Should the Grimke sisters appear on a historic marker
in Charleston, South Carolina?
Overview:
Sarah and Angelina Grimke, born in Charleston, South Carolina to a wealthy slave holding family, rebuked slavery
and moved north to help in the abolitionist movement during the Antebellum Period. The sisters are also identified
as being among the first to argue for gender equality in the United States. The Preservation Society of Charleston
does not currently have a historic marker in Charleston honoring the sisters for their work for African-Americans or
women. This Mini-Q takes a look at the process for placing a historic marker and examines why the Grimke sisters
have not appeared on historic marker in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Documents:
Document A: Eligibility Criteria and Application Process for Preservation Society of Charleston
Document B: Historic Markers in Charleston, SC
Document C: Speech to Pennsylvania Hall, May 16, 1838
Document D: Diary Entry by Sarah Grimke, 1819
Document E: Diary Entries by Angelina Grimke, 1829
Hook Exercise: Historic Markers in South Carolina
Introduction: A historic marker is a notification, such as a plaque or sign, to memorialize an event or person of historic interest and to associate that
historic person or event with a location that may be visited by the general public. Many historical markers are placed by national or state agencies
concerned with historic preservation. Other markers are placed by local non-profit organizations with a specific theme for a unique geographical
region. The criteria and circumstances for placement of a historic marker is varied and often based on the political agendas of the organizations in
charge. The historic people and events chosen for markers may or may not be the most historically significant and the information provided to the
public could often be biased or inaccurate due to the economic base that provides funding for the plaques. Below are three examples of historic
markers in South Carolina. Please examine the markers and answer
1.Read the Lord Cornwallis marker from Isle of Palms, South Carolina commemorating S.C. Ranger’s defeat of British troops in 1776 and the British victory
in 1780 when Charles Town was captured.
A. Is this a historic event that should receive a marker? Explain.
2. The Kaminski House marker from Georgetown, South Carolina honors the home of the former mayor and states the house was “probably built
between 1730 and 1800.”
A. Do you think that a more accurate record is necessary for a historic marker?
3. Read the Clifton Plantation marker located north of Georgetown, South Carolina honoring President George Washington’s visit and travels down
modern Highway 17 (Kings Highway) in 1791.
A. Is the location that a President slept one night historic? Why would a marker like this one be assigned?
Background Information
321 East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina is referred to as the William Blake House, descendant of Landgrave Joseph Blake
and one of the wealthiest slave owners in South Carolina and was donated to the Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF) in 1962. Now
a law office, the house bears the placard declaring it a part of the Rehabilitation Project of the HCF and establishing it as the Blake
Home built in 1789.
Though the plaque does not mention it, the house was also owned by Judge John Faucheraud Grimke, an officer of the Continental
Army during the Revolution. He was educated at Oxford and studied law in London. His fourteen children included Sarah and
Angelina Grimke, early supporters of abolition and women’s rights. Sarah was the sixth child and Angelina was the youngest. Sarah
said at age five, after she saw a slave being whipped, she tried to board a steamer to a place where there was no slavery. Later, in
violation of the law, she taught her personal slave to read. Sarah wanted to become a lawyer and follow in her father’s footsteps.
She studied constantly until her parents learned that she intended to go to college with her brother Thomas. They forbade her to
study her brother’s books or any foreign language. Her father supposedly remarked that if she “had not been a woman, she would
have made the greatest jurist in the land.” Sarah became Angelina’s godmother and quickly became disillusioned with life in slavedependent Charleston. She became involved with the Quakers and eventually moved North to be able to participate in the
Abolitionist Movement. In 1835 Angelina followed her sister and both travelled throughout the North lecturing about their firsthand experiences with slavery on their family’s plantation. Among the first women to act publicly in social reform movements, they
were ridiculed and ostracized for their abolitionist and women’s rights activity. They were among the first American reformers to
compare the condition of women to the plight of enslaved Africans and to call for an end to the exploitation based on both race and
gender.
