Gerda Lerner

Grimke Sisters Gerda Lerner

The only Southern white women ever to become leading abolitionists, Sarah and Angelina Grimke encountered many obstacles in pursuing their antislavery work. Their greatest accomplishment was in challenging the ubiquitous prejudices of society against women and African Americans. They were the first US-born white women to take to the public platform and the first to assert woman's rights. In The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina, Gerda Lerner, herself a leading historian and pioneer in the study of Women's History, tells the story of these determined sisters and the contributions they made to the antislavery and woman's rights movements. From their wealthy upbringing in Charleston, South Carolina, the societal restraints that kept them from higher education, and their utter contempt of slavery, to their conversion to the Quaker religion, and monumental achievements at the podium and with the pen, Lerner illuminates the lasting contributions of the Grimke sisters, as well as the important role played by women in the antislavery movement.