James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Spring 2013 “This is a cause worth dying for:” Sarah and Angelina Grimké and the development of a political identity Erin K. Gillett James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Gillett, Erin K., "“This is a cause worth dying for:” Sarah and Angelina Grimké and the development of a political identity" (2013). Masters Theses. 221. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/221 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “This is a Cause Worth Dying For:” Sarah and Angelina Grimké and the Development of a Political Identity Erin K. Gillett A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History May 2013 In Loving Dedication to My Parents, Craig and Teri Also for historian Gerda Lerner, whose biography of Sarah and Angelina Grimké first sparked my interest in the sisters. ii Acknowledgements I would like to extend a great amount of thanks to my director, Dr. Chris Arndt, who has provided me with both guidance and encouragement throughout this past year. I would also like to thank my readers, Dr. Emily Westkamper and Dr. David Dillard, who both contributed helpful and insightful comments on my thesis. My graduate career was successful in large part due to the guidance and wisdom I received from the members of my thesis committee both in graduate seminars and through comments on my thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Gabrielle Lanier for (perhaps unconsciously) sparking my interest in public history, and influencing my future career choices. A special thanks is also required for the archivists at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. For three days, they enthusiastically provided me with information and material that was critical to the development of my thesis. The librarians at Carrier Library at James Madison University (especially those in the InterLibrary Loan Department) also deserve praise for their help in finding obscure and rare material for my research. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my fellow graduate students, who not only made graduate school bearable, but enjoyable! Finally, I need to thank my family— particularly my parents—whose love and constant encouragement has sustained me throughout these past two years of graduate school. Thank you all! iii Table of Contents Dedication ..............................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................v Abstract ..................................................................................................................................vi Introduction ............................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Toward Abolition .................................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Development of a Political Identity ....................................................................51 Chapter 3: Creation of a “New Woman” ..............................................................................94 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................128 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................133 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Angelina and Sarah Grimké ...................................................................................104 v Abstract Growing up in a slave-holding family in South Carolina, sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké had first hand experience of the horrors and evils of the institution of slavery. Due to a religious conversion and a strong internal moral code, both sisters chose to leave their southern home and move to Philadelphia. Once in the North, the sisters became actively engaged in the abolition movement, and served as itinerant antislavery lecturers around the New England states. As their fame grew, so did opposition against their presence in the public sphere—an arena that was traditionally male dominated. Despite harsh criticisms against their womanhood and femininity, the Grimké sisters maintained their lecture circuit and continued to speak against slaveholders and slavery. Opposition from the public—particularly the Congregational Church and Catharine Beecher—forced the sisters to defend their womanhood and justify their actions on the public platform of antislavery. This public hostility is what caused the sisters to link antislavery rhetoric with a movement for women’s rights. As the sisters were forced to develop a justification for their antislavery careers, they started to simultaneously develop a conscious political identity based on their natural rights as American citizens and human beings. This thesis traces the development of this political identity, and the journey the Grimké sisters underwent into order to create a foundation for the next generation of women’s rights activists. vi INTRODUCTION: It was Election Day in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and excitement was running high in the town meeting hall. Rumors had spread that a group of women were planning on exercising their self-declared right to vote in this 1870 election, and a crowd had gathered to witness this spectacle. Just a few blocks from the voting-place, a group of women had indeed gathered with the intent of voting that day, proving that they could successfully exercise their political and natural rights to participate in local and national elections. At the appointed time, the group of fifty women filed out of the Everett House parlors, and walked single file the few blocks to the voting house. Quite a crowd had already gathered at the polls, and many were concerned that this event would turn violent, with people protesting against the propriety of women engaging in a political action. Yet no one stirred as the party of women entered the voting hall; in fact, silence reigned through the hall as the women—led by the aged and venerable Angelina Grimké Weld and Sarah Moore Grimké—filed through the crowds, “deposited their ballots in a separate box, and at once left the room. The deed was done! The women had voted.”1 The fifty ballots deposited by the women were not counted, nor did the women expect them to be; but these women considered the event a success, as they were able to embrace their political identities by participating (even indirectly) in the vote—an event which they believed to be an inherent right of all humans, women included. By depositing their ballots in a peaceful and respectful manner, these women had given practical and shocking proof of their earnestness and resolve to participate in the political 1 Jos. King Knight, Edmund Davis and Henry B. Humphrey, Memorial Sketch of Hyde Park, Mass., for the First Twenty Years of its Corporate Existence; also its Industries, Statistics, and Organizations, together with the Anniversary Addresses, Delivered by Rev. Perley B. Davis, and Rev. Richard J. Berry (Boston: L. Barta & Co., 1888): 21-22. 2 arena, alongside and equal to men. This action was a symbol of women’s rights, as well as an encouragement to other women to take up the cause of women’s enfranchisement and thus advance the cause of all women. This event served as the political climax of the long and fruitful careers of Angelina Grimké Weld and Sarah Moore Grimké—sisters who had toiled for almost fifty years for the advancement of women’s rights. Sarah and Angelina had grown up in a wealthy, slave-holding family in South Carolina, and had daily witnessed the horrors and abuses of slavery. Troubled by the moral implications of the peculiar institution, both sisters eventually fled to Philadelphia, hoping to distance themselves from the land that depended on the ownership and exploitation of fellow human beings. The sisters first entered the public scene in the latter half of the 1830s, when they were sought out by the American Anti-Slavery Society, and charged with the task of traveling around the state of New York, speaking to small groups of women on the evils of slavery and spreading the message of abolitionism. The two women experienced great success in their lecture circuit, drawing large crowds of both men and women to hear them speak on behalf of the antislavery movement. But the act of women speaking in front of men on a politically charged topic such as antislavery raised numerous questions concerning the propriety of women speaking in public. Sarah and Angelina suddenly found their femininity and womanhood being attacked as their opponents claimed that a woman’s character depended upon her staying within the domestic sphere, using her moral and womanly influence in an indirect manner. The sisters now had to defend their right to be engaged and