Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of womanGrimké, Sarah
Religion
Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman
Grimké, Sarah
Women -- History; Women -- United States; Women's rights -- United States
‘The whip on WOMAN’S shrinking flesh!
Our soil yet reddening with the stains
Caught from her scourging warm and fresh.’
Can any American woman look at these scenes of shocking licentiousness
and cruelty, and fold her hands in apathy, and say, ‘I have nothing to
do with slavery’? _She cannot and be guiltless._
I cannot close this letter, without saying a few words on the benefits
to be derived by men, as well as women, from the opinions I advocate
relative to the equality of the sexes. Many women are now supported, in
idleness and extravagance, by the industry of their husbands, fathers,
or brothers, who are compelled to toil out their existence, at the
counting house, or in the printing office, or some other laborious
occupation, while the wife and daughters and sisters take no part in
the support of the family, and appear to think that their sole business
is to spend the hard bought earnings of their male friends. I deeply
regret such a state of things, because I believe that if women felt
their responsibility, for the support of themselves, or their families
it would add strength and dignity to their characters, and teach
them more true sympathy for their husbands, than is now generally
manifested,--a sympathy which would be exhibited by actions as well as
words. Our brethren may reject my doctrine, because it runs counter
to common opinions, and because it wounds their pride; but I believe
they would be ‘partakers of the benefit’ resulting from the Equality of
the Sexes, and would find that woman, as their equal, was unspeakably
more valuable than woman as their inferior, both as a moral and an
intellectual being.
Thine in the bonds of womanhood,
SARAH M. GRIMKE.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Thomas S. Grimke.
LETTER IX.
HEROISM OF WOMEN--WOMEN IN AUTHORITY.
_Brookline, 8th Mo. 25th, 1837._
MY DEAR SISTER,--It seems necessary to glance at the conduct of women
under circumstances which place them in juxtaposition with men,
although I regard it as entirely unimportant in proving the moral
equality of the sexes; because I condemn, in both, the exercise of that
brute force which is as contrary to the law of God in men as in women;
still, as a part of our history, I shall notice some instances of
courage exhibited by females.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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