When William Lloyd Garrison published a letter from Angelina in his abolitionist journal, The Liberator, they gained notoriety as
being the first female abolitionist to speak out. The sisters were heavily criticized by both the North and South for speaking publicly
about their beliefs but criticism in Charleston was particularly scathing. As William Francis Guess remarked in South Carolina: Annals
of Pride and Protest, “patrician Angelina *and Sarah+…had committed not one but two unforgiveable sins: [they] had befouled the
parent nest by attacking the peculiar institution, and …had befouled the name of Carolina womanhood by screeching [their] libels in
public.” In 1839 the sisters sailed into Charleston Harbor and attempted to attend their mother’s funeral but riots threatened the
city at the announcement of their arrival, and the Mayor of Charleston refused to allow them to leave the ship, citing public safety
issues. This Mini-Q will focus on the question: Should the Grimke sisters appear on a historic marker in Charleston?
Background Essay Questions
1. Summarize the political and social views of Sarah and Angelina Grimke.
2. What incident in her childhood led Sarah Grimke to believe slavery was wrong?
3. How did people react to the Grimke sisters speaking out about slavery?
4. Who does the Historic Charleston Foundation recognize for living at 321 East Bay Street in Charleston?
5. Re-read the William Francis Guess quote. Does he have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Sarah and Angelina
Grimke? Explain.
Timeline
1789-321 East Bay Street Constructed
1792-Sarah Grimke born
1805-Angelina Grimke born
1820-Missouri Compromise
1821-Sarah Grimke moves to Philadelphia
1822-Denmark Vesey Plot
1828-Angelina follows Sarah North
1831-Nat Turner Revolt, Virginia
1836-An Appeal to Christian Women of the South published and burned
in Charleston (encourage southern women to join the Abolitionist
movement for the sake of white womanhood as well as slaves)
1837-Angelina’s letter to the editor was published in The Liberator by
William Lloyd Garrison (Explained how working in the Abolitionist
movement had led to a better understanding of women’s lack of
freedoms and was published without their permission)
1838-Angelina marries Theodore Weld
-Angelina’s speech before the Legislative Committee of Massachusetts
Legislature
1839-Angelina and Sarah edit American Slavery as it is: Testimony of a
Thousand Witnesses (a collection of newspaper stories)
1848-Sarah publishes Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the
Condition of Women (Response to ministers who accused the sisters of
“stepping out of women’s proper sphere.”)
1873-Sarah Grimke dies
1879-Angelina Grimke Weld dies
1965-Historic Charleston Foundation purchases and restores 321 East Bay
Street
Questions to Consider:
1. How many historic markers has
the Preservation Society of
Charleston erected since 1959?
Document A
Source: Eligibility Criteria and Application Process for Historical Markers via
Preservation Society of Charleston via their website
http://www.preservationsociety.org.
Introduction:
Since 1959 the Preservation Society of Charleston has erected over 100 historic
markers in Charleston’s Old and Historic District. The program began when the
Preservation Society was asked by Charleston Historic Commission, a city
sponsored organization responsible for the marking of important public facilities,
to assist in recognizing noteworthy private residences by erecting historic
markers. The purpose of the markers was to “inform walking tourists and
Charlestonians alike as to the historic background of the city.”
2. What is the purpose of a historic
marker? Why would a city like
Charleston place them on buildings?
Purpose:
To educate the general public about Charleston’s significant buildings, structures,
and objects, as well as outstanding events and people involved in local, state,
and/or national history.
Eligibility Criteria:
Buildings, structures, and objects that possess architectural and historic integrity
and:
That are associated with events that have made significant contribution to the
broad patterns of our history; or
That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or
3. How does the Eligibility Criteria
and Application Process for a
Historical Marker help you
determine answer the question,
“Should the Grimke sisters appear
on a historic marker in Charleston?”
That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of
construction or that represents the work of a master, or that posses high artistic
values or that represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose
components may lack individual distinction; or
That have yielded or may be likely to yield information important in prehistory or
history.
Document B
Source: Historic Markers across SC, Charleston County,
availablehttp://www.lat34north.com/HistoricMarkersSC/MarkerIndex.cfm
Note: This is an edited list of historic markers currently placed in Charleston County, South Carolina

