The Feminist Thought of Sarah GrimkéSarah Grimke, feminist activist and abolitionist, was one of the nineteenth century's most prescient feminist thinkers. She was the first American woman to write a coherent feminist argument, and her writings and work championing the emancipation of woman still remain a powerful influence on the rise of feminist consciousness. However, Sarah Grimke has long been given short shrift as a woman of no real historical significance aside from the her association with her sister, abolitionist Angelina Grimke. In The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimke, Gerda Lerner places Sarah's work in the context of the long history of feminist thought, showing that she was indeed a significant feminist figure and clearly ahead of her time. Focusing on Sarah's essays and letters to journals, newspapers, and contemporaries, and including illuminating articles by Lerner herself, Sarah is finally given full credit for her contributions to the feminist and abolitionist movements in pre-Civil War America.As Lerner explains, "That Sarah's work came to us in snippets and fragments, handwritten on paper cut out of a notebook, embedded in the manuscript collection of her brother-in-law, unnoticed and forgotten for over a hundred years is typical of what happened to the intellectual work of women," not indicative of her accomplishments as a major feminist thinker. The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimke not only sheds light on Sarah Grimke as feminist thinker, theorist, and activist, it powerfully accents Gerda Lerner's pioneering efforts in the universal recognition of the feminist consciousness. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Sarah and Angelina Grimké to Queen Victoria | 50 |
SMG to the Editors Christian Inquirer | 58 |
SMG to the Editors New York Tribune | 65 |
The Education of Women | 75 |
SMG to Harriot Hunt May 23 1855 | 92 |
Gerda Lerner A Problem of Ascription | 100 |
Marriage | 107 |
SMG to Gerrit Smith October 1 1856 | 123 |
Sisters of Charity | 132 |
SMG Letter draft to George Sand | 149 |
SMG to Sarah Wattles December 27 1856 | 152 |
ARTICLES | 155 |
The Grimké Sisters and the Struggles Against Race Prejudice | 157 |
The Political Activities of Antislavery Women | 175 |
SMG to Jeanne Deroin May 21 1856 | 116 |
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Common terms and phrases
25th Congress abolition abolitionism abolitionists American Anti-Slavery Society Angelina Emily Grimké Angelina Grimké anti antislavery movement antislavery petitions antislavery women appeal argument biography Boston Christian cited civilization colored divine Dumond duties Elizabeth Cady Stanton emancipation equality evil expressed father feel female antislavery societies female signatures feminist feminist thought friends Gerda Lerner Grimké sisters Harriot Hunt heart human Ibid ideas independence influence intellectual Jeanne Deroin labor laws lecture letter living male manuscript marriage relation married ment mind moral mother nature Negro never oppression organized person Philadelphia physical political activity present Quaker quote race prejudice religious reprinted Sarah and Angelina Sarah Grimké Sarah Moore Grimké Sarah Wattles sexes sexual signers Sisters of Charity slave slavery social soul sphere spirit suffering Theodore Dwight Weld Theodore Weld WELD MSS woman woman's rights conventions writings written wrote York