Angelina Grimké
Encyclopedia
Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (20 February 1805 – 26 October 1879) was an American political activist, abolitionist
and supporter of the women's suffrage movement.
, to John Faucheraud Grimké
, an aristocratic Episcopalian judge, planter, lawyer, politician, slaveholder, Revolutionary War veteran and distinguished member of Charleston society. In 1784 he married Mary Smith, a descendant of Landgrave Thomas Smith, another family from the Charleston elite. Together they had a total of thirteen children, of which Angelina Grimké was the youngest.
Nicknamed “Nina,” young Angelina Grimké was very close to her older sister Sarah Moore Grimké, who, at age thirteen, begged her parents to allow her to be Angelina’s godmother. They consented, and the two sisters maintained a very intimate relationship throughout their lives.
Even as a young child, Grimké was described in family letters and diaries as the most self-righteous, curious and self-assured of all her siblings. In the biography, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina, historian Gerda Lerner writes that “It never occurred to [Angelina] that she should abide by the superior judgment of her male relatives or that anyone might consider her inferior, simply for being a girl.” More so than her elder sister (and later, fellow abolitionist), Sarah, Angelina seemed to be naturally inquisitive and outspoken, a trait which often offended her rather traditional family and friends.
When the time for her confirmation in the Episcopalian Church at age thirteen, Angelina refused to recite the required pledge. Always an inquisitive and rebellious young woman, she concluded that she could not agree with the pledge, and would not participate in the confirmation ceremony. Angelina converted to the Presbyterian
faith in April 1826, aged 21.
Angelina was an active member of the Presbyterian church. A proponent of biblical study and interfaith education, she taught a Sabbath school class and also provided religious services to her family’s slaves—a practice her mother originally frowned upon, but later participated in. Grimké became a close friend of the pastor of her church, Rev. William McDowell. McDowell was a northerner who had previously been the pastor of a Presbyterian church in New Jersey. Grimké and McDowell were both very opposed to the institution of slavery on the grounds that it was a morally deficient system that violated Christian law and human rights. McDowell advocated patience and prayer over direct action against the system, which was unsatisfactory to the radical young Grimké.
In 1829, she addressed the issue at a meeting in her church and stated that all slaveholding members of her congregation openly condemn the practice. Because she was such an active member of the church community, her audience respectfully declined her proposal. This incident led to Grimké’s loss of faith in the values of the Presbyterian church. With her sister Sarah’s support, Grimké adopted the tenets of the Quaker
faith. The Quaker community was very small in Charleston, and Grimké quickly set out to reform her friends and family. However, given Grimké’s self-righteous nature, her comments about their wasteful and flashy behavior merely served to condescend and offend those around her. Grimké’s behavior even led to her official expulsion from the Presbyterian church in 1829. Afterwards, Grimké became convinced that the South was not the proper place for her or her work, and so she relocated to Philadelphia.
. During this particular period, the Grimké sisters remained relatively ignorant of certain political issues and debates – the only periodical they read regularly was The Friend, the weekly paper of the Society of Friends. The Friend provided limited information on current events and only discussed them within the context of the Quaker community. Thus, at the time Grimké was unaware (and therefore, uninfluenced by) events such as the Webster–Hayne debates and the Maysville Road veto
, as well as controversial public figures such as Frances Wright
.
Soon after she moved to Philadelphia, Grimké’s widowed sister Anna moved in with her. Grimké was struck by the lack of options for widowed women – during this period they were mostly limited to remarriage or joining the working world – and realized the importance of education for women. She decided to become a teacher, and briefly considered attending the Female Seminary in Hartford
. This institution was founded and run by Catharine Beecher
, a future public adversary. Grimké never attended the school, however, and remained in Philadelphia for the time being.
Over time, Grimké became frustrated by the Quaker community’s slow and passive response to the contemporary debate on slavery. She exposed herself to more extreme abolitionist literature, such as the periodicals The Emancipator and William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator (in which she would later be published). Sarah and the traditional Quakers disapproved of Grimké’s new-found interest in radical abolitionism, but Grimké became steadily more involved in the movement. She began to attend anti-slavery meetings and lectures, and later joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.
