If you’ve been keeping up with the Historic America Journal lately, you might have noticed that we have been putting out more content revolving around the history of two unique American cities: Charleston, South Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Today, our story takes us to both of these fantastic cities as we cover the lives and work of the Grimké Sisters, two notable leaders in the fights for abolition and women’s rights.

The childhood home of the Grimké sisters at 321 East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina as it can be seen today.

Sarah and Angelina Grimké were born in Charleston, as the daughters of Judge John Paul Grimké and Mary Faucheraud. John Grimké had served as an officer in the Revolutionary War before leading a nearly four decade long legal career. Sarah and Angelina were just two out of John and Mary’s fourteen children, all of whom were raised in Charleston. The Grimké family were members of the Charleston elite, mostly made up of jurists and plantation owners.

John Grimké owned a number of properties in the Charleston area, including the famous Heyward-Washington house as well as a number of plantations. The sisters were mostly raised in what is today known as the Blake-Grimké House on 321 East Bay Street in Historic Downtown Charleston. The Grimké family moved from the Heyward-Washington House to their new home on East Bay Street when Sarah was 11 years old. The following year, Angelina was born in the home and Sarah became her godmother, cementing the lifelong bond the two sisters would share.

Being raised in a wealthy Charleston family in the early 19th century, it is no surprise that Sarah and Angelina were witness to the institution of slavery from the very start of their lives. The Grimké family enslaved people at the many plantations owned by John Grimké and his sons, as well as at the East Bay Street home where Sarah and Angelina were raised. However, unlike the majority of wealthy Charleston society who actively accepted and embraced slavery as a part of their lives, the early exposure of the Grimké sisters to the horrors of this institution would turn them towards the cause of abolition.

Sarah Grimké, the elder sister and godmother to Angelina Grimké/ — Sarah Grimké, the elder sister and godmother to Angelina Grimké.

In 1819, when Sarah was 27 years old, she traveled to Philadelphia alongside her father. By this point in American history, Philadelphia already had a long abolitionist tradition -- the first abolitionist society in the United States had been established in the city as early as 1775. Additionally, Pennsylvania had become the first state to pass legislation abolishing the practice of slavery in 1780. This was largely due to the influence that the Quaker community had on early Philadelphia.

The Quaker movement was a religious organization that had risen to prominence in 17th century England before migrating over to the United States. Members of the Quaker community that had been the first to formally protest slavery in American history -- staging several demonstrations as early as 1688. It was on her trip to Philadelphia that Sarah Grimké first encountered the Quaker community as well as an organized anti-slavery movement.

She was deeply moved by the egalitarian, social justice oriented beliefs of the Quaker community: they actively challenged slavery, denouncing the institution as evil and believing that it was their duty to call for its abolition. They believed women were the spiritual equals of men and allowed them to hold positions of leadership. Furthermore, the Quakers that Sarah met believed that it was their duty to help anyone that was suffering.

This trip had a lasting impact on a young Sarah Grimké. What she had seen in Philadelphia was a far cry from what she had been used to in her hometown of Charleston and it added a new sense of urgency to her hatred of slavery. Upon her return to South Carolina, Sarah decided she had to do more, writing:

“From early childhood I had been tried with the condition of the slaves, and had long believed their bondage was inconsistent with justice and humanity. After being for many months in Pennsylvania when I went back, it seemed as if the sight of their condition was insupportable. It burst on my mind with renewed horror, and I can compare my feeling only with a canker incessantly gnawing.”

— Sarah Grimké

Ultimately, against the wishes of her family, Sarah converted to Quakerism in 1821 and relocated to Philadelphia. She was not alone in how she felt however as her younger sister Angelina would follow in her footsteps just a few years later. In 1829, Angelina too converted to Quakerism and left Charleston, reuniting with her sister in Philadelphia. Both sisters quickly became members of the anti-slavery movement, joining forces with many prominent abolitionists of the time such as William Lloyd Garrison.

By the 1830s, the Grimké sisters had become well-known abolitionist activists, which made them complete outcasts amongst the community of Charleston. In 1836, Angelina wrote the pamphlet, An Appeal to Christian Women of the South, which called on Southern women to use their influence within their families to challenge slavery. It caused so much outrage in her home state that South Carolina leaders stated that Angelina would be arrested if she ever returned to Charleston. However, instead of deterring them, this began the sisters’ long tradition of standing their ground against all odds.

