How Did Angelina Grimke Stand Against Slavery

1243 Words5 Pages

Picture this, the year is 1838 and the North has rising opinions about slavery injustice, and realize the public needs to voice their stand on Emancipation. The South, infuriated by the voiced opinions, decide to create mobs to voice their personal opinions on the positives of slavery. These mobs would target public Anti-Slavery movements and take a stand. As terrible as this may seem, Angelina Grimke Weld experienced this first hand. Angelina Grimke was an abolitionist who favored emancipation of slaves and women's rights. Grimke and her sister, Sarah, was born in South Carolina in the heart of a slave-holding plantation. After being raised around the cruelness of slavery, Grimke and her sister decided to take a stand against slavery. After …show more content…

Grimke was very passionate about her stand against slavery. During her speech in the Pennsylvania Hall, an angry mob, that disfavored the Anti-Slavery movement, stood outside the doors yelling and threatening physical violence. While giving her speech, Grimke points of the corrupt and demoralizing effects of slavery while maintaining courage and composure in the face of hate and violence. Grimke standing in front of Pennsylvania in hopes that she will be able to express her point of view on slavery by explaining she has, "...never seen a happy slave. I have seen him dance in his chains, it is true, but he was not happy"(Grimke 1838). Grimke believes that slaves are not property and they should be treated with the utmost respect and manhood as a white man is treated; a slave cannot possibly be happy or even content while "his manhood is destroyed" by the white man that finds him useful for only a hefty profit of goods (Grimke 1838). Furthermore, Grimke, while informing the hall of the demoralizing actions of slavery, claims that women need to have an involvement in politics. In the 1830s, women were often portrayed with the image of being in charge of family matters and household chores. Women, mostly mothers, were seen as proper members of the family and sympathetic individuals. Grimke speaks to the crowd of women with no hope in uniting the listeners in the cause or proving her message to the audience, but to be the inspiration for …show more content…

Grimke's political views on women's' standings helped females become motivated to participate more actively in politics. Women's rights was a sensitive subject for many females, and Grimke inspired the toughness of upcoming Women's rights revolutionist. Also, Grimke's views on Northern and Southern slavery inspired other abolitionists to fight harder to free slaves. Grimke was not the start of abolitionism, however, she was another voice that ultimately led to the executive orders of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Along with the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation and stabilizing a toughness in Women's rights revolutionist, Grimke's speech was the reason for the burning of the Pennsylvania Hall. The day following her influencing speech, the angry mob that was threatening physical violence outside, burned down the building in an effect to show their anger towards abolition. Grimke's Pennsylvania speech fueled a fire in American for women and slave's rights; a fire that eventually burned into the American Civil