In the fall of 1835, mob violence erupted over the controversial abolitionist George Thompson
. William Lloyd Garrison wrote an article in The Liberator in the hopes of calming the rioting masses. Grimké had been steadily influenced by Garrison’s work, and this article inspired her to write him a personal letter on the subject. The letter stated her concerns and opinions on the issues of abolitionism and mob violence, as well as her personal admiration for Garrison and the values he symbolized. Garrison was so impressed with Grimké’s letter that he published it in the next issue of The Liberator without her consent. Garrison also praised her for her passion, linguistic style and noble ideas. The letter put Grimké in great standing among many abolitionists, but its publication offended and stirred controversy within Quaker society, who openly condemned such radical activism. Sarah Grimké even asked her sister to withdraw the letter, concerned that such publicity would alienate her from the community. Grimké, though initially embarrassed by the letter’s publication, refused, and the letter was later reprinted in the New York Evangelist, other abolitionist papers and was also included in a pamphlet with Garrison’s noteworthy Appeal to the Citizens of Boston. In 1836, Grimké wrote her famous An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (see below), which is often considered by scholars one of the best manifestations of Grimké’s sociopolitical agenda.
Her letter to Garrison and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South gave Grimké a considerable amount of national recognition as a figure in the abolitionist movement, which enabled her to participate in many anti-slavery events, even though she was female. In 1836, she and her sister Sarah attended the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society
. They were the only women at the convention. There she met Theodore Dwight Weld
, whom she would later marry (see Personal Life).
Grimké was invited to speak at the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1837, and testified February 1838, becoming the first woman in the United States to address a legislative body. In 1838, Grimké began to tour the Northeast, giving abolitionist and feminist lectures in churches. She encouraged her older sister to speak out as well, which she did, although Grimké, a natural orator, remained the main attraction of the lectures. Abolitionist Robert F. Wolcutt stated that “Angelina Grimké’s serene, commanding eloquence enchained attention, disarmed prejudice and carried her hearers with her.”
Grimké’s lectures were critical of Southern slaveholders, but she also argued that Northerners tacitly complied with the status quo by purchasing slave-made products and exploiting slaves through the commercial and economic exchanges they made with slaveowners in the South. Though the Grimké sisters were strongly supported by some male abolitionists such as Weld and Garrison, they were met with a considerable amount of opposition – both because they were female and because they were abolitionists. After the lecture tour, Grimké remained a passionately active abolitionist and suffragette, until her marriage to Weld and failing health led her to lead a more domestic lifestyle.
At the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1836, Grimké became acquainted with Theodore Dwight Weld
, a member of the New England Weld Family
, and an abolitionist leader and suffragist. Grimké was greatly impressed with Weld’s speeches and wrote in a letter to a friend that Weld was “a man raised up by God and wonderfully qualified to plead the cause of the oppressed.” In the two years before they married, Weld encouraged Grimké’s activism, arranged for many of her lectures and the publication of her writings, and also greatly influenced her abolitionist philosophy. They married 14 May 1838.
Although Weld was said to have been supportive of Grimké’s desire to remain politically active after their marriage, Grimké eventually retreated to a life of domesticity due to failing health. Sarah moved in with the couple, and the sisters remained privately active abolitionists and suffragists. They operated a boarding school at Raritan Bay Union, a utopian community based on her teachings and,the teachings of Charles Fourier, where they taught the children of other noted abolitionists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton
. They were responsible for the advanced education of the three black sons of their brother Henry W. Grimké (1801-1852). The sisters paid for Archibald Henry Grimké and Rev. Francis James Grimké to attend Harvard. Archibald became a lawyer and later an ambassador to Haiti and Francis became a Presbyterian minister.
