By George Lowell Austin.
This is an era of recollections. The events of twenty and twenty-five
years ago are being read and reconsidered anew with as much interest as
though they were the fresh and important events of the present. It was
long claimed by those who believed that they thought and wrote with
authority that not only was slavery the main cause of the civil war in
America, but that the abolition of slavery was its chiefest object.
A more sober criticism of the motives and deeds of those who were the
prime actors in that inglorious struggle has tended somewhat to alter
this opinion. It will, however, be again called to mind by a forthcoming
biography,--that of Sarah and Angelina Grimké, better known as "the
Grimké Sisters." The task of preparing this biography was intrusted to
Mrs. Catherine H. Birney, of Washington, who knew the sisters well, and
who lived for several years under the same roof with them.
There need be no hesitation in saying this book is one of the most
interesting and valuable contributions to the history of abolitionism
ever published. From first to last, during that momentous struggle, the
phrase "the Grimké Sisters" was familiar to everybody, and the part
which they enacted in the struggle was no less familiar. Mr. Phillips
often spoke of them in his public addresses; they were prominent members
of the anti-slavery societies; they themselves frequently appeared
before large audiences on public platforms. Indeed, no history of the
great moral cause would be complete that was not, in large part, made up
of their noble deeds; and no less valiantly did they contend for Woman's
Rights.
SARAH and ANGELINA GRIMKÉ were born in Charleston, South Carolina;
Sarah, Nov. 26, 1792; Angelina, Feb. 20, 1805. They were the daughters
of the Hon. John Fauchereau Grimké, a colonel in the revolutionary war,
and judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. His ancestors were
German on the father's side, French on the mother's; the Fauchereau
family having left France in consequence of the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes in 1685.
Judge Grimké's position, character, and wealth placed his family among
the leaders of the very exclusive society of Charleston. His children
were accustomed to luxury and display, to the service of slaves, and to
the indulgence of every selfish whim, although the father's practical
common-sense led him to protest against the habits to which such
indulgences naturally led. To Sarah he paid particular attention, and
was often heard to declare that if she had been of the other sex she
would have made the greatest jurist in the land.
Children are born without prejudice, and the young children of Southern
planters never felt or made any difference between their white and
colored playmates. So that there is nothing singular in the fact that
Sarah Grimké early felt such an abhorrence of the whole institution of
slavery that she was sure it was born in her.
When Sarah was twelve years old two important events occurred to
interrupt the even tenor of her life. Her brother Thomas was sent off to
Yale College, leaving her companionless; but a little sister, Angelina
Emily, the last child of her parents, and the pet and darling of Sarah
from the moment the light dawned upon her blue eyes, came to take his
place. Sarah almost became a mother to this little one; whither she led,
Angelina followed closely.
In 1818 Judge Grimké's health began to decline. So faithful did Sarah
nurse him that when it was decided that he should go to Philadelphia,
she was chosen to accompany him. This first visit to the North was the
most important event of Sarah's life, for the influences and impressions
there received gave some shape to her vague and wayward fancies, and
showed her a gleam of the light beyond the tangled path which still
stretched before her.
Her father died; and in the vessel which carried his remains from
Philadelphia Sarah met a party of Friends. She talked with them on
religious matters, and after a few months acknowledged to one of them,
in the course of a correspondence, her entire conversion to Quakerism.
Ere long circumstances and the inharmonious life in her family urged her
again to seek Philadelphia, where she arrived in May, 1821. Angelina
remained at Charleston, where she grew up a gay, fashionable girl.
We pass over the interesting correspondence which, from this time
onward, was carried on between the sisters.
The strong contrast between Sarah and Angelina Grimké was shown not
only in their religious feelings, but in their manner of treating the
ordinary concerns of life, and in carrying out their convictions of
duty. In her humility, and in her strong reliance on the "inner light,"
Sarah refused to trust her own judgment, even in the merest trifles,
such as the lending of a book to a friend, postponing the writing of a
letter, or sweeping a room to-day when it might be better to defer it
until to-morrow. She says of this: "Perhaps to some, who have been led
by higher ways than I have been into a knowledge of the truth, it may
appear foolish to think of seeking direction in little things, but my
mind has for a long time been in a state in which I have often felt a
fear how I came in or went out, and I have found it a precious thing to
stop and consult the mind of truth, and be governed thereby."
