Grimké sisters

Grimké sisters

U.S. antislavery crusaders and women's rights advocates. Sarah Grimké (in full Sarah Moore Grimké; b. Nov. 26, 1792, Charleston, S.C., U.S.—d. Dec. 23, 1873, Hyde Park, Mass.) and her sister Angelina Grimké (in full Angelina Emily Grimké; b. Feb. 20, 1805, Charleston, S.C., U.S.—d. Oct. 26, 1879, Hyde Park, Mass.) were born to a wealthy slaveholding family but developed an early dislike of slavery. In the mid-1820s they became Quakers and moved to the North. From 1835 they wrote letters and pamphlets urging Southern women to use moral force against slavery, and they freed the slaves they had persuaded their mother to apportion to them as their inheritance. They lectured on antislavery throughout New England as the first female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society, enlisting women in the abolitionist cause and becoming pioneers in the women's rights movement. In 1838 Angelina married Theodore Weld, and the sisters collaborated with him.