Born: February 20, 1805 (Charleston, South Carolina)
Died: October 26, 1879 (Hyde Park, Boston Massachusetts)
Famous For/Known For:
Activist
A Little About Angelina Grimké:
Born to wealthy parents John Faucheraud and Mary (Smith) Grimké.
Angelina grew up on the family plantation and her parents owned many slaves. She was particularly close to her oldest sister, Sarah.
From a young age Angelina despised slavery, so much so that she refused confirmation at the Anglican church that her family attended due to the church’s support for slavery.
Angelina eventually left the plantation and went to Philadelphia to live with Sarah. She was the first of the two sisters to join the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society
In 1835 Angelina’s letter to William Lloyd Garrison was published in his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. This letter became part of a pamphlet about anti-slavery and made her famous.
Angelina believed that women should take an active role in ending slavery and wrote about this in her literary work, Appeal to the Christian Women of the South.
Angelina and Sarah were asked to speak at many Anti-Slavery conventions. Theodore Dwight Weld, a fellow abolitionist and later Angelina’s husband, taught them public speaking skills. When Sarah feel ill and could not speak at the Massachusetts legislature on slavery, Angelina filled in and became the first woman to speak to a United States legislative body. .
During their lifetime the sisters wrote a few books together such as American Slavery As It Is: Testimony From a Thousand Witnesses and An Appeal to the Women of the Republic.
After finding out their brother Henry had been in a relationship with a slave and fathered several sons, the sisters took the children in and made sure they were educated.
Angelina Grimké suffered several strokes that left her paralyzed before her death at the age of 81.
Books About/Written By Angelina Grimké:
Selected Works of Angelina Grimké
Angelina Grimké: Rhetoric, Identity and the Radical Imagination
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References:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/racialjustice/a/Angelina-Grimke.htm
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