Already the sisters had begun to reflect upon the evils of slavery.
Evidences of the tenor of their reflection are furnished in their
letter, and also in Sarah's diary, which she commenced in 1828. Angelina
was the first to express her abhorrence of the whole system; while
Sarah's mind, for a while at least, was too much absorbed by her
disappointed hopes and her trials in the ministry to allow her to do
much more than express sympathy with Angelina's anti-slavery sentiments.
In the autumn of 1829 Angelina left Charleston never to return, and made
her home with Sarah in the home of Catherine Morris. She soon became
interested in Quakerism, and eventually joined the Society. The daily
records of their lives and thoughts, for the ensuing four or five years,
exhibit them in the enjoyment of their quiet home, visiting prisons,
hospitals, and almshouses, and mourning over no sorrow or sins but their
own. Angelina was leading a life of benevolent effort, too busy to admit
of the pleasure of society, and her Quaker associations did not favor
contact with the world's people, or promote knowledge of the active
movements in the larger reforms of the day. As to Sarah, she was
suffering keenly under a great sorrow of her life.
Meanwhile, events were making; the anti-slavery question was being
agitated and discussed. In February, 1831, occurred the famous debate at
Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, presided over by Dr. Lyman Beecher. The
eloquence of that debate swept over the country; it flooded many hearts,
and set souls aflame. Sarah Grimké also thought a _little_. Under
date of "5th mo., 12th, 1835," appears the following in Angelina's
diary:--
Five months have elapsed since I wrote in this diary, since which time
I have become deeply interested in the subject of abolition. I had long
regarded this cause as utterly hopeless, but since I have examined
anti-slavery principles, I find them so full of the power of truth, that
I am confident not many years will roll by before the horrible traffic
in human beings will be destroyed in this land of Gospel privileges. My
soul has measurably stood in the stead of the poor slave, and my earnest
prayers have been poured out that the Lord would be pleased to permit me
to be instrumental of good to these degraded, oppressed, and suffering
fellow-creatures. Truly, I often feel ready to go to prison or to death
in this cause of justice, mercy, and love; and I do fully believe if I
am called to return to Carolina, it will not be long before I shall
suffer persecution of some kind or other.
When, after the Garrison riot, Mr. Garrison issued his appeal to the
citizens of Boston, Angelina's anti-slavery enthusiasm was fully
aroused. On the 30th of March of that year (1835) she wrote a letter to
Mr. Garrison,--as _brave_ a letter as was ever penned by the hand
of woman. In it occur these thrilling words:--
If, she says, persecution is the means which God has ordained for
the accomplishment of this great end, _Emancipation_, then, in
dependence upon him for strength to bear it, I feel as if I could say,
_Let It Come!_ for it is my deep, solemn, deliberate conviction
that _this is a cause worth dying for_. I say so from what I have
seen, heard, and known in a land of slavery, where rests the darkness of
Egypt, and where is found the sin of Sodom. Yes! _Let it come--let us
suffer_, rather than insurrections should arise.
Mr. Garrison published the letter in the "Liberator" to the surprise of
Angelina and the great displeasure and grief of her Quaker friends, and
of her sister, Sarah, as well. But Angelina was not dismayed. In 1836
she wrote her "Appeal to Southern Women," and sent it to New York, where
it was published as a pamphlet of thirty-six pages. Mr. Elizur Wright
spoke of it, at the time, as "a patch of blue sky breaking through the
storm-cloud of public indignation which had gathered so black over the
handful of anti-slavery workers." The praise was not exaggerated. The
pamphlet produced the most profound sensation wherever it was read.
Soon after its publication the sisters went to New York and there openly
identified themselves with the members of the American Anti-Slavery
Society; and also of the Female Anti-Slavery Society. The account of the
first assembly of women, not Quakers, in a public place in America,
addressed by American women, as given in these pages, is deeply
interesting and touching from its very simplicity. We, who are so
accustomed to hear women speak to promiscuous audiences on any and every
subject, will naturally smile at the following memoranda by Angelina:--
We went home to tea with Julia Tappan, and Brother Weld was all anxiety
to hear about the meeting. Julia undertook to give some account, and
among other things mentioned that a warm-hearted abolitionist had found
his way into the back part of the meeting, and was escorted out by Henry
Ludlow. Weld's noble countenance instantly lighted up, and he exclaimed:
"How supremely ridiculous to think of a man's being shouldered out of a
meeting for fear he should hear a woman speak!"....