The Appeal makes seven main arguments: First, that slavery is contrary to the Declaration of Independence; second, that slavery is contrary to the first charter of human rights bestowed upon man in the Bible; third, that the argument that slavery was prophesized gives no excuse to slaveholders for encroaching on another man’s natural rights; fourth, that slavery was never supposed to exist under patriarchal dispensation; fifth, that slavery never existed under Hebrew Biblical law; sixth, that slavery in America “reduces man to a thing” ; and lastly, that slavery is contrary to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
Grimké also states, in a reply letter to Catharine E. Beecher, what she believes to be the abolitionist’s definition of slavery: “Man cannot rightfully hold his fellow man as property. Therefore, we affirm that every slaveholder is a man-stealer… To steal a man is to rob him of himself.”She reiterates well-known principles from the Declaration of Independence
regarding the equality of man. Grimké argues that “a man is a man, and as a man he has inalienable rights, among which is the right to personal liberty… No circumstances can ever justify a man in holding his fellow man as property… The claim to him as property is an annihilation of his rights to himself, which is the foundation upon which all his other rights are built.”
The essay also reflects Grimké’s lifelong enthusiasm for universal education of women and slaves. Her Appeal emphasizes the importance of women educating their slaves or future laborers: “Should [your slaves] remain [in your employ] teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English education; they have minds and those minds, ought to be improved.”
Beecher’s essay argues against the participation of women in the abolitionist movement, on the grounds that women hold a subordinate position to men as “a beneficent and immutable Divine law.” She continues to argue that “Men are the proper persons to make appeals to the rulers whom they appoint… [females] are surely out of their place in attempting to do it themselves.”
Grimké’s responses were a defense of both abolitionist and feminist movements. The arguments made in support of abolitionism reflect many of the points that Weld made in the Lane Seminary
debates. She also is openly critical of the American Colonization Society
, and states her personal appreciation for people of color (no doubt a result of direct contact from her childhood in Charleston). In one letter, Grimké writes, “it is because I love the colored Americans that I want them to stay in this country; and in order to make it a happy home to them, I am trying to talk down, and write down, and live down this horrible prejudice.”
Grimké’s Letters are widely recognized as an early feminist argument, although only two of the letters address feminism and women’s suffrage. Letter XII reflects some of the rhetorical style of the Declaration of Independence and is remnant of Grimké’s religious values. She argues that all humans are moral beings, and should be judged as such, regardless of their sex: “Measure her rights and duties by the unerring standard of moral being… and then the truth will be self-evident, that whatever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights – I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. It is my solemn conviction, that, until this principle of equality is recognised and embodied in practice, the Church can do nothing effectual for the permanent reformation of the world.”
Grimké continues by directly responding to Beecher’s traditionalist argument on the place of women in all spheres of human activity: “I believe it is the woman’s right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed, whether in Church or State: and that the present arrangements of society, on these points, are a violation of human rights, a rank usurpation of power, a violent seizure and confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers.”
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
and supporter of the women's suffrage movement.
Family background
Grimké was born in Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, to John Faucheraud Grimké
John Faucheraud Grimké
was an American jurist who served as Associate justice and Senior Associate Justice of South Carolina's Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions from 1783 until his death. He also served in the South Carolina state legislature from 1782 until 1790...
, an aristocratic Episcopalian judge, planter, lawyer, politician, slaveholder, Revolutionary War veteran and distinguished member of Charleston society. In 1784 he married Mary Smith, a descendant of Landgrave Thomas Smith, another family from the Charleston elite. Together they had a total of thirteen children, of which Angelina Grimké was the youngest.
Early years and religious activity
Both Mary and John Grimké were strong advocates of the traditional, upper class Southern values that permeated Charleston society. Mary would not permit the girls to socialize outside of the prescribed elite social circles, and John proudly remained a slaveholder his entire life.Nicknamed “Nina,” young Angelina Grimké was very close to her older sister Sarah Moore Grimké, who, at age thirteen, begged her parents to allow her to be Angelina’s godmother. They consented, and the two sisters maintained a very intimate relationship throughout their lives.
Even as a young child, Grimké was described in family letters and diaries as the most self-righteous, curious and self-assured of all her siblings. In the biography, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina, historian Gerda Lerner writes that “It never occurred to [Angelina] that she should abide by the superior judgment of her male relatives or that anyone might consider her inferior, simply for being a girl.” More so than her elder sister (and later, fellow abolitionist), Sarah, Angelina seemed to be naturally inquisitive and outspoken, a trait which often offended her rather traditional family and friends.
