We have seen, a few pages back, that Angelina expressed her
thankfulness at Sarah's change of views with respect to the
anti-slavery cause. Again we must regret the destruction of Sarah's
letters, which would have shown us by what chains of reasoning her mind
at last reached entire sympathy with Angelina's. We can only infer that
her progress was rapid after the public rebuke which caused her to turn
her back on Philadelphia, and that her sister's brave and isolated
position, appealing strongly to her affection, urged her to make a
closer examination of the subject of abolitionism than she had yet
done. The result we know; her entire conversion in a few weeks to
Angelina's views. And from that time she travelled close by her
sister's side in this as well as in other questions of reform, drawing
her inspiration from Angelina's clearer intuitions and calmer judgment,
and frankly and affectionately acknowledging her right of leadership.
The last of August, 1836, the sisters were once more together, Sarah
having accepted Mrs. Parker's invitation to come to Shrewsbury. The
question of future arrangements was now discussed. Angelina felt a
strong inclination to go to New England, and undertake there the same
work which the committee in New York wished her to perform, and she
even wrote to Mr. Wright that she expected to do so. Feeling also that
Friends had the first right to her time and labors, and that, if
permitted, she would prefer to work within the Society, she wrote to
her old acquaintances, E. and L. Capron, the cotton manufacturers of
Uxbridge, Massachusetts, to consult them on the subject. She mentions
this in a letter to her friend, Jane Smith, saying:--
"My present feelings lead me to labor with Friends on the manufacture
and use of the products of slave-labor. They excuse themselves from
doing anything, because they say they cannot mingle in the general
excitement, and so on. Now, here is a field of labor in which they need
have nothing to do with other societies, and yet will be striking a
heavy blow at slavery. These topics the Anti-Slavery Society has never
acted upon as a body, and therefore no agent of theirs could
consistently labor on them. I stated to E. and L. Capron just how I
felt, and asked whether I could be of any use among them, whether they
were prepared to have the morality of these things discussed on
Christian principles. I have no doubt my Philadelphia friends will
oppose my going there, but, Jane, I have realized very sensibly of late
that I belong not to them, but to Christ Jesus, and that I must follow
the Lamb whithersoever He leadeth.... I feel as if I was about to
sacrifice every friend I thought I had, but I still believe with T.D.
Weld, that this is 'a cause worth dying for.'"
This is the first mention we find of her future husband, whom she had
not yet seen, but whose eloquent addresses she had read, and whose
ill-treatment by Western mobs had more than once called forth the
expression of her indignation.
The senior member of the firm to which she had written answered her
letter in person, and, she says, utterly discouraged her. He said that
if she should go into New England with the avowed intention of laboring
among Friends on the subject of slavery in _any_ way, her path would be
completely closed, and she would find herself entirely helpless. He
even went so far as to say that he believed there were Friends who
would destroy her character if she attempted anything of the kind. He
proposed that she should go to his house for the winter, and employ her
time in writing for the Anti-Slavery Society, and doing anything else
she could incidentally. But this plan did not suit her. She felt it
right to offer her services to Friends first, and was glad she had done
so; but if they would not accept them she must take them elsewhere.
Besides, when she communicated her plan to Catherine Morris, Catherine
objected to it very decidedly, and said she _could not_ go without a
certificate and a companion, and these she knew Friends would not grant
her.
"Under all these circumstances," Angelina writes, "I felt a little like
the apostle Paul, who having first offered the Jews the gospel, and
finding they would not receive it, believed it right for him to turn to
the Gentiles. Didst thou ever hear anything so absurd as what Catherine
says about the certificate and a companion? I cannot feel bound by such
unreasonable restrictions if my Heavenly Father opens a door for me,
and I do not mean to submit to them. She knows very well that Arch
Street Meeting would grant me neither, but as the servant of Jesus
Christ I have no right to bow down thus to the authority of man, and I
do not expect ever again to suffer myself to be trammelled as I have
been. It is sinful in any human being to resign his or her conscience
and free agency to any society or individual, if such usurpation can be
resisted by moral power. The course our Society is now determined upon,
of crushing everything which opposes the peculiar views of Friends,
seems to me just like the powerful effort of the Jews to close the lips
of Jesus. They are afraid that the Society will be completely broken up
if they allow any difference of opinion to pass unrebuked, and they are
resolved to put down all who question in any way the doctrines of
Barclay, the soundness of Fox, or the practices which are built on
them. But the time is fast approaching when we shall see who is for
Christ, and who for Fox and Barclay, the Paul and Apollos of our
Society."
