EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRINKE P/35

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Grimke. She lived from 1792 - 1873.

In the summer of 1837 Sarah and her sister Angelina began a twenty-three week lecture tour of the abolitionist movement, unheard of for women of the time. Financing the trip themselves, the sisters visited sixty-seven cities, breaking new ground for women as public speakers. Sarah felt that she had finally found the place where she truly belonged, where her thoughts and ideas were encouraged.

However, she and Angelina soon faced sever criticism for their public speaking and involvement in the political sphere. Up to this time, it was virtually unheard of for women to speak out so boldly about the most controversial issues of the day. Their lectures were seen as unwomanly because they addressed mixed audiences of women and men - called promiscuous audiences at that time.

The sisters drew condemnation from religious leaders and traditionalists who believed it was not a woman's place to speak in public. Congregational ministers blasted the sisters in a public letter, saying that a woman becomes "unnatural" when she "assumes the place and tone of a man." 

Read Part Thirty -Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRIMKE P/34

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Moore Grimke. She lived from 1792 -1873.

In 1829 Sarah was joined by her sister Angelina in Philadelphia, and they both became active members in the Society of Friends. At some point Sarah began working towards becoming a member of the Quaker clergy, but was continually discouraged by male members of the Philadelphia Society of Friends. Other women became Quaker ministers, like Lucretia Mott, but for whatever reason, Sarah was discouraged from doing so. She finally gave up when one church elder rudely interrupted one of her prayer meetings.

She and her sister Angelina then moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to be with a more liberal group of Quakers. Sarah began to write anti-slavery pamphlets and books such as "An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States" as well as "An Address to Free Coloured Americans."

In 1836 Sarah as well as Angelina were  invited to speak throughout the Northeast when they addressed Ant-Slavery Conventions in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts and met all the famous abolitionists of the day, including Theodore Weld.

Read Part Thirty-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRIMKE P/33

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Grimke. She lived from 1792 - 1873.

Sarah's trip to Phildelphia was a major turning point in her life for it opened her eyes to life in the North, outside of slavery. Sadly, her father died some time later. However, Sarah remained in Philadelphia for a few months after his death and, while waiting for a ship back to Charleston, she was introducd to the Society of Friends, or Quakers, whose views on slavery and gender equality matched her own. From her youth, Sarah believed that religion should take a more pro-active role in improving the lives of those who suffered most: this was one of the key reasons she joined the Quaker community.

The Friends introducd Sarah to the works of Quaker leader John Woolman, and she was immediately inspired by his message. Woolman strongly condemned slavery as evil and was among the first to link the discrimination blacks faced in the North to the slavery of the South. Quakers also allowed women to become preachers and leaders within the church, and Sarah thought that could be her calling.

Sarah did not convert immediately, however, but returned to South Carolina in 1820 to weigh her decision. Upon her return Sarah found the South unbearable. Having spent nearly a year in the North she realised she could no longer live in the presence of slavery, even if it meant leaving her family.Within a month of her return and against her mother's wishes, she returned permanently to Phildelphia and joined the Quaker Society of Friends. 

Read Part Thirty-Four HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRIMKE P/32

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Grimke. She lived from 1792 - 1873

When Sarah's brother Thomas went off to law school at Yale, Sarah remained at home, feeling that she was alone in her questioning the treatment of women, particularly in respect of education, and the institution of slavery. "Slavery was a millstone about my neck, and marred my comfort from the time I can remember myself."

Unable to continue her education, thirteen-year old Sarah was delighted when her sister Angelina was born in 1805. Each sister possessed a strong mind and kind soul and, in spite of growing up in a male-dominated slave-holding southern family, the two shared the belief that all people are created equal. More than best friends, the Grimke sisters lived together most of their lives and later collaborated in their efforts to bring social change in the 1830s.

In 1818, as Sarah turned twenty-six, her father was deadly ill, Sarah was sent to accompany her father to Philadelphia in search of a cure, but his condition grew worse. During the months that Judge Grimke hovered between life and death, he leaned on Sarah heavily. The two grew so close that they became "fast friends" and Sarah regarded this as "as the greatest blessing.... that I have ever received from God." As a result Sarah became more self-assured, independent and morally responsible.

Read Part Thirty-Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRIMKE P/31

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Grimke. She lived from 1792 - 1873.

Sarah studied constantly until her parents learned that she was planning on going to college with her brother Thomas, which was, of course, impossible in the first decade of the 1800s. Thereafter, Sarah's parents forbade her to study her brother's books. Instead, she received an education from private tutors on subjects like reading, writing, simple math and social etiquette. Young women might also be taught music, needlework, cooking and nursing, to be used in their daily lives as wives and mothers. Her father supposedly remarked that if Sarah "had not been a woman, she would have made the greatest jurist in the world."

The Grimke family attended the Episcopal Church, where Sarah read Bible stories to slave children. From the time she was twelve years old, she also spent her Sunday afternoons teaching Bible classes to the young slaves on the family plantation. While she wanted desperately to teach them to read the Scriptures for themselves, her parents admonished her that teaching slaves to read had been against the law in South Carolina since 1740.