When the time for her confirmation in the Episcopalian Church at age thirteen, Angelina refused to recite the required pledge. Always an inquisitive and rebellious young woman, she concluded that she could not agree with the pledge, and would not participate in the confirmation ceremony. Angelina converted to the Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
faith in April 1826, aged 21.
Angelina was an active member of the Presbyterian church. A proponent of biblical study and interfaith education, she taught a Sabbath school class and also provided religious services to her family’s slaves—a practice her mother originally frowned upon, but later participated in. Grimké became a close friend of the pastor of her church, Rev. William McDowell. McDowell was a northerner who had previously been the pastor of a Presbyterian church in New Jersey. Grimké and McDowell were both very opposed to the institution of slavery on the grounds that it was a morally deficient system that violated Christian law and human rights. McDowell advocated patience and prayer over direct action against the system, which was unsatisfactory to the radical young Grimké.
In 1829, she addressed the issue at a meeting in her church and stated that all slaveholding members of her congregation openly condemn the practice. Because she was such an active member of the church community, her audience respectfully declined her proposal. This incident led to Grimké’s loss of faith in the values of the Presbyterian church. With her sister Sarah’s support, Grimké adopted the tenets of the Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
faith. The Quaker community was very small in Charleston, and Grimké quickly set out to reform her friends and family. However, given Grimké’s self-righteous nature, her comments about their wasteful and flashy behavior merely served to condescend and offend those around her. Grimké’s behavior even led to her official expulsion from the Presbyterian church in 1829. Afterwards, Grimké became convinced that the South was not the proper place for her or her work, and so she relocated to Philadelphia.
Activism
After her self-induced exile from South Carolina in 1827, Grimké moved in with her sister Sarah and together they joined the Philadelphia chapter of the Religious Society of FriendsReligious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
. During this particular period, the Grimké sisters remained relatively ignorant of certain political issues and debates – the only periodical they read regularly was The Friend, the weekly paper of the Society of Friends. The Friend provided limited information on current events and only discussed them within the context of the Quaker community. Thus, at the time Grimké was unaware (and therefore, uninfluenced by) events such as the Webster–Hayne debates and the Maysville Road veto
Maysville Road veto
The Maysville Road veto occurred on May 27, 1830, when President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill which would allow the Federal government to purchase stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, which had been organized to construct a road linking Lexington and the...
, as well as controversial public figures such as Frances Wright
Frances Wright
Frances Wright also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer, who became a U. S. citizen in 1825...
.
Soon after she moved to Philadelphia, Grimké’s widowed sister Anna moved in with her. Grimké was struck by the lack of options for widowed women – during this period they were mostly limited to remarriage or joining the working world – and realized the importance of education for women. She decided to become a teacher, and briefly considered attending the Female Seminary in Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
. This institution was founded and run by Catharine Beecher
Catharine Beecher
Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education....
, a future public adversary. Grimké never attended the school, however, and remained in Philadelphia for the time being.
Over time, Grimké became frustrated by the Quaker community’s slow and passive response to the contemporary debate on slavery. She exposed herself to more extreme abolitionist literature, such as the periodicals The Emancipator and William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator (in which she would later be published). Sarah and the traditional Quakers disapproved of Grimké’s new-found interest in radical abolitionism, but Grimké became steadily more involved in the movement. She began to attend anti-slavery meetings and lectures, and later joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.
In the fall of 1835, mob violence erupted over the controversial abolitionist George Thompson
George Thompson (abolitionist)
George Donisthorpe Thompson was a British antislavery orator and activist who worked toward the abolition of slavery through lecture tours and legislation while serving as a Member of Parliament...
. William Lloyd Garrison wrote an article in The Liberator in the hopes of calming the rioting masses. Grimké had been steadily influenced by Garrison’s work, and this article inspired her to write him a personal letter on the subject. The letter stated her concerns and opinions on the issues of abolitionism and mob violence, as well as her personal admiration for Garrison and the values he symbolized. Garrison was so impressed with Grimké’s letter that he published it in the next issue of The Liberator without her consent. Garrison also praised her for her passion, linguistic style and noble ideas. The letter put Grimké in great standing among many abolitionists, but its publication offended and stirred controversy within Quaker society, who openly condemned such radical activism. Sarah Grimké even asked her sister to withdraw the letter, concerned that such publicity would alienate her from the community. Grimké, though initially embarrassed by the letter’s publication, refused, and the letter was later reprinted in the New York Evangelist, other abolitionist papers and was also included in a pamphlet with Garrison’s noteworthy Appeal to the Citizens of Boston. In 1836, Grimké wrote her famous An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (see below), which is often considered by scholars one of the best manifestations of Grimké’s sociopolitical agenda.