Her plan of going to New England frustrated, Angelina hesitated no
longer about accepting the invitation from New York. But first there
was a long discussion of the subject with Sarah, who found it hard to
resign her sister to a work she as yet did not cordially approve. She
begged her not to decide suddenly, and pointed out all sorts of
difficulties--the great responsibility she would assume, her retiring
disposition, and almost morbid shrinking from whatever might make her
conspicuous; the trial of going among strangers, made greater by her
Quaker costume and speech, and lastly, of the almost universal
prejudice against a woman's speaking to any audience; and she asked her
if, under all these embarrassing circumstances, added to her
inexperience of the world, she did not feel that she would ultimately
be forced to give up what now seemed to her so practicable. To all this
Angelina only answered that the responsibility seemed thrust upon her,
that the call was God's call, and she could not refuse to answer it.
Sarah then told her that if she should go upon this mission without the
sanction of the "Meeting for Sufferings," it would be regarded as a
violation of the established usages of the Society, and it would feel
obliged to disown her. Angelina's answer to this ended the discussion.
She declared that as her mind was made up to go, she could not ask
leave of her Society--that it would grieve her to have to leave it, and
it would be unpleasant to be disowned, but she had no alternative. Then
Sarah, whose loving heart had, during the long talk, been moving nearer
and nearer to that of her clear child, surprised her by speaking in the
beautiful, tender language of Ruth: "If thou indeed feelest thus, and I
cannot doubt it, then my mind too is made up. Where thou goest, I will
go; thy God shall be my God, thy people my people. What thou doest, I
will, to my utmost, aid thee in doing. We have wept and prayed
together, we will go and work together."
And thus fully united, heart and soul and mind, they departed for New
York, Angelina first writing to inform the committee of her decision,
and while thanking them for the salary offered, refusing to receive
any. She also told them that her sister would accompany her and
co-operate with her, and they would both bear their own expense.
After this time, the sisters found themselves in frequent and intimate
association with the men who, as officers of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, had the direction of the movement. The marked superiority of
their new friends in education, experience, culture, piety, liberality
of view, statesmanship, decision of character, and energy in action, to
the Philadelphia Quakers and Charleston slave-holders, must have been
to them a surprise and a revelation. Working with a common purpose,
these men were of varied accomplishments and qualities. William Jay and
James G. Birney were cultured men of the world, trained in legal
practice and public life; Arthur Tappan, Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, and
Duncan Dunbar, were successful merchants; Abraham L. Cox, a physician
in large practice; Theodore D. Weld, Henry B. Stanton, Alvan Stewart,
and Gerrit Smith were popular orators; Joshua Leavitt, Elizur Wright,
and William Goodell were ready writers and able editors; Beriah Green
and Amos A. Phelps were pulpit speakers and authors, and John G.
