Grimké, << GRIHM kee, >> was the family name of two sisters who became abolitionists and pioneers in the women’s rights movement in the United States. Sarah and Angelina Grimké were born in Charleston, S.C. Their father, John F. Grimké, was a chief judge of South Carolina. Their mother, Mary Smith Grimké, came from a leading family in South Carolina politics.
The Grimké sisters became active in the abolitionist movement during the mid-1830’s. They gave antislavery lectures in several Northeastern states and were among the first women to lecture in public in the United States. Their speeches and writings against slavery attracted considerable attention, especially because the sisters were refined, wealthy women from the South.
The Grimké sisters began fighting for women’s rights after many people criticized their role in the abolitionist movement as shocking behavior for women. Their vigorous defense of women’s rights helped cause a split over the issue among abolitionists. The Grimké sisters argued that the fight for women’s rights and the fight for abolition both supported human rights. But other abolitionists considered the women’s rights issue unrelated to abolitionism. They feared that the antislavery movement would be weakened by any connection between the two groups.
Sarah Moore Grimké
(1792-1873) left Charleston in 1821 because of her strong antislavery beliefs and moved to Philadelphia. She joined the abolitionist movement in 1836, a year after Angelina did so. Later in 1836, Sarah published an antislavery pamphlet called Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States. Her Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman (1838) was one of the first essays by an American on women’s equality. Sarah Grimké died on Dec. 23, 1873. See Feminism.
Angelina Emily Grimké
(1805-1879) joined Sarah in Philadelphia in 1829 and became a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the pamphlet Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836), Angelina urged women to fight slavery. In 1838, she married the abolitionist Theodore Weld and retired from public life. Sarah also retired and moved in with the Welds. The Grimké sisters continued to work occasionally for both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. Angelina Grimké died on Oct. 26, 1879.