African American Cemetery

Alhambra Hall

Archibald Rutledge Birthplace

Arthur Ravanel, Jr./Arthur Ravanel, Jr. Bridge

Battle of Burden’s Causeway

Battle of Fort Sullivan

Battle of Sol-Legare Island

Belvidere School Site

Boone Hall Plantation

Brickyard Plantation

British Attack at Breach Inlet/Battery Marshall

Calvary Episcopal Church

Camp of Wild’s “African Brigade,” 1863-1864/ Wild’s Brigade
Cemetery



Liberty Hill

Lord Cornwallis

Magnolia Cemetery

Magnolia Plantation

Marion Square

Mills House Hotel

Milton’s Ferry Tavern

Miss Izard’s School

Moultrie Schools

Nineteenth Century Charleston Waterfront Park

Ocean Grove Cemetery

Old Bank Building
Olds Bethel Methodist Church
Lincolnville School

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Rutledge (burial at St.
Michael’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, SC)


Patriots Point Naval @ Maritime Museum

Christ Church

Ratification of Federal Constitution

City Market

Battle of Seccessionville

Coleman Boulevard

Snee Farm

Confederate Lines

St. Andrews Church

CS H.L. Hunley

St. John’s Church

Darby Building

St. Michael’s Church

Drayton Hall

St. Phillips Church

Edmund Jenkins

The Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South Carolina

18th Century Charleston Waterfront Park

The Joseph Manigault House

Federal Expedition on John’s Island

The King’s Highway

Fort Pemberton

The Old Exchange

Friendship A.M.E. Church

The Siege of Charleston, 1780

General William Moultrie, Moultrie Middle School

The Stono Rebellion

Hampton Plantation

The Union is Dissolved!