Whittier was a poet. Some of them had national reputations. Those who
in December, 1835, protested against the false charges of publishing
incendiary documents calculated to excite servile war, made against the
Society by President Jackson, had signed names almost as well known as
his, and had written better English than his message. Several of them
had been officers of the American Anti-Slavery Society from its
formation. Their energy had been phenomenal: they had raised funds,
sent lecturers into nearly every county in the free States, and
circulated in a single year more than a million copies of newspapers,
pamphlets, magazines, and books. Their moderation, good judgment, and
piety had been seen and known of all men. Faithful in the exposure of
unfaithfulness to freedom on the part of politicians and clergymen,
they denounced neither the Constitution nor the Bible. Their devotion
to the cause of abolition was pure; for its sake they suppressed the
vanity of personal notoriety and of oratorical display. Among them, not
one can be found who sought to make a name as a leader, speaker, or
writer; not one who was jealous of the reputation of co-adjutors; not
one who rewarded adherents with flattery and hurled invectives at
dissentients; not one to whom personal flattery was acceptable or
personal prominence desirable; not one whose writings betrayed egotism,
self-inflation or bombast. Such was their honest aversion to personal
publicity, it is now almost impossible to trace the work each did. Some
of their noblest arguments for Freedom were published anonymously. They
made no vainglorious claims to the original authorship of ideas. But
never in the history of reform was work better done than the old
American Anti-Slavery Society did from its formation in 1833 to its
disruption in 1840. In less than seven years it regained for Freedom
most of the vantage-ground lost under the open assaults and secret
plottings, beginning in 1829, of the Jackson administration, and in the
panic caused by the Southampton insurrection; blew into flame the
embers of the national anti-slavery sentiment; painted slavery as it
was; vindicated the anti-slavery character of the Constitution and the
Bible; defended the right of petition; laid bare the causes of the
Seminole war: exposed the Texas conspiracy and the designs of the slave
power for supremacy; and freed the legitimate abolition cause from "no
human government," secession, and anti-constitution heresies. In short,
it planted the seed which flowered and fruited in a political party,
around which the nation was to gather for defence against the
aggressions of the slave power.
At the anti-slavery office in New York, Angelina and Sarah learned,
much to their satisfaction, that the work that would probably be
required of Angelina could be done in a private capacity; that it was
proposed to organize, the next month (November), a National Female
Anti-Slavery Society, for which women agents would be needed, and they
could make themselves exceedingly useful travelling about, distributing
tracts, and talking to women in their own homes.
There the matter rested for a time.
Writing to her friend Jane Smith in Philadelphia after their return to
Shrewsbury, Angelina says:--
"I am certain of the disapproval of nearly all my friends. As to dear
Catherine, I am afraid she will hardly want to see me again. I wrote to
her all about it, for I wanted her to know what my prospects were. I
expect nothing less than the loss of her friendship and of my
membership in the Society. The latter will be a far less trial than the
former.... I cannot describe to thee how my dear sister has comforted
and strengthened me. I cannot regard the change in her feelings as any
other than as a strong evidence that my Heavenly Father has called me
into the anti-slavery field, and after having tried my faith by her
opposition, is now pleased to strengthen and confirm it by her
approbation."
In a postscript to this letter, Sarah says:--
"God does not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men, and if
my suffering or even my beloved sister's, which is harder to bear than
my own, can help forward the cause of Truth and Righteousness, I may
rejoice in that we are found worthy not only to believe on, but also to
suffer for, the name of Jesus."
Angelina adds that she shall be obliged to go to Philadelphia for a
week or so, to dispose of her personal effects, and asks Jane to
receive her as a boarder, as she did not think it would be right to
impose herself upon either her sister, Mrs. Frost, or Catherine, on
account of their disapproval of anti-slavery measures.
"I never felt before," she says, "as if I had _no_ home. It seems as if
the Lord had completely broken up my rest and driven me out to labor
for the poor slave. It is _His_ work--I blame no one."
A few weeks later, the sisters were again in New York, the guests of
that staunch abolitionist, Dr. Cox, and his good wife, Abby, as earnest
a worker in the cause as her husband. An anti-slavery convention had
been called for the first week in the month of November, and met soon
after their arrival. It was at this convention that Angelina first saw
and listened to Theodore D. Weld. Writing to her friend Jane, she
says:--
"The meetings are increasingly interesting, and to-day (11th) we
enjoyed a moral and intellectual feast in a most noble speech from T.D.