Her letter to Garrison and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South gave Grimké a considerable amount of national recognition as a figure in the abolitionist movement, which enabled her to participate in many anti-slavery events, even though she was female. In 1836, she and her sister Sarah attended the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...
. They were the only women at the convention. There she met Theodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld , was one of the leading architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years, from 1830 through 1844.Weld played a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer...
, whom she would later marry (see Personal Life).
Grimké was invited to speak at the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1837, and testified February 1838, becoming the first woman in the United States to address a legislative body. In 1838, Grimké began to tour the Northeast, giving abolitionist and feminist lectures in churches. She encouraged her older sister to speak out as well, which she did, although Grimké, a natural orator, remained the main attraction of the lectures. Abolitionist Robert F. Wolcutt stated that “Angelina Grimké’s serene, commanding eloquence enchained attention, disarmed prejudice and carried her hearers with her.”
Grimké’s lectures were critical of Southern slaveholders, but she also argued that Northerners tacitly complied with the status quo by purchasing slave-made products and exploiting slaves through the commercial and economic exchanges they made with slaveowners in the South. Though the Grimké sisters were strongly supported by some male abolitionists such as Weld and Garrison, they were met with a considerable amount of opposition – both because they were female and because they were abolitionists. After the lecture tour, Grimké remained a passionately active abolitionist and suffragette, until her marriage to Weld and failing health led her to lead a more domestic lifestyle.
Personal life
In 1831, Grimké was courted by Edward Bettle, the son of Samuel and Jane Bettle, both of whom were active members of Philadelphia Quaker society. In her diary, Grimké admitted to being attracted to Bettle, but at first focused on developing her interests in the abolitionist movement and female education. Records from Grimké’s diaries show that Bettle intended to marry Grimké, though he never actually proposed. Sarah, Grimké’s closest family member at the time of Bettle’s courtship, supported the match. However, in the summer of 1832, a large cholera epidemic broke out in Philadelphia. Grimké agreed to take in Bettle’s cousin Elizabeth Walton, who, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, was dying of the disease. Bettle, who regularly visited his cousin, contracted the disease and died from it shortly thereafter. Grimké was heartbroken and directed all of her energy into her activism.At the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1836, Grimké became acquainted with Theodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld
Theodore Dwight Weld , was one of the leading architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years, from 1830 through 1844.Weld played a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer...
, a member of the New England Weld Family
Weld family
The Weld family is an extended family of Boston Brahmins most remembered for the philanthropy of its members. The Welds have many connections to Harvard University, the Golden Age of Sail, the Far East , the history of Massachusetts, and American history in general.William Weld, former Governor of...
, and an abolitionist leader and suffragist. Grimké was greatly impressed with Weld’s speeches and wrote in a letter to a friend that Weld was “a man raised up by God and wonderfully qualified to plead the cause of the oppressed.” In the two years before they married, Weld encouraged Grimké’s activism, arranged for many of her lectures and the publication of her writings, and also greatly influenced her abolitionist philosophy. They married 14 May 1838.
Although Weld was said to have been supportive of Grimké’s desire to remain politically active after their marriage, Grimké eventually retreated to a life of domesticity due to failing health. Sarah moved in with the couple, and the sisters remained privately active abolitionists and suffragists. They operated a boarding school at Raritan Bay Union, a utopian community based on her teachings and,the teachings of Charles Fourier, where they taught the children of other noted abolitionists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
. They were responsible for the advanced education of the three black sons of their brother Henry W. Grimké (1801-1852). The sisters paid for Archibald Henry Grimké and Rev. Francis James Grimké to attend Harvard. Archibald became a lawyer and later an ambassador to Haiti and Francis became a Presbyterian minister.
