MENU |
MENU |
Sarah Grimke is known as a pioneer of the women's suffrage and abolitionist movements in the mid-1800s. In this 50-minute program, Chris Potts tells the story of Sarah Grimke in Sarah's voice, immersing the listener in a compelling vocal performance. She first developed the idea to research the life and interpret the story of Sarah Grimke after leading a discussion on Sue Monk Kidd's "The Invention of Wings" in 2019 at the Historical Society of Harford County, where she now serves as Executive Director. Supported by the Bel Air Friends of HCPL.
When 26 year-old Sarah Moore Grimke boarded a ship from Charleston to Philadelphia in 1819 to accompany her ailing father north, she embarked on a history making journey that took her from failed Southern belle to pioneering abolitionist and women’s rights activist.
Born into the Southern gentry, Sarah’s abhorrence of slavery and devotion to God led her to convert to Quakerism and settle in Philadelphia where her charismatic and irrepressible younger sister Angelina Emily Grimke later joined her. After tumultuous years within the Society of Friends, Sarah then followed Angelina north to New York, where the two rose to public prominence and national notoriety by doing the largely unprecedented: daring to speak their minds.
In a time when no "respectable woman" would utter a word of public discourse, the Grimke sisters became among the first women in America to conduct a lecture tour. What began as ladies gatherings in private parlors soon grew to packed audiences of men and women held spellbound by the sisters’ calls for immediate abolition of the enslaved and then, even more radically, equal rights for women.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adult |
EVENT TYPE: | Women's History | Living History - In Person |
Mon, Apr 29 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
Tue, Apr 30 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
Wed, May 01 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
Thu, May 02 | 10:00AM to 8:00PM |
Fri, May 03 | 10:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sat, May 04 | 10:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sun, May 05 | Closed |