Weld, of more than two hours, on the question, 'What is slavery?' I
never heard so grand and beautiful an exposition of the dignity and
nobility of man in my life."
She goes on to give a synopsis of the entire speech, and by her
frequent enthusiastic comments reveals how much it and the speaker
impressed her. She continues:--
"After the meeting was over, W.L. Garrison introduced Weld to us. He
greeted me with the appellation of 'my dear sister,' and I felt as
though he was a brother indeed in the holy cause of suffering humanity;
a man raised up by God and wonderfully qualified to plead the cause of
the oppressed. Perhaps now thou wilt want to know how this lion of the
tribe of abolition _looks_. Well, at first sight, there was nothing
remarkable to me in his appearance, and I wondered whether he was
really as great as I had heard. But as soon as his countenance became
animated by speaking, I found it was one which portrayed the noblest
qualities of the heart and head beaming with intelligence, benevolence,
and frankness."
On the last page of her letter she says: "It is truly comforting to me
to find that sister is so much pleased with the Convention, that she
acknowledges the spirit of brotherly love and condescension manifest
there, and that earnest desire after truth which characterizes the
addresses. We have been introduced to a number of abolitionists,
Thurston, Phelps, Green, the Burleighs, Wright, Pritchard, Thome, etc.,
and Amos Dresser, as lovely a specimen of the meekness and lowliness of
the great Master as I ever saw. His countenance betrayeth that he has
been with Jesus, and it was truly affecting to hear him on Sixth Day
give an account of the Nashville outrage to a very large colored
school.[5]
"The F.A.S. Society is to have its first public meeting this week, at
which we hope to hear Weld, but fear he will not have time, as he is
not even able to go home to meals, and told me he had sat up until two
o'clock every night since he came to New York. As to myself, I feel I
have nothing to do but to attend the Convention at present. I am very
comfortable, feeling in my right place, and sister seems to feel so
too, though neither of us sees much ahead."
[5] Amos Dresser was one of the Lane Seminary students. After
leaving that institution, in order to raise funds to continue his
studies, he accepted an agency for the sale of the "Cottage Bible."
While peacefully prosecuting his business in Nashville, in 1834, it
became known that he was an abolitionist. This was enough. He was
arrested, his trunk broken open, and its contents searched and
scattered. He was then taken before a vigilance committee, and
without a single charge, except that of his anti-slavery principles,
being brought against him, was condemned to receive twenty lashes,
"well laid on," on the bare back, and then to be driven from the
town. The sentence was carried out by the votes and in the presence
of thousands of people, and was presided over by the mayor and the
elders of the Presbyterian Church from whose hands Mr. Dresser had,
the Sunday before, received the Holy Communion.
In her next letter she describes the deepening interest of the
Convention, and Sarah's increasing unity with its members.
"We sit," she says, "from 9 to 1, 3 to 5, and 7 to 9, and never feel
weary at all. It is better, _far_ better than any Yearly Meeting I ever
attended. It is still uncertain when we shall adjourn, and it is so
good to be here that I don't know how to look forward to the end of
such a feast.... T.D. Weld is to begin his Bible argument to-morrow. It
will occupy, he says, four days."
The Convention adjourned the latter part of November, 1836, and we may
judge how profitable its meetings had proved to Sarah Grimké, from the
fact that she at once began the preparation of an "Epistle to the
Clergy of the Southern States," which, printed in pamphlet form, was
issued some time in December, and was as strong an argument against the
stand on the subject of slavery taken by the majority of the clergy as
had yet appeared. Reading it, one would little suspect how recent had
been the author's opposition to just such protests as this, calculated
to stir up bitter feelings and create discussion and excitement in the
churches. It is written in a spirit of gentleness and persuasion, but
also of firm admonition, and evidently under a deep sense of individual
responsibility. It shows, too, that Sarah had reached full accord with
Angelina in her views of immediate emancipation.
