Sarah Moore Grimké
Sarah Moore Grimké (born November 26, 1792 in Charleston South Carolina , † December 23, 1873 in Hyde Park near Boston, Massachusetts) was an American abolitionist , writer, civil rights activist and early feminist . She was the daughter of a respected and wealthy planter and slave owner, John Faucheraud Grimké. In the 1820s she moved to Philadelphia where she converted to Quakerism , as did her sister Angelina . Both became active opponents of slavery and began to hold public speeches among the abolitionists , because they were able to report firsthand about their home experiences with slavery. They supported the liberation of slaves and also became advocates for women's rights .
biography
Childhood and Adolescence in South Carolina
Sarah Grimké was born in Charleston in 1792 , the sixth of a total of 14 children. Her father, John Faucheraud Grimké, a wealthy plantation owner , was a lawyer and judge by profession. Her mother, Mary Smith, was a housewife and an active member of the American Episcopal Church .
As a child, Grimké was aware that she received a much weaker education than her brothers. As a “higher daughter” she received lessons in drawing, embroidery, harpsichord playing and French, but was not allowed to study. Thirsty for knowledge, Sarah learned as much as possible from her older brother, who studied at Yale University : Latin, Greek, mathematics, geography. She also read the books in her father's library, including legal works. Although her parents thought she was very smart, they did not allow her to fulfill her dream of becoming a lawyer . Working as a lawyer was an “unfeminine” profession in the eyes of society.
Grimké was dissatisfied with this and befriended the slaves on her family's plantation, whom she wanted to teach to read the Bible, but her parents forbade it because it was illegal to teach slaves to read. Therefore, she met her housekeeper in secret to practice reading and writing with her, which her parents also prevented.
Life and work in the northern states
After she left home in 1821 and moved to Philadelphia , she converted to Quakerism and became an active advocate of women's and black rights. When she wanted to become a preacher to the Quakers, the male Quakers prevented this. After their younger sister Angelina came to Philadelphia, the two went to New England , where they took part in the demonstrations against slavery .
They first described the cruelty of slavery to small groups of women, but soon also to a large, mixed audience. In one year, they spoke to more than 40,000 people in 88 congregations. Above all, Angelina was a talented speaker who moved and excited the audience. Both had become part of the abolitionist movement and published many articles and letters about it. Her speeches on the abolition of slavery and women's rights were very popular in her day.
Sarah's most famous quote is still the following published phrase from the Boston Spectator :
"I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy. "(In Letter 2 of July 17, 1837)
“I don't ask for any privileges for my gender. I am not giving up my claim to equality. All I expect from our brothers is that they remove their feet from our necks and allow us to stand upright on the ground God intended us to be. ”(Sarah Grimké in the Boston Spectator )
Appreciation
Sarah Moore Grimké was the first author in the United States to argue publicly for equality between men and women . She worked to eradicate slavery and developed an aversion to Christian churches that had become "unchristian"; and she constantly fought against prejudice against African Americans and women.
Her writings provided arguments and ideas that other women's rights activists took up, such as: B. Lucy Stone , Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott . They helped end slavery and begin the struggle for women's suffrage .
Sarah Grimké is seen not only as an abolitionist, but also as a feminist, as she challenged the “Religious Society of Friends” ( Quakerism ), whose members, while advocating women's inclusion , otherwise failed. Her preoccupation with abolitionism made her sensitive to the limitations of women. She did not want to be subject to the man and therefore did not marry. As a public speaker, she violated the unwritten law that women do not have to speak in public - especially in front of a “mixed audience” of women and men. In doing so, she was seen as a leader in the women's cause because she was so openly contrary to custom and custom.
Works
Sarah Moore Grimkè:
- An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States 1836
- Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman. Scholar Select, 1838. 6 reprints: 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
- Further publications together with her sister Angelina Emily Grimké .
Novel about the Grimké sisters
In 2014, Sue Monk Kidd published a novel entitled The Invention of Wings . It is about the life and work of the Grimké sisters. The German translation was published by btb-Verlag in 2015 and is called The Invention of Wings . It describes in an impressive way the existence of slaves in the southern states as well as the social conditions in the northern states of Pennsylvania, New York and in the New England states.
Sue Monk Kidd, who was living in Charleston at the time, was astonished to have never heard of these two sisters who had campaigned for the abolition of slavery , racial segregation and women's rights at the beginning of the 19th century , and began to find out more about the Grimké sisters. In her historical novel, however, she did not stick to the traditional sources in every detail. She focused on Sarah Grimké as one of the two first-person narrators; the experiences of her opponent Hetty or Handful Grimké, a slave , are fictional. A slave named Hetty actually existed, but almost nothing is known about her other than the fact that she died young.
Oprah Winfrey , who, according to the blurb of the German edition, has secured the film rights to the novel, said in an interview with the author: “What gets me throughout the novel is that in such an imaginative and forceful way you enable us to see the state of women's rights — that not so long ago, women were just pieces of property ", and Monk Kidd confirmed her impression that the subject of the book is definitely topical:" We are not finished with the legacy of slavery or with the bias in our gender relations , and that's why the topics are still relevant. "
output
- Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of the Wings . Translated from American English by Astrid Mania, btb 2015, ISBN 978-3-442-75485-4
See also
literature
- Lerner, Gerda (1971), The Grimke Sisters From South Carolina: Pioneers for Women's Rights and Abolition . New York: Schocken Books, 1971 and Cary, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-510603-2
- Perry, Mark E. (2002), Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders . New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-14-200103-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biography of the Grimké Sisters , accessed October 2, 2018.
- ^ Oprah Talks with Sue Monk Kidd About The Invention of Wings , January 2014 at www.oprah.com
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grimké, Sarah Moore |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American abolitionist, writer, civil rights activist, and feminist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1792 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charleston, South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 23, 1873 |
| Place of death | Hyde Park (Boston) |