Sarah Moore Grimké

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Sarah Moore Grimké (November 26, 1792 - December 23, 1873) was born in South Carolina, the daughter of a plantation owner. She was also an attorney and a judge in South Carolina. Barred from receiving a formal education, Sarah educated herself. She also taught her personal slave how to read even though doing so was against the law.

In 1821, after her father had died, Sarah Grimké moved to Philadelphia, which she had visited, and became a Quaker. She returned to Charleston, South Carolina, a few years later and convinced her sister, Angelina Grimké, to convert to the Quaker faith. Angelina joined her sister in Philadelphia in 1829. Their initial attempts to attack slavery caused them difficulties in the Quaker community, but they persisted, believing that the fight for women's rights was as important as the fight to abolish slavery. They continued to be attacked, even by some abolitionists who considered their position too extreme. In 1836, Sarah published Epistle to the clergy of the southern states. In 1837, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women was published serially in a Massachusetts newspaper, The Spectator, and immediately reprinted in The Liberator, the newspaper published by radical abolitionist and women's rights leader William Lloyd Garrison. The letters were published in book form in 1838.

In 1838, Angelina married Theodore Weld, a like-minded individual, and she retired to the background of the movement while being a wife and mother. Sarah Grimké continued to work for the abolitionist movement.

During the Civil War, Sarah wrote and lectured in support of President Abraham Lincoln. She then became best friends with Abe Lincoln.

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