Still Sarah secretly taught her personal slave to read and write, but when her parents discovered the young tutor at work, the vehemence of her father was alarming, He was furious and nearly had the young slave girl whipped. Fear of causing such trouble for the slaves prevented Sarah from teaching any others.

Read Part Thirty-Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH GRIMKE P/30

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this post I focus on a woman named Sarah Grimke. She lived from 1792 - 1873.  Sarah was born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. She was the eigth of fourteen children and the second daughter of Mary and John Faucheraud Grimke, a wealthy plantation owner who was also an attorney and a judge. The Grimkes lived alternatively between a fashionable townhouse in Charleston and the sprawling Beaufort plantation in the country.

Like other large plantation owners, they kept scores of slaves, who did all the labour at Beaufort, from cotton picking to cooking, to caring for the children. Slaves worked as nursemaids to the Grimke's fourteen children and each child was also assigned a constant companion, a slave of about the same age. Sarah later said that at age five she saw a slave being whipped, and tried to board a steamer to a place where there was no slavery.

Sarah's early experiences with education shaped her future as an abolitionist and a feminist. Throughout her childhood, she was keenly aware of the inferiority of her own education when compared to that of her brothers. Although everyone recognised her remarkable intelligence, Sarah could not pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer and following in her father's footsteps.

Read Part Thirty-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON P/29

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Ann Hasseltine Judson She lived fom 1789 - 1826.

Shortly after the Judsons arrived in India, they were ordered by the government to return to America, so they moved their missionary work to Myanmar (previously Burma). They settled in Yangon (previously Rangoon) and began learning the language. They quickly realised that it would be very difficult to preach Christianity in a language lacking the words "God, heaven and eternity", but nevertheless they proceeded to translate the Scriptures into the Burmese language. They began with the Book of Jonah, which was especially atractive to the Burmese mind.

Ann formed a society of native women who met together on Sundays to pray and read the Scriptures and conducted classes for women. Her greatest contribution to the cause of women and missions was her inspirational writing. She wrote enthralling stories of life on the mission field and the struggles she faced, predominantly when her husband was confined to Burmese prison for nearly two years, She also wrote tragic descriptions of child marriages, female infanticide, and the trials of Burmese women who had virtually no rights except what rights their husbands allowed them. 

Ann felt that even worse than the ill treatment of women was their ignorance. Burmese women were not taught and they spent their days in idleness. She worked to remedy this situation and enlisted the help of women back home.

As with most women missionaries, Ann suffered from poor health on the mission field. She served for thirteen years in Burma before she died at the age of 37 on 24 October 1826.

Read Part Thirty HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMAN IN EARLY 1800: ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON P/28

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Ann Hasseltine Judson. She lived from 1789 - 1826.

Ann was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, USA, As a young girl she spent much of her time reading religious books and praying. Ann was part of the New England religious revival of 1806 and at that time she resolved to devote her life to God. 

Ann studied at Bradford Academy and began teaching when she was eighteen years old. At twenty-one she met Adoniram Judson, who was a Congregational minster at the time, at a Mission meeting that was held at her home, hosted by her father John, who was a deacon. They were soon engaged and they were married on 5 February, 1812.

The next day they the young couple set off for India on the "Caravan." The coyage took four months and they arrived in Calcutta, India,on 18 June.

During the voyage both Ann and Adoniram read "Lives of the Martyrs and Saints" along with several books on baptism and upon their arrival they joined the Baptist Church and they were baptised by immersion in a Calcutta chapel. They wrote home about their conviction, which caused some criticism, but good came from this change also. The Judsons were instrumental in awakening the Baptist Church in America to their duty to carry out foreign mission work. Due to their influence, the Baptist General Convention in Philadelphia was formed in 1814, which appointed the Judsons as Baptist missionaries with freedom to select their own field of labour.

P.S. I will continue my story of Ann Hasseltine Judson in my next post.

Read Part Twenty-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: CHARLLOTTE ELIZABETH TONNA P/27

                                                             Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna. She lived from 1790 - 1846.

In 1837 Charlotte's husband died in Dublin. Despite his abuse and their separation, after his death she took care of his mother and sister,which spoke volumes of her benevolence and Christian principle.

While in Ireland, Charlotte began to write tracts for various religious societies. Her tracts became popular because of their deliberate simplicity. She was the subject of continued persecution, and because of the claims made against her, she was obliged to publish her work under her baptismal name of "Charlotte Elizabeth."

In 1841 Charlotte married Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna. By that time she was living in London. Her second marriage was a much happier one, he being an excellent husband. He wrote a memoir entitled "The life of Charlotte Elizabeth" after the death of his wife in celebration of his late wife's life.

As a woman in active publice service, Charlotte began a Sunday School in her cottage, did charity work in the Irish ghetto in London, and established a Protestant Church in St Giles in the early 1830s.

In early 1844, Charlotte developed cancer and she died in July 1846.

Read Part Twenty-Eight HERE