In the evening a colonizationist of this city came to introduce an
abolitionist to Lewis Tappan. We women soon hedged in our expatriation
brother, and held a long and interesting argument with him until near
ten o'clock. He gave up so much that I could not see what he had to
stand on when we left him.
After closing their meetings in New York the sisters held similar ones
in New Jersey, all of which were attended only by women. From thence
they went up the North River with Gerrit Smith, holding audiences at
Hudson and Poughkeepsie. At the latter place they spoke to an assembly
of colored people of both sexes, and this was the first time Angelina
ever addressed a mixed audience.
The woman's rights agitation, while entirely separate from abolitionism,
owes its origin to the interest this subject excited in the hearts and
minds of American women; and to Sarah and Angelina Grimké must be
accorded the credit of first making the woman question one of reform.
They wrote and spoke often on the theme. Public feeling grew strong
against them, and at last the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts
saw proper to pass a resolution of censure against the sisters! This
resolution was issued as a "Pastoral Letter," which, in the light and
freedom of the present day, must be regarded as a most extraordinary
document.
Whittier's muse found the "Pastoral Letter" a fitting theme for its
vigorous, sympathetic utterances. The poem thus inspired is perhaps one
of the very best among his many songs of freedom. It will be remembered
as beginning thus:--
"So this is all! the utmost reach
Of priestly power the mind to fetter,
When laymen _think_, when women _preach_,
A war of words, a 'Pastoral Letter!'"
Up to this time nothing had been said by either of the sisters in their
lectures concerning their views about women. They had carefully confined
themselves to the subject of slavery, and the attendant topics of
immediate emancipation, abstinence from the use of slave products, the
errors of the Colonization Society, and the sin of prejudice on the
account of color. But now that they had found their own rights invaded,
they began to feel it was time to look out for the rights of their whole
sex.
In the face of all this censure and ridicule the two sisters continued
in the discharge of a duty to which they increasingly felt they were
called from on high.
One is compelled, in this brief _résumé_, to hurry over much that
is interesting and important. While the good work goes on we see the
sisters everywhere faithful to their sense of duty, unflinching to all
assailants.
In February, 1838, Sarah Grimké spoke for the last time in public,
and in the month of May following, Angelina was united in marriage to
Theodore D. Weld. "No marriage," says Mrs. Birney, "could have been more
fitting in every respect. The solemn relation was never entered upon
in more holiness of purpose or in higher resolve to hold themselves
strictly to the best they were capable of. It was a rededication of
lives long consecrated to God and humanity; of souls knowing no selfish
ambition, seeking before all things the glory of their Creator in the
elevation of his creatures everywhere. The entire unity of spirit in
which they afterwards lived and labored, the tender affection which,
through a companionship of more than forty years, knew no diminution,
made a family life so perfect and beautiful that it brightened and
inspired all who were favored to witness it. No one could be with them
under the most ordinary circumstances without feeling the force and
influence of their characters."
The happy couple settled down for their first house-keeping at Fort Lee,
on the Hudson. They were scarcely settled amid their new surroundings
before the sisters received a formal notice of their disownment by the
Society of Friends because of Angelina's marriage. In December, 1839,
the happiness of the little household was increased by the birth of a
son, who received the name of Charles Stuart, in loving remembrance of
the eminent English philanthropist, with whom Mr. Weld had been as a
brother, and whom he regarded as living as near the angels as mortal man
could live.
In the latter part of February, 1840, Mr. Weld, having purchased a farm
of fifty acres at Belleville, New Jersey, removed his family there.
The visitors to the Belleville farm--chiefly old and new anti-slavery
friends--were numerous, and were always received with a cordiality which
left no room to doubt its sincerity.
In many ways the members of this united household were diligent in
good works. If a neighbor required a few hundred dollars, to save the
foreclosure of a mortgage, the combined resources of the family were
taxed to aid him; if a poor student needed a helping hand in his
preparation for college, or for teaching, it was gladly extended to
him,--perhaps his board and lodging given him for six months or a
year,--with much valuable instruction thrown in. The instances of
charity of this kind were many, and were performed with such a cheerful
spirit that Sarah only incidentally alludes to the increase of their
cares and work at such times. In fact, their roof was ever a shelter for
the homeless, a home for the friendless; and it is pleasant to record
that the return of ingratitude, so often made for benevolence of this
kind, was never their portion. They always seem to have had the sweet
satisfaction of knowing, sooner or later, that their kindness was not
thrown away or under-estimated.
