The Grimké Sisters: Providing a Voice for Female Abolitionists

Abstract

This paper explores the remarkable careers of nineteenth-century abolitionists Angelina and Sarah Grimké. Born into a slave-owning South Carolina family, the Grimké sisters became staunch abolitionists, gaining national attention through their speaking and writing. This story alone would make for compelling reading, but the paper offers more, explaining how the sisters used the public platform they gained as abolitionists to advocate for women’s rights. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, the paper shows how the Grimké’s Quaker spirituality and Bible reading shaped their abolitionist and feminist convictions. Where another paper might have been content to treat the links connecting nineteenth-century religion, slavery, and gender in the abstract, this paper explores those connections in all their rich historical particularity.