New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-24
SARAH NJ. GRTInKE.
u. W. s.

HER REMUNERATION OF HER INHERITANCE AS A
STAKEHOLDER
To Ms Editor Of The 7rtoune.
SIR: Although the death of this remarkable Octo-
genarian has been announced in many of the papers,
probably but few now living remember the great
sensation produced throughout the country by her
remuneration of her inheritance as Shareholder
fifty years ago. The two sisters, Sarah and Ange-
lina daughters of the Hon. j. +. Grimke, Judge of
the Supreme Court of South Carolina, abandoned
home and wealth forever because they could not
countenance American Slavery. Sarah, the elder of
these sisters, published full Narrative and Testi-
moDyn of that solemn event. 1t was dated at Fort
Lee, Bergen Co., n. j., March 2G 1880. That testi-
mony opens follows:
As left my native State account OF Slavery, and
deserted the home OF fathers to escape the sounds OF
tins, would gladly bury In oblivion the recollection or
those with which have been familiar. But this
may not, cannot be; they come over my memory IKE
CORY specters and implore with resstess power, in
the name Of humanity for the sake OF the Shareholders
well the slave to bear witness 10 he norors Vi the
ieei impeled by sacred sense of duty to my
try and sympathy for the bleeding victims OF tyr
amy aud lust to give my testimony respecting te sys
Of American Slavery and to detail facts which have
under my own personal observation. the actors
IN these tragedies were and women Of the high
estrespectabty and OF the rst families IN south Caro
lima and their crueles did not III the slightest degree
aft ct their standing in society.
Sarah's opposition to Slavery had taken a practi-
cal FORM than 20 years before Indeed, she has
herself assured me, that when she was but girl,
they each had slaves to attend them body servants
and she and her servant were In the habit OF lying
down Cd their faces before the fire at night in order,
by its light, to teach the slave 10 read. But her
father, finding out what she was doing, put an end
TO it of course. 1t was while in her teens" that
she become conscious of the social and civil wrongs
done to woman. Her two brothers, one afterward
the Hon. Thomas +. Grmke, and the other the Hon.
Frederic Grimke of the Supreme Court of Ohio, were
then being educated, and when but girl she often
begged to now why she and her sisters could not
have the same opportunities for education which
were 80 amply provided for her brothers.
But thus it was that as these sisters increased in
wears they became more and more conscious of the
great wrong in American Slavery until the the bur
den became intolerable, and they abandoned 1.-The
home of their fathers for the hazardous tolls of the
Anti-Slavery movement that had just then been in
angurated. In three years after the American Anti
Slavery Society was formed and in its service these
sisters from the South" Immediately engaged.
Special meetings of the Executive Committee were
held for conference with them, and 1T was
at these meetings that Theoeore d. Weld read
"A work be was then preparing for the
press, entitled American Slavery as it is. Testi-
mony of Thousand Witnesses" Angelina soon
after became the wife of Mr.. Weld, but the sisters
from first to last, have been lovely in their lives
and in this death of the elder, they were not
divided This venerable woman, " old and full of
years ceased at to labor and to live" and her
demise calls to mind her coworkers of that heroic
ager when it cost something to be found in active
opposition to Human Slavery. That, indeed,was tue
martyr period" of America, when LoveJcy was
shot at Alton, and poor Torrey imprisoned to death
in Baltimore; and it continued until John Brown
was hanged at Harpers Ferry
few of her coworkers still remain, gray headed
veterans of $780, upon whom may be seen the scars
of many hard-fought battle. Arthur and Lewis
Tappan, Joshua Leavitt. Sarah NJ Grimke. and
Others have laid aside their armor, and passed on to
their rest Only few Of the old guard" now re-
main. three of whom, members of the Executive
Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
were in attendance at Miss Grmke's Obsequies-
William l.. Garrison Elizur Wright, and one
other also whose head is blooming for
the grave that head for which, in
1896 his Christian brethren at the South offered
an award of $4,000. He was then the editor of a
Methodist AntiSlavery paper in New-York, copies OF
which. finding their way to Charleston 8. c., were
publicly burned in the street by the hangman; and
a brother member of the South Carolina Annual
that if wonld only show my face in that city, the
Methodist brethren in New-Orleans would raise half
of that sum. and he would guarantee that should
not be put to any trouble in getting back to New
York again!
Albeit these sisters had commenced life IN the fogs
of the old theology yet it was interesting to with
how soon they emerged into the light Of open day,
"a they began to work in earnest for those III bonds
Thus instinctivey the sectarian dogmas lose their
power over when We are once fully committed 10
the cause of Freedom. - q,
SARAH NJ Grimke was model woman. She loved
the trutb and uttered IT. She loved righteousness
for its sake and she praeticed IT. She did gooa
to the souls and bodies of all rs opportunity offered
asking for no reward. She lived under the supreme
control of virtue. Her sympathy and Kindness OF
heart were unbounded OF meek and gentle spirit,
genial atabe, and kind, she yet Iebuked the wrong
doer with an authority that could not De disputed
after leaving her home in the South. she manifested
a keen sense of equity lest she might become
burden TO some in her old age but she was ever
cheerful and hopeful Progressive IN her tendencies
she ceased to manifest deep interest III ,ne
franchise movement for woman She was bold IN
the utterauce of her convictions. Her soul was TOO
large for sectarian limits. Wholly unseltish the
natural goodness of her heart drew around her the
good and the true of an parties. enc pau ihuc me
principal home in the family OF her sister and
brother Weld. where she dled' lhe weary;
worn-out minds, expire not half so sou,
IA this excellent woman sank to her hnal rest Her
intelligence and the genial warmth OIL her
ton secured for her large circle OF appreciatiye
friends among whom she was often found. VI the
pleasant DAYS spent in the families of Gerrt smith
Mr.. Garrison Mr. Jackson and Others, l have oiten
heard her speak. In my own nouseno.u sho mS
She was good woman. and her example snail DO
the inspiration of generations yet unborn.
''' LAROY SUNDERLAND.