Anti-slavery speech
Hi, my names are Sarah and Angelina Grimke. We are from a plantation in South Carolina and we were born into a rich slave owning family. We grew up watching the violent treatment of slavery and vowed to fight against it. When I (Sarah) was 12, I became the godmother to my younger sister, Angelina, to help “guide and protect her.” This strengthened our relationship with each other and helped my (Sarah) desire for fighting for social justice. I (Sarah) went with my sick father to Philadelphia to try and help heal him of his sickness when I met a bunch of Quakers and members of the Society of Friends who helped encourage me to return to the south to help fight against slavery.
In 1836, I (Angelina) wrote my Appeal to the Christian Women in the South to try and convince women to embrace the anti slavery clause. The Anti-Slavery Clause was written by Thomas Jefferson and said that condemned slavery was one of the most evil results of the British Crown. This was widely ignored in the South and most women in the south especially considered slaves and no women rights to be correct and normal, which is why the appeal was so unheard of. I was inspired by my sister once she returned from Philadelphia and told me about the people she met and what they stood for, and wanted to help change the lives of many black people in the south.
Because of my (Angelina) appeal I wrote, me and my sister soon became some of the only women in the south who fought for anti slavery and women's rights. Even Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself invited us to the first woman's rights convention. We were highly regarded by many anti slavery people for being not only women from the south against slavery, but by appealing to other women's emotional side to persuade them to stand with their fellow sisters and daughters in fighting for our equal rights.
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