The Grimkes

We all know of Sarah and Angelina Grimké, sisters who, before the Civil War, left their South Carolina home and became well-known abolitionists in the North.

But the family also included their brother Henry, a brutal, slave-holding man, his three children by Nancy Weston, an enslaved woman in his household, and their descendants. Two brothers became part of the post-Civil War Black elite and one descendant, Angelina Weld Grimké, made a name for herself as a poet during the Harlem Renaissance.

In addition to reexamining the legacy of Sarah and Angelina, author Kerri Greenidge reminds readers how families were formed… show more.

This is an exciting biography of the Grimkes, black and white, and the Fortens, as well as a few others who constituted the Black elite (or the coloured elite) of Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, and New York.

The way in which the slavery background of the Black Grimkes was obscured by themselves and by the white Grimke sisters is revealing and quite scary. Greenidge shows how this legacy resulted in a failure to engage fully with racism and its awful consequences.

The biography of Angelina Weld Grimke, a lesbian poet whose sexuality was repressed by her relatives adds another layer to… show more.

Almost every book I’m highlighting was written by a Black woman, which reminds us how much experience and perspective resonate among historians, in the topics we choose and the questions we ask. Greenidge re-examines the lives of the Grimke family, best known for its daughters, Angelina and Sarah, who left their wealthy, slave-owning, Charleston, SC, family in the 1830s, to become celebrity abolitionists and suffragists. Digging deeper, Greenidge challenges their moral credibility  The sisters benefitted from the privileges of plantation profits. Their father was a notably cruel master and their brother had three sons with his enslaved concubine. The author… show more.