By the time the Convention was over, the sisters, and portions of their
history, had become so well known to abolitionists, that the leaders
felt they had secured invaluable champions in these two Quaker women,
one so logical, brilliant, and persuasive; the other so intelligent,
earnest, and conscientious; and both distinguished by their ability to
testify as eye-witnesses against the monstrous evils of slavery.
It was proposed that they should begin to hold a series of parlor
meetings, for women only, of course. But it was soon found that they
had, in private conversations, made such an impression, that no parlors
would be large enough to accommodate all who desired to hear them speak
more at length. Upon learning this, the Rev. Mr. Dunbar, a Baptist
clergyman, offered them the use of his Session room, and the Female
Anti-Slavery Society embraced the opportunity to make this the
beginning of regular quarterly meetings. On the Sunday previous to the
meeting, notice of it was given out in four churches, without however,
naming the proposed speakers. But it became known in some way that the
Misses Grimké were to address the meeting, and a shock went through the
whole community. Not a word would have been said if they had restricted
themselves to a private parlor meeting, but that it should be
transferred to such a public place as the parlor of a church made quite
a different affair of it. Friends were of course as loud as Friends
could properly be in their expressions of disapproval, while other
denominations, not so restrained, gave Mr. Dunbar, the abolitionists,
and the "two bold Southern women" an unmistakable piece of their mind.
Even Gerrit Smith, always the grandest champion of woman, advised
against the meeting, fearing it would be pronounced a Fanny Wright
affair, and do more harm than good. Sarah and Angelina were appalled,
the latter especially, feeling almost as if she was the bold creature
she was represented to be. She declared her utter inability, in the
face of such antagonism, to go on with the work she had undertaken, and
the more she looked at it, the more unnatural and unwise it seemed to
her; and when printed hand-bills were scattered about, calling
attention in a slighting manner to their names, both felt as if it were
humanly impossible for them to proceed any further. But the meeting had
been called, and as there was no business to come before it, they did
not know what to do.
"In this emergency," Angelina writes, "I called upon Him who has ever
hearkened unto my cry. My strength and confidence were renewed, my
burden slipped off, and from that time I felt sure of God's help in the
hour of need, and that He would be mouth and wisdom, tongue and
utterance to us both."
"Yesterday," she continues, "T.D. Weld came up, like a brother, to
sympathize with us and encourage our hearts. He is a precious
Christian, and bade us not to fear, but to trust in God. In a previous
conversation on our holding meetings, he had expressed his full unity
with our doing so, and grieved over that factitious state of society
which bound up the energies of woman, instead of allowing her to
exercise them to the glory of God and the good of her fellow creatures.
His visit was really a strength to us, and I felt no more fear. We went
to the meeting at three o'clock, and found about three hundred women
there. It was opened with prayer by Henry Ludlow; we were warmly
welcomed by brother Dunbar, and then these two left us. After a moment,
I arose and spoke about forty minutes, feeling, I think, entirely
unembarrassed. Then dear sister did her part better than I did. We then
read some extracts from papers and letters, and answered a few
questions, when at five the meeting closed; after the question had been
put whether our sisters wished another meeting to be held. A good many
rose, and Henry Ludlow says he is sure he can get his session room for
us."
This account of the first assembly of women, not Quakers, in a public
place in America, addressed by American women, 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, and to hear them applauded too, can scarcely
realize the prejudice which, half a century back, sought to close the
lips of two refined Christian ladies, desirous only of adding their
testimony against the greatest evil of any age or country. But those
who denounced and ridiculed them builded better than they knew, for
then and there was laid the corner-stone of that temple of equal rights
for women, which has been built upon by so many brave hearts and
willing hands since, and has brought to the front such staunch
supporters and brilliant advocates as now adorn every convention of the
Woman's Rights Associations.
After mentioning some who came up and spoke to them after the meeting
was over, Angelina adds:--
"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."
