 1792 and Angelina in 1805, but both later moved to Pennsylvania. The two sisters were active abolitionists and Quakers, and, as members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, became the first women to speak in front of a state legislature. They were also advocates for women's rights, and wrote a number of pamphlets advocating for abolition and suffrage, including Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States, and Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women. The people of the South were so opposed to their ideas that they burned their writings and threatened to arrest them, but the sisters continued writing and speaking in spite of the criticism. Both women have now been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
What Did They Write About?
Feminism, Transcendentalism, Politics, Slavery