Important writings
Two of Grimké’s most notable works were her Appeal to the Christian Women of the South and her series of letters to Catharine Beecher.An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836) was a unique piece written in the hopes that Southern women would not be able to resist an appeal made by one of their own. The style of the essay is very personal in nature, and uses simple language and firm assertions to convey her ideas. The essay is extraordinarily unique because it is the only written appeal made by a Southern woman to other Southern women regarding the abolition of slavery. Grimké’s Appeal was widely distributed by the American Anti-Slavery Society, and was received with great acclaim by radical abolitionists. However, it was also received with great criticism by her former Quaker community, and was publicly burned in South Carolina.The Appeal makes seven main arguments: First, that slavery is contrary to the Declaration of Independence; second, that slavery is contrary to the first charter of human rights bestowed upon man in the Bible; third, that the argument that slavery was prophesized gives no excuse to slaveholders for encroaching on another man’s natural rights; fourth, that slavery was never supposed to exist under patriarchal dispensation; fifth, that slavery never existed under Hebrew Biblical law; sixth, that slavery in America “reduces man to a thing” ; and lastly, that slavery is contrary to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
Grimké also states, in a reply letter to Catharine E. Beecher, what she believes to be the abolitionist’s definition of slavery: “Man cannot rightfully hold his fellow man as property. Therefore, we affirm that every slaveholder is a man-stealer… To steal a man is to rob him of himself.”She reiterates well-known principles from the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
regarding the equality of man. Grimké argues that “a man is a man, and as a man he has inalienable rights, among which is the right to personal liberty… No circumstances can ever justify a man in holding his fellow man as property… The claim to him as property is an annihilation of his rights to himself, which is the foundation upon which all his other rights are built.”
The essay also reflects Grimké’s lifelong enthusiasm for universal education of women and slaves. Her Appeal emphasizes the importance of women educating their slaves or future laborers: “Should [your slaves] remain [in your employ] teach them, and have them taught the common branches of an English education; they have minds and those minds, ought to be improved.”
Letters to Catharine Beecher
Grimké’s Letters to Catharine Beecher began as a series of essays made in response to Beecher’s An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism with Reference to the Duty of American Females, which was addressed directly to Grimké. The series of responses that followed Beecher’s essay were written with the moral support of her future husband Weld, and were published in both The Emancipator and The Liberator before being reprinted as a whole in book form.Beecher’s essay argues against the participation of women in the abolitionist movement, on the grounds that women hold a subordinate position to men as “a beneficent and immutable Divine law.” She continues to argue that “Men are the proper persons to make appeals to the rulers whom they appoint… [females] are surely out of their place in attempting to do it themselves.”
Grimké’s responses were a defense of both abolitionist and feminist movements. The arguments made in support of abolitionism reflect many of the points that Weld made in the Lane Seminary
Lane Theological Seminary
Lane Theological Seminary was established in the Walnut Hills section of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829 to educate Presbyterian ministers. It was named in honor of Ebenezer and William Lane, who pledged $4,000 for the new school, which was seen as a forward outpost of the Presbyterian Church in the...
debates. She also is openly critical of the American Colonization Society
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...
, and states her personal appreciation for people of color (no doubt a result of direct contact from her childhood in Charleston). In one letter, Grimké writes, “it is because I love the colored Americans that I want them to stay in this country; and in order to make it a happy home to them, I am trying to talk down, and write down, and live down this horrible prejudice.”
Grimké’s Letters are widely recognized as an early feminist argument, although only two of the letters address feminism and women’s suffrage. Letter XII reflects some of the rhetorical style of the Declaration of Independence and is remnant of Grimké’s religious values. She argues that all humans are moral beings, and should be judged as such, regardless of their sex: “Measure her rights and duties by the unerring standard of moral being… and then the truth will be self-evident, that whatever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights – I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. It is my solemn conviction, that, until this principle of equality is recognised and embodied in practice, the Church can do nothing effectual for the permanent reformation of the world.”
Grimké continues by directly responding to Beecher’s traditionalist argument on the place of women in all spheres of human activity: “I believe it is the woman’s right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed, whether in Church or State: and that the present arrangements of society, on these points, are a violation of human rights, a rank usurpation of power, a violent seizure and confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers.”