Angelina Grimke Research Paper

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In the early to mid-1800s, women were to be seen and not heard. Motherhood and wifehood were considered as their most major professions. From a young age, the Grimke sisters knew this was not a life they saw for themselves. Angelina and Sarah used their voices regarding abolition and women’s rights as the vehicle to enter the arena of politics. By making courageous decisions to leave their home, make mixed gender public speeches, and write daring works, these sisters helped in giving women a voice outside of their home.
Sarah was born on November 26, 1792, and Angelina was born on February 20, 1805. The sisters were born on a slave plantation in Charleston, South Carolina to a wealthy family. Even though the girls were thirteen years apart, they were extremely close. …show more content…

In 1836, Angelina wrote her Appeal to the Christian Women of the South imploring white southern women to embrace the antislavery cause. She wrote, “I know you do not make the laws, but I also know that you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do; and if you really suppose you can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.” After the Appeal was published, Angelina’s mother was told that if her daughter came back home, she would be put in prison. Sarah did not do as well with pubic speaking as Angelina, but she made up for it in her writings. In July of 1837, Sarah’s “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” appeared in the New England Spectator, with its simple but powerful demand: “All I ask our brethren is, that they will take their feet from our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.” With the sisters great writing regarding women’s rights, it could be said that these women also started the proto-feminist revolution, as

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