Another meeting, similar to the first, was held the next week, when so
much interest was manifested that it was decided to continue the
meetings every week until further notice. By the middle of January they
had become so crowded, and were attended by such an influential class
of women, that Mr. Ludlow concluded to offer his church to them. He
always opened the meetings with prayer, and then retired. The addresses
made by the sisters were called "lectures," but they were rather
familiar talks, occasionally a discussion, while many questions were
asked and answered. Angelina's confidence in herself increased rapidly,
until she no longer felt the least embarrassment in speaking; though
she alludes to the exhausting effect of the meetings on her physical
system. Of Sarah, she says, writing to Jane Smith:--
"It is really delightful to see dear sister so happy in this work....
Some Friends come to hear us, but I do not know what they think of the
meetings--or of us. How little, how very little I supposed, when I used
so often to say 'I wish I were a man,' that I could go forth and
lecture, that I ever would do such a thing. The idea never crossed my
mind that as a woman such work could possibly be assigned to me."
To this letter there is a postscript from Sarah, in which she says:--
"I would not give up my abolition feelings for anything I know. They
are intertwined with my Christianity. They have given a new spring to
my existence, and shed over my whole being sweet and hallowed
enjoyments."
Angelina's next letter to her friend is dated, "2d Mo. 4th, 1837," and
continues the account of the meetings. She mentions that, at the last
one, they had one male auditor, who refused to go out when told he
must, so he was allowed to stay, and she says: "Somehow, I did not
feel, his presence embarrassing at all, and went on just as though he
had not been there. Some one said he took notes, and I think he was a
Southern spy, and shall not be at all surprised if he publishes us in
some Southern paper."
Truly it was a risky thing for a lord of creation to intrude himself
into a woman's meeting in those days!
Angelina goes on to remark that more Friends are attending their
meetings, and that if they were not opened with prayer, still more
would come. Also, that Friends had been very kind and attentive to them
in every way, and never said a discouraging word to them. She then
discourses a little on phrenology, at that time quite a new thing in
this country, and relates an anecdote of "Brother "Weld," as follows:--
"When he went to Fowler in this city, he disguised himself as an
omnibus driver. The phrenologist was so struck with the supposed fact
that an omnibus driver should have such an extraordinary head, that he
preserved an account of it, and did not know until some time after that
it was Weld's. He says that when he first had his head examined at
Utica, he was told he was deficient in the organ of color, his eyebrow
showing it. He immediately remembered that his mother often told him:
'Theodore, it is of no use to send you to match a skein of silk, for
you never bring the right color.' When relating this, he observed a
general titter in the room, and on inquiring the reason a candle was
put near him, and, to his amazement, all agreed that the legs of his
pantaloons were of different shades of green. Instead of a ridge all
around his eyebrow, he has a little hollow in one spot."
A society for the encouragement of abstinence from the use of slave
products had just been formed in Philadelphia, and Angelina desired her
friend to put her name to the pledge, but not Sarah's. In a postscript
Sarah explains this, saying:--
"I do abstain from slave produce as much as I can, just because I feel
most easy to do so, but I cannot say my judgment is convinced;
therefore, I would rather not put my name to the pledge."
Her judgment was convinced, however, very shortly afterwards, by a
discussion of the subject with Weld and some others, and she then wrote
to Jane Smith to set her name down, as she found her testimony in the
great cause was greatly strengthened by keeping clean hands.
There is much told of their meetings, and their other experiences in
New York, which is very interesting, and for which I regret I have not
room. Angelina describes in particular one visit they made to a poor
family, that of one of her Sunday-school pupils, where they stayed to
tea, being afterwards joined by Mr. Weld, who came to escort them home.
She says of him:--
"I have seen him shine in the Convention and in refined circles, but
never did I admire him so much. His perfect ease at this fireside of
poverty showed that he was accustomed to be the friend and companion of
the poor of this world."
