The Grimke Sisters Through The Civil War - The Final Chapter | Sisterhood: SC Suffragists - Episode 4

After the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, the Welds, along with Sarah Grimke, retreated to a farm in Belleville, New Jersey, where in 1839, the three produced a compendium on American slavery. This compendium had such a tremendous impact for the abolition movement. After the publishing of the compendium, both Angelina and Theodore retired from public life, and raised a family. Theodore established two schools, where he and the Grimke sisters both taught. At the Eagleswood school in Massachusetts, students of all races and sexes were welcome to attend. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her husband held a close personal relationship with the Grimke-Weld family, and Sarah Grimke was a mentor to Stanton. Inexplicably, when Elizabeth Stanton wrote a history of the women’s rights movement, she failed to acknowledge the contributions of the Grimkes. In 1848, Stanton invited the Grimke sisters to the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, but the Grimkes did not attend. African Americans, with the exception of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, were not invited to attend, either.

The groundwork laid by the Grimke sisters paved the way for other southern women to pursue activism for both abolition and women’s rights. The Grimke family continued to prosper in the years following the Civil War.

Standards

• 5-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of American economic challenges in the 1920s and 1930s and world conflict in the 1940s.
  • Along with the rest of the world, the United States experienced a boom-and-bust period during the 1920s and 1930s. In the United States, this situation led to significant government intervention to stimulate the economy. Other countries did not follow...
    • 5-4.1 Summarize daily life in the post–World War I period of the 1920s, including improvements in the standard of living, transportation, and entertainment; the impact of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and ...
• 8-5 The student will understand the impact of Reconstruction, industrialization, and Progressivism on society and politics in South Carolina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • During the periods of Reconstruction, industrial expansion, and the Progressive movement, South Carolina searched for ways to revitalize its economy while maintaining its traditional society. To understand South Carolina’s experience as represen...
    • 8-5.8 Compare the Progressive movement in South Carolina with the national Progressive movement, including the impact on temperance; women’s suffrage; labor laws; and educational, agricultural, health, and governmental reform.
• USHC-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the industrial development and the consequences of that development on society and politics during the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
  • Political democracy depends upon the active participation of individuals working through political and economic-interest groups to protect their welfare. To understand how groups in the past have protected their rights, the student will utilize the kn...
    • USHC-4.6 Compare the accomplishments and limitations of the women’s suffrage movement and the Progressive Movement in affecting social and political reforms in America, including the roles of the media and of reformers such as Carrie Chapman Catt...