In 1852 the Raritan Bay Association, consisting of thirty or forty
educated and cultured families of congenial tastes, was formed at
Eagleswood, near Perth Amboy, New Jersey; and a year later Mr. and
Mrs. Weld were invited to join the Association, and take charge of its
educational department. They accepted, in the hope of finding in the
change greater social advantages for themselves and their children, with
less responsibility and less labor; for of these last the husband, wife,
and sister, in their Belleville School, had had more than they were
physically able to endure longer. Their desire and plan was to
establish, with the children of the residents at Eagleswood, a school
also for others, and to charge such a moderate remuneration only as
would enable the middle classes to profit by it. In this project, as
with every other, no selfish ambition found a place. They removed to
Eagleswood in the autumn of 1854.
In the new school Angelina taught history, for which she was admirably
qualified, while Sarah taught French, and was also book-keeper.
It is scarcely necessary to say that few schools have ever been
established upon such a basis of conscientiousness and love, and with
such adaptability in its conductors, as that at Eagleswood; few have
ever held before the pupils so high a moral standard, or urged them
on to such noble purposes in life. Children entered there spoiled by
indulgence, selfish, uncontrolled, sometimes vicious. Their teachers
studied them carefully; confidence was gained, weaknesses sounded,
elevation measured. Very slowly often, and with infinite patience and
perseverance, but successfully in nearly every case, these children were
redeemed. The idle became industrious, the selfish considerate, the
disobedient and wayward repentant and gentle. Sometimes the fruits of
all this labor and forbearance did not show themselves immediately, and,
in a few instances, the seed sown did not ripen until the boy or girl
had left school and mingled with the world. Then the contrast between
the common, every-day aims they encountered, and the teachings of their
Eagleswood mentors, was forced upon them. Forgotten lessons of truth and
honesty and purity were remembered, and the wavering resolve was stayed
and strengthened; worldly expediency gave way before the magnanimous
purpose, cringing subserviency before independent manliness.
Then came the war. In 1862 Mrs. Weld published one of the most powerful
things she ever wrote,--"A Declaration of War on Slavery." We have not
the space to follow the course of the sisters' lives farther; and, were
it otherwise, the events narrated would be all too familiar. Sarah,
after a somewhat prolonged illness, died on the 23d of December, 1873,
at Hyde Park, Mass. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev.
Francis Williams, and eloquent remarks were made also by Wm. Lloyd
Garrison. On the 26th of October, 1879, Angelina passed quietly away,
and the last services were in keeping with the record of the life then
commemorated. We close this writing with a passage from the remarks
which Wendell Phillips made on that occasion. No words could possibly
be more touching or more eloquent:--
When I think of Angelina there comes to me the picture of the spotless
dove in the tempest, as she battles with the storm, seeking for some
place to rest her foot. She reminds me of innocence personified in
Spenser's poem. In her girlhood, alone, heart-led, she comforts the
slave in his quarters, mentally struggling with the problems his
position wakes her to. Alone, not confused, but seeking something to
lean on, she grasps the Church, which proves a broken reed. No whit
disheartened, she turns from one sect to another, trying each by the
infallible touchstone of that clear, child-like conscience. The two old,
lonely Quakers rest her foot awhile. But the eager soul must work, not
rest in testimony. Coming North at last, she makes her own religion one
of sacrifice and toil. Breaking away from, rising above, all forms, the
dove floats at last in the blue sky where no clouds reach.... This is no
place for tears. Graciously, in loving kindness and tenderly, God broke
the shackles and freed her soul. It was not the dust which surrounded
her that we loved. It was not the form which encompassed her that we
revere; but it was the soul. We linger a very little while, her old
comrades. The hour comes, it is even now at the door, that God will open
our eyes to see her as she is: the white-souled child of twelve years
old ministering to want and sorrow; the ripe life, full of great
influences; the serene old age, example and inspiration whose light will
not soon go out. Farewell for a very little while. God keep us fit to
join thee in that broader service on which thou hast entered.
* * * * *