The family here mentioned was doubtless a colored one, as it was in the
colored Sunday school that both sisters taught. They had already
proved, by their friendship for Sarah Douglass, the Fortens, and other
colored families of Philadelphia, how slight was their prejudice
against color, but the above incident proves the entire sincerity of
their convictions and their desire to avail themselves of every
opportunity to testify to it. Still, there is no doubt that to the
influence of Theodore Weld's conversations they owed much of their
enlightenment on this as well as on some other points of radical
abolitionism. It was after a talk with him that Angelina describes the
Female Anti-Slavery Society of New York as utterly inefficient, "doing
literally nothing," and ascribes its inefficiency to the sinful
prejudice existing there, which shut out colored women from any share
in its management, and gave little encouragement to them even to become
members.
She adds: "I believe it is our duty to visit the poor, white and
colored, just in this way, and to receive them at our houses. I think
that the artificial distinctions in society, the separation between the
higher and the lower orders, the aristocracy of wealth and education,
are the very rock of pauperism, and that the only way to eradicate this
plague from our land will be to associate with the poor, and the wicked
too, just as our Redeemer did. To visit them as our inferiors, the
recipients of our bounty, is quite a different thing from going among
them as our equals."
In her next letter to Jane Smith, Angelina gives an interesting account
of H.B. Stanton's great speech before the Committee of the
Massachusetts legislature on the abolition of slavery in the District
of Columbia; a speech which still ranks as one of the ablest and most
brilliant ever delivered in this country. There is no date to this
letter, but it must have been written the last of February or first of
March, 1837. She begins thus:--
"I was wondering, my dear Jane, what could be the reason I had not
heard from thee, when brother Weld came in with thine and Mira's
letters hanging from the paper on which they had been tied. 'I bring
you,' he said, 'a good emblem of the fate of abolitionists,--so take
warning;' and held them up to our view....
"Brother Garrison was here last Sixth Day and spent two hours with us.
He gave us a most delightful account of recent things in Boston, which
I will try to tell thee of. "When the abolitionists found how their
petitions were treated in Congress, they sent in, from all parts of
Massachusetts, petitions to the legislature, requesting it to issue a
protest against such contempt of the people's wishes and rights. The
legislature was amazed at the number and respectability of these
petitions, and appointed a committee to take them under consideration.
Abolitionists then asked for a hearing before that committee, not in
the lobby, but in the Hall of Representatives. The request was granted,
and though the day was exceedingly stormy, a good number were out. A
young lawyer of Boston first spoke an hour and a half; H.B. Stanton
followed, and completely astonished the audience, but could not get
through by dark, and asked for another meeting. The next afternoon an
overflowing audience greeted him; he spoke three hours, and did not yet
finish. Another meeting was appointed for the next evening, and he says
he thinks hundreds went away because they could not get in. Stanton
spoke one hour and a quarter, and then broke down from the greatness of
the effort, added to the unceasing labors of the winter. A profound
silence reigned through the crowded hall. Not one moved to depart. At
last a member of the committee arose, and asked if there was any other
abolitionist present who wished to speak. Stanton said he believed not,
as they now had the views of the Anti-Slavery Society. The committee
were not satisfied; and one of them said if there was any abolitionist
who wished to follow Mr. Stanton, they would gladly hear all he had to
say, but all declined. Brother Garrison said such was the desire to
hear more on this subject, that he came directly to New York to get
Weld to go and speak before them, but his throat is still so much
affected that it will be impossible for him to do so. Isn't this
cheering news? Here are seven hundred men in the Massachusetts
legislature, who, if they can be moved to protest against the
unconstitutional proceedings of Congress, will shake this nation to its
centre, and rock it in a revolutionary storm that must either sink it
or save it."
After closing their meetings in New York, the sisters held similar ones
in Newark, Bloomfield, and other places in New Jersey, in all of which
Sarah was as active and enthusiastic as Angelina, and from this time we
hear no more of the gloom and despondency which had saddened so many of
the best years of her life. But, identified completely with her
sister's work, she was busy, contented and satisfied of the Lord's
goodness and mercy.
