Angelina Emily Grimke

Angelina Emily and Sarah Moore Grimke were abolitionists and women’s rights activist during the 19th century. Although Angelina and Sarah were thirteen years apart in age, they lived together their whole lives and were not just sisters, but best friends. They started out life as daughters of a slave owner on a South Carolina plantation. Their father was the Judge John Faucheraud Grimke in Charleston that had served in the State Legislature and the state’s highest court. Mary Smith Grimke, their mother, was also from a prominent South Carolina family. During their childhood, the Grimke’s strict Christian father was very oppressive not only to them but to the slaves on their plantation. He had strict beliefs about both the place of women in society and slaves. The girls were not allowed to pursue higher education, so they secretly taught themselves and kept occupied teaching Bible classes to slave children. Even thought the sisters grew up in this domineering family environment, they had kind, willful personalities and believed all people, no matter gender or race, were equal.

At the age of five, she witnessed the atrocity of a male slave being whipped to death. This monstrosity can be seen in the picture of a slave’s scarred back; seeing this, one can only imagine how it affected Sarah. Only three years later, the slave girl her father had assigned “constant companion,” suddenly died. Sarah was compelled to lobby for equal rights for women because of her lack of education as a young woman. She dreamed of continuing her education, but this was denied to her by her father because she was a woman. She then resorted to secretly studying her brother’s books at night. Her motivation can be seen in the letter she wrote to the Clergy urging them to join her fight for