Grimke sisters and the abolishment movement

Though the Grimké sisters had faded from public view by the 1850s, they played an important role in conveying abolitionist principles in the early stages of the movement in America. And they also were instrumental in bringing women into the movement, and in creating within the abolitionist cause a platform from which to launch a movement for women's rights.

Women and the Abolitionist Movement

In the 1820s American women organized free produce societies; in the 1830s many of these same women organized antislavery societies. Abolitionism held particular appeal for women, regardless of race. Slavery violated accepted ideas of family and
gender relations; slavery encouraged the sexual abuse of slave women and violated familial bonds. The misuse of the enslaved female body paralleled the misuse of free female bodies. Despite a shared sisterhood that attempted to transcend race, black and
white female abolitionists often adopted different attitudes toward abolitionism. White women emphasized moral suasion in their abolitionism. Many white women also held
conservative views about racial equality. In contrast, African American women focused on a broader agenda, including racial uplift alongside abolitionism.

The womens role in the abolishment of slavery was just as fatal

slavery in the Cape of Goodhope

women in slavery

Slaveholders did not value women as much of being worth of them taking them, but yet they could sleep with them for their own good. Some slave owners proclaimed the Gospel to the slaves and preached to them, after that so to say raping them and justifying their sins under the word of Christianity.

While women did not gain the right to vote in all sates until 1920, there were still some victories won for women's rights in the period leading up to the Civil War. One of the most notable was New York State granting property rights to married women. This period of activism also set the foundation for the suffrage campaigns that would occur in the early 20^th century, along with women's rights, feminist and women of color movements that continue today.

While many women were active in the abolitionist movement they were often kept out of public, leadership and decision making positions. For example only two women attended the Agents' Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1836. Women began to form their own abolition groups, organizing events such as the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women held in 1837. This convention brought 200 women to New York City, where they called for the immediate abolition of slavery in the US. The delegates argued for an end to slavery based on the often brutal conditions of slavery, as well as the ways in which slavery violated christian principals and basic human right to equality.