These meetings had all been quiet and undisturbed in every way, owing
of course, to the fact that only women attended, but the newspapers had
not spared them. Ridicule, sarcasm, and pity were liberally bestowed
upon the "deluded ladies" by the press generally, and the Richmond Whig
published several editorials about "those fanatical women, the Misses
Grimké." But writing against them was the extent of the opposition at
that time, and this affected them very little.
From New Jersey they went up the North River with Gerrit Smith, holding
interesting meetings 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, and it was
perhaps in accordance with the fitness of things that it should have
been a colored one. She often spoke of this in after years, looking
back to it with pleasure. Here, also, they attended a meeting of the
Anti-slavery Society of the Protestant Episcopal Methodist Church, and
spoke against the sin of prejudice. In a letter to Sarah Douglass,
Sarah says:--
"My feelings were so overcome at this meeting that I sat down and wept.
I feel as if I had taken my stand by the side of the colored American,
willing to share with him the odium of a darker skin, and I trust if I
am permitted again to take my seat in Arch Street Meeting House, it
will be beside thee and thy dear mother."
These Hudson River meetings ended the labors of the sisters in New York
for the time. They returned to the city to take a little needed rest,
and to prepare for the Female Anti-Slavery Convention, which was to
meet there early in May. The Society which had sent them forth had
reason to be well satisfied with its experiment. Not only had they
awakened enthusiasm and sincere interest in abolition, but had
demonstrated the ability of women to publicly advocate a great cause,
and the entire propriety of their doing so. One of the members, of the
committee asserted that it would be as impossible to calculate the
number of converts they had made, as to estimate the encouragement and
strength their zeal and eloquence had given to abolitionists all over
the country. Men were slow to believe the reports of their wives and
sisters respecting Angelina's wonderful oratory, and this incredulity
produced the itching ears which soon drew to the meetings where the
Grimké sisters were to speak more men than women, and gave them the
applause and hearty support of some of the ablest minds of New England.
The Female Anti-slavery Convention opened with seventy-one delegates;
the Misses Grimké, at their own request, representing South Carolina.
During this convention they met many congenial souls, among whom they
particularize Lydia M. Child, Mary T. Parker, and Anna Weston, as
sympathizing so entirely with their own views respecting prejudice and
the province of woman.
The latter question had long been Sarah's pet problem, to the solution
of which she had given much thought and study, ever since the time when
she was denied participation in her brother's education because of her
sex. It is scarcely too much to say that to her mind this question was
second in importance to none, and though the word enfranchisement, as
applied to woman, had not yet been uttered, the whole theory of it was
in Sarah's heart, and she eagerly awaited the proper time and place to
develop it. Angelina, while holding the same views, would probably have
kept them in the background longer, but for Sarah's arguments,
supported by the objection so frequently urged against the
encouragement of their meetings,--that slavery was a political subject
with which women had nothing to do. This objection she answered in a
masterly paper, an "Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States,"
which was printed in pamphlet form and sent out by the Female
Anti-Slavery Convention, and attracted wide attention. The chief point
she took was this: "The denial of our duty to act in this cause is a
denial of our right to act; and if we have no right to act, then may we
well be termed 'the white slaves of the North,' for, like our brethren
in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair."
The whole argument, covering nearly seventy pages, is remarkable in its
calm reasoning, sound logic, and fervid eloquence, and will well repay
perusal, even at this day. About the same time a beautiful and most
feeling "Address to Free Colored Americans" was written by Sarah, and
likewise circulated by the Convention. These two pamphlets made the
sisters so widely known, and so increased the desire in other places to
hear them speak, that invitations poured in upon them from different
parts of the North and West, as well as from the New England States. It
was finally decided that they should go to Boston first, to aid the
brave, good women there, who, while willing to do all that women could
do for the cause in a private capacity, had not yet been persuaded to
open their lips for it in any kind of a public meeting. It was not
contemplated, however, that the sisters should address any but
assemblies of women. Even Boston was not yet prepared for a greater
infringement of the social proprieties.