Sarah and Angelina Grimke

All heroes start off somewhere. The Grimke sisters were born in South Carolina. Sarah, the eldest, was born in 1792 and passed in 1873. Angelina was born in 1805 and died in 1879. When they moved to the North, they started their protests. They went up North to help the African Americans and women receive more rights equal to the men’s rights. They also wanted to free the slaves because the sisters witnessed how the slave-owners treated their slaves and they wanted that to stop. These actions were an important part of history because after many years of speaking to the public and writing letters, the sisters saved the day and freed the slaves and gave women and African Americans more rights.

Sarah Grimke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimk%C3%A9_sisters)

When the sisters came to the north, their first order of business was to speak to the public. This action fits my definition of a hero in many ways. Not many people expect nor tolerate women speaking to the public, and the sisters wanted to make the country fairer to everyone. When they tried to speak to the public, they usually got attacked because women did not have the right to speak out in the open. They also didn’t want the sisters, let alone women, manipulating the country. They wrote many letters and articles for the newspapers to help persuade everyone to grant equal rights, no matter what race lives in America. Most men and most slave-owners did not approve of these acts.

Angelina Grimke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimk%C3%A9_sisters)

The Grimke sisters can’t fight this “crime” alone. So the sisters wrote and published tracts that helped persuade the women and slaves to join in as a team and fight for their rights. (Hmm... reminds me of the Justice League; they always fight as a team.) The sisters wrote books on slavery and women. One of their books was called, An Appeal to the Woman of the Nominally Free States. During their days of protesting, they met a woman named Catharine Beecher. She thought that woman shouldn’t have more rights and should stay with the rights they have right now. Beecher may seem like a villain to the sisters now, but she wasn’t because she didn’t really try to stop the sisters and foil their plans. The sisters wrote many letters about their hope for equal rights to many people, including to Catharine. Most of the women who received the letters and read the tracts joined the sisters.

Of course, there were many people who disagreed with what the sisters were trying to do. Most men, slave-owners, and the occasional woman like Catharine would not have considered the Grimke sisters heroes. The sisters would write many letters and write articles in the newspaper to at least prove a point. Unlike most super villains, Beecher didn’t try to put a stop this, but the men and slave-owners in a similar position as Beecher would attack them whenever they tried to speak out. Angelina and Sarah tried their hardest to win this battle by writing letters, tracts, and speaking out.

The Grimke sisters left a really beneficial legacy. They made a big difference in our country. Who would have thought that two women could win rights for women and free the slaves, especially in a time when women weren’t known as “powerful” and important to men?