Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-09-17
Mlistellameuus &eadiug.
THE GRIMKE SISTERS.
SOUTH CAROLIN1 -4DVOCATES OF ABOLI-
TION.
["Gath' in the Cincinnati Enquirer.


["Gatll' in the Cincinnati Enquirer.l
A book has recently appeared, called
"The Grimke Sisters" written by Catherine
Birney, which l have read with probably
more interest than any book concerning
women in private life, for these sisters real
ly were unknown to the multitude while
they were highly public-spirited, and the
first fact to mention about them is the most
singular Of all. They were first, in point OF
time, among all women North or South, tC
advocate the abolition of slavery, as well
as female suffrage, and they were both ma.
tives Of South Carolina, and one of the best
official families there. They died so neal
our own time as to make portion of their
story a thing of the daily news. Sarah
Grimke expired on the 23rd of December
Just before Christmas, 1874, and Angelina
Grimke, to whom she had been mother as
we'll as a sister, died on the 26th of October
1879. Our South Carolina friends may take
pride in the lives of these two women who
give South Carolina her share in the aboli.
ton of slavery. These women lived all
through the times of Modification, and
through the John Brown raid, and through
all the civil war, and during that time had
sisters and connections living in Charleston
and Carolina, and still these sisters, the
strongest Of their race, were upholding ev-
cry movement which would rid the country
of the suspicious demon of slavery.
Among the families of Charleston who
took a stand for the perpetuity of the Union
at the time when Calhoun and his political
school threatened to disrupt it by "Nulifi-
cation" was that of John +. Grimke, a col
onel in the Revolutionary war. His pecu'
liar name is German, his father having
n1Nthpr
a Carolina Huguenot, Colonel. Grimke was
educated in England, graduated at Oxford
University, and he was practicing law in
the Temple, London, when the colonies de-
clared their independence, and he came
home and raised a company in Charleston
After the war he became leading lawyer
at the Bar of Charleston, and Judge OF the
Supreme Court. BY his wife, who was a
mixture of Irish and English Puritan stock,
he had fourteen children, and the sixth o1
them was
SARAH MOORE GRIMKE.
She was born in 1892, during the Admin.
istration of Gen. Washington, and she died
maiden woman in the Administration
of Gen. Grant. Sarah Grimke had broth
er, Thoms Grimke, six years older than
herself, from whom she took her early
ideas of honor and independence. This
Thomas Grimke was sent to Yale College
like Calhoun, and was High Church Epis
copalian, and he had rather Germanic no
tions on good many questions, but he never
had much sensibility on the slavery question
In the time of Notification, however, he
was firm Union man. He died in 1S34
near Columbus, Ohio, of cholera, like the
father of John and Tecumseh Sherman
He had gone to deliver an address on edu
cation, and to visit his brother Frederick
who lived in Columbus, and on the way he
stopped to see his sisters, and when he
reached wayside tavern in Ohio the chole
ra laid hold of him. His brother adjourn
ed the Conrt and reached the bedside jus
too late. The two brothers, who had moi
seen each other for sixteen years, eXchang
ed look Of recognition and Thomas Grim.
Ike passed from earth. His sister remarked
of her last talk with him: He saw very
clearly that the anti-slavery agitation
which began'in 1882, would shake our coun
try to it's foundation. I asked him Wheth
er he believed colonization could abolish
slavery. He said: "No, never"
Sarah Grimke, when mere child, felt the
injury of slavery on her own feelings. The
severe fioggings the household servants re-
ceived terribly excited her, and when she
was a child her nurse found her on the
WHAT DeSSluS q Sett CdPlalL " lahO hCi "
some place where such things were not
done. She persisted in teaching her little
servants to read, though it was against the
law. When
HER SISTER ANGELINA
was born, Sarah, herself only twelve, asked
to be godmother for her sister. She per-
sisted against any refusals on this point,
and at last the family consented, and she
ctoo6 ~ tho toy oy,ficpool font and mica1 tC
train this child in the way she should go.
Angelina grewup even more independent
and positive woman than Sarah, but the
consciousness and patience of the elder
finally prevailed with her, and these two
sisters followed each other like master and
disciple. Their adventures are too long to
relate in miscellaneous letter like this.
The elder sister, as we'll as the younger,
spent some years in the fashionable society
of Charleston, dancing, coqueting, &C., and
Sarah wrote: 'But for my tutelary god,
my dolzed brother, my young, passionate
nature, stimulated by that love of admira-
ton which carries many a high and noble
soul down the stream of folly to the Whirl-
pool of an unhallowed marriage, l had
rushed also into this lifelong misery" She
was saved from this by her conversion by
a Presbyterian minister.
Her father, the Judge, becoming sick, Sa-
rah was sent to Philadelphia to nurse him,
and there she went and took lodgings with
a quaker family. Her father continued to
run down, and, being sent to Long Branch,
he died there in one of the common taverns
of that day, with no friendly being at his
side but this young daughter. She was
then about twenty-One. While in Phila.
delphia the subject of slavery was called to
the mind of Sarah Grimke by some of hel
quaker friends. When she returned home
HER DISLIKE OF SLAVERY
increased, and she paid visit to North
Carolina to the family Of BarnWell Rhett's
mother, who was her aunt. Rhett's real
name was Smith, which he changed to in
herit property. Queerly enough out OF this
same stock came this first female Abolition
ist and the most self-satistied of Secession
lists. Sarah Grimke's mother was a Smith,
as Rhett was and the Irish stock on that
side of the house never brought out any
spirituality. Mrs. Grimke, the mother,
was failure all her days exceptin producing
individual children. She was poor house
keeper, incurable in her prejudices, and the
family, Notwithstanding its good eXtrac-
ton, continued to run down after the faith
er's death. The father had left about $1O,-
900 apiece to his children and left his estate
unQlVlQeQ 10 continue 10 ctru " living iol
them. Sarah for a while attempted to be-
come Methodist, but she had made some
friends among the Quakers of Charleston,
who were few in number, and they lent
her their books. Reading these books she
found that the Quaker methods of life suit
ed her the best, and to the astonishment of
her family and friends, she went to the
little Quaker Westinghouse in Charleston,
though she did not at first assume the Qua
ker dress.
Suffering some little persecution and
mockery She was invited by Philadel-
phia Friend, with whom she corresponded,