Hobcaw Plantation

Thomas Lynch

Howbcaw Point Powder Magazine

Thomas Pinckney

Hog Island

Trinity Methodist Church

Home of Dr. John Lining

USS Yorktown

Institute Hall

War of 1812 Encampment

James F. Byrnes

William Rhett House

John Rutledge Home
Windsor Plantation

Laurel Hill Plantation


Questions to Consider:
1. What types of buildings and places have been given a marker?
2. What kinds of people have been given a marker?
3. Are any women honored with a marker in Charleston?
4. How does the list of current markers help you decide why the Grimke sisters should appear on a historic marker in Charleston?
Questions to Consider:
Document C
1. Angelina says that there is a difference between
happiness and mirth. What is the difference?
Source: Angelina Grimke’s speech in Pennsylvania Hall on
May 16, 1838.
Note: Pennsylvania Hall was built as an abolitionist
meeting hall in Philadelphia in 1838, it opened three days
before Grimke gave her speech to the Anti-Slavery
Convention of American Women. After the building’s
dedication, advertisements were placed for Pro-Slavery
supporters to disrupt the integrated meeting. The night of
the speech a mob of angry Philadelphians attacked the
building, breaking windows and trying to disrupt the
meeting, but Angelina’s anti-South Carolina speech of her
experiences living in the South kept the crowd from
leaving. The next day the Convention was closed and that
night Pennsylvania Hall was burned to the ground.
2. Why do many who visit the South “praise” the character
of Southerners?
3. According to her speech, how did Angelina feel about no
one in the South wanting to abolish slavery?
4. What phrases would have angered South Carolinians the
most?
5. How does Angelina’s speech help you to determine why
the Grimke sisters have not appeared on a historic marker
in Charleston, South Carolina?
As a Southerner I feel that it is my duty to stand up here
tonight and bear testimony against slavery. I have seen it-I have seen it. I know it has horrors that can never be
described. I was brought up under its wing: I witnessed for
many years its demoralizing influences and its
destructiveness to human happiness. It is admitted by
some that the slave is not happy under the worst forms of
slavery. But I have never seen a happy slave. I have seen
him dance in his chains, it is true; but he was not happy.
There is a wide difference between happiness and mirth
[amusement expressed in laughter]. Man cannot enjoy the
former while his manhood is destroyed, and that part of
the being which is necessary to the making, and to the
enjoyment of happiness, is completely blotted out.… Many
persons go to the South for a season, and are hospitably
entertained in the parlor and at the table of the
slaveholder. They never enter the huts of the slaves; they
know nothing of the dark side of the picture, and they
return home with praises on their lips of the generous
character of those with whom they had tarried
[stayed]…Many times have I wept in the land of my birth
over the system of slavery. I knew of none who
sympathized in my feelings-I was unaware that any efforts
were made to deliver the oppressed-no voice in the
wilderness was heard calling on the people to repent…and
my heart sickened within me.
Questions to Consider:
1. Does the diary entry describe someone in depression?
Which sentences indicate depression?
Document D
Source: Diary entry of Sarah Grimke accessed from The
Grimke Sisters by Catherine H. Birney, page 30-31, 1885.
Note: In 1818 Sarah Grimke visited the North for several
months. Upon her return to South Carolina, Sarah became
disenchanted with life in South Carolina under slavery, and
her diary entries indicate she was in crisis religiously and
emotionally. She struggled with remaining a Presbyterian,
eventually rejecting her family’s church and Charleston
Society; she returned to Philadelphia in 1819 to live
permanently as a Quaker.
2. To what “great crime” Sarah Grimke might be referring?
3. How does this diary entry help you decide why the
Grimke Sisters have not appeared on a historical marker in
Charleston, South Carolina?
Tears never moistened my eyes; to prayer I was a
stranger…I dared to curse the day of my birth. One day I
was tempted to say something of the kind to my mother.
She was greatly shocked, and reproved me seriously. I
craved a hiding-place in the grave, as a rest from the
distress of my feelings, thinking that no estate could be
worse than the present. Sometimes, being unable to pray,
unable to command one feeling of good, either natural or
spiritual, I was tempted to commit one great crime,
thinking I could repent and thus restore my lost sensibility.
On this I often meditated, and assuredly should have fallen
into this snare had not the mercy of God still followed me.
Document E
Source: Angelina Grimke’s diary entries from her last year in Charleston accessed from The Grimke Sisters by Catherine H.
Birney, pages 77-80, 1885
Note: Like her sister Sarah before her, Angelina became disillusioned with the society in Charleston under slavery and also
Presbyterianism. Her diary entries in the year before she joined her sister in Philadelphia are a window into her views and
feelings about slavery at this time and explain her rejection of the Southern Culture.
May 20th, 1829
Could I think I was in the least
advancing the glory of God by
staying here, I think I would be
satisfied, but I am doing
nothing…I am often tempted to
ask, Why am I kept in such a
situation, a poor unworthy
worm, feeding on luxuries my
soul abhors, tended by slaves,
who (I think) I would rather
serve than be served by, and
whose bondage I deeply
deplore? Oh! Why am I kept in
Carolina?
But the answer seems to be: ‘I
have sent thee as a sign to the
people.’ Lord, give me patience
to stand still.
May 29, 1829
At times slavery is a heavy
burden to my heart. Last night I
was led to speak of this subject,
of all others the sorest on which
to touch a Carolinian. The
depravity of slaves was spoken
of with contempt, and one said
they were fitted to hold no
other place than the one they
do. I asked what had made
them so depraved? Was it not
because of their degraded
situations, and was it not white
people who had placed them
and kept them in the situation…
‘I wish,’ exclaimed one, ‘that
you would not speak on the
subject…you speak in such a
serious way’
‘Truth cuts deep into the heart’
I replied.
June 12, 1829
It appears to me that there is a
real want of natural affection
among many families in
Carolina, and I have thought
that one great cause of it is the
independence which members
of families feel here. Instead of
being taught to do for
themselves and each other,
they are brought up to be
waited on by slaves, and
become unamiable (repulsive),
proud, and selfish. I have many
times felt exceedingly tried,
when, in the flowings of love
towards mother, I have offered
to do little things for her, and
she has refused to allow me….
I cried unto the Lord that He
would make a way for me to
escape from this land of
slavery.
Questions to Consider:
1. Why does Angelina believe that she is destined to stay in South Carolina according to the May 20th entry?
2. How did Angelina respond to the comment about the depravity of slaves in May 29 th entry?
3. According to Angelina, why does slavery hurt her relationship with her family in the June 12th entry?
4. How do these diary entries by Angelina help you decide why the Grimke sisters do not appear on a historical marker
in Charleston, South Carolina?