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- Angelina and Sarah Grimké were born in Charleston, South Carolina. Although their father was a slaveholder, both daughters detested slavery. Sarah rebelled against the southern law that forbade teaching slaves to read and taught her own maid to read. The Grimké sisters eventually became Quakers and moved to the North. They never returned to live in the South. In the 1830s the Grimkés became active in the antislavery movement. Angelina wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836). Sarah wrote Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States (1836). Both Grimkés gave public speeches against slavery, sometimes to audiences of mixed races. Few women at the time were political or abolition leaders and the Grimkés’ actions created a controversy. In response, both sisters addressed women’s rights. In a series of letters to an abolitionist newspaper, Sarah defended her right to speak out against slavery. In 1838 Angelina published a pamphlet titled Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman. The Grimkés eventually linked their work in the antislavery and women’s rights movements. In 1838 Angelina married noted abolitionist Theodore Weld. She soon gave up public speaking because of poor health. Sarah retired shortly after her sister did.