The younger of the Grimké sisters, Angelina.

Sarah and Angelina not only faced opposition from the South, but from communities in the North as well. Although they were welcomed by William Lloyd Garrison, becoming the first women to join his American Antislavery Society in 1837, their work was denounced by several ministers as “unwomanly behavior.” This didn’t stop them however. In fact, Angelina would become the first woman to address a political body when she spoke in front of the State Legislature of Massachusetts in favor of abolition. The hurdles faced by the sisters as a result of their gender motivated them to advocate for women’s equality as well, with Sarah publishing the book Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women in 1838.

The sisters would keep speaking out against slavery and gender discrimination, even when their work was met with violence in their adopted city of Philadelphia. In May 1838, the Grimké sisters were among the many abolitionists that held meetings at the newly inaugurated Pennsylvania Hall, which had been constructed as a space for abolitionist organizing. A mob broke into the building, hurling rocks and breaking windows while Angelina was in the middle of delivering a speech. However, Angelina would firmly stand her ground. She continued to speak for over an hour on how her experiences a young woman in the South had made her a witness to the horrors of slavery as well as its "destructiveness to human happiness.” During her speech, she would denounce the violent mob stating:

“What is a mob?...What would the breaking of every window be? Any evidence that we are wrong, or that slavery is a good and wholesome institution? What if the mob should burst in upon us, break up our meeting and commit violence upon our persons — would this be anything compared to what the slaves endure?”

— Angelina Grimké

In 1839, the sisters, alongside Angelina’s husband Thomas Weld, moved to New Jersey and largely retired from public speaking. However, they continued to participate in the anti-slavery movement by attending meetings and publishing several abolitionist texts. In fact, the three of them -- Sarah, Angelina, and Thomas -- would go onto collaborate on the 1839 book, American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses.

Archibald Henry Grimké, nephew of the Grimké sisters, was born into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina before escaping North. He reconnected with his aunts after the Civil War.

By the 1850s, Angelina and Sarah were working as the leaders of a boarding school in Eaglewood, New Jersey where they would teach students until the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, the sisters took in their nephews -- Archibald Henry Grimké and Francis James Grimké -- who were the children of their brother Henry W. Grimké and Nancy Weston, a Black woman whom he enslaved. The brothers had come to the attention of Angelina after their enrollment in Lincoln University, when she happened across an article that mentioned their academic achievements. Recognizing their familiar last name, Angelina contacted the brothers. After learning that they were her nephews, the sisters began to support them financially.

The Grimké sisters cared for their mixed-raced nephews deeply and supported their higher education pursuits: Archibald would go on to attend Harvard Law School and while Francis enrolled in the Princeton Theological Seminary. Both brothers would follow in the footsteps of their aunts and go on to become prominent leaders in the fight for racial equality. Archibald became a lawyer and went on to be appointed the American consul to the Dominican Republic by President Grover Cleveland. His brother, Francis, would go on to become a prominent Presbyterian minister in Washington, D.C.

Francis James Grimké, the younger brother of Archibald Grimké, would become one of the most prominent Black clergymen of his time as well as participating in the Niagara Movement and the early NAACP.

In 1864, sisters relocated to Hyde Park, Massachusetts but despite their older age, the sisters never stopped fighting for their causes. In fact, in 1870, both sisters attempted to vote in the local Hyde Park elections alongside a group of women who were protesting for women’s suffrage. At this time, Sarah, despite nearing eighty years old, was well-known for handing out copies of the book Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill. In 1873, Sarah Grimké died at the age of 81. Shortly after the death of her sister, Angelina suffered multiple strokes. She passed away a few years later in 1879, at the age of 74.

It is quite obvious from Sarah and Angela’s story that they never let anything deter them, whether it was the slave owning elite of their hometown or the sexism of 19th century America. The sisters left everything behind in Charleston, going against their entire family, to fight for justice and equality. Even when faced with gender discrimination and threats of violence in Philadelphia, they remained outspoken. In spite of everything, the sisters became some of the first American women to publicly denounce slavery. They subverted the gender norms of their time by fighting for gender and racial equality, leaving behind an incredible legacy in doing so.

From Charleston to Philadelphia: The Grimké Sisters and Their Legacy

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