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
I have now, my dear sister, completed my series of letters. I am
aware, they contain some new views; but I believe they are based on
the immutable truths of the Bible. All I ask for them is, the candid
and prayerful consideration of Christians. If they strike at some
of our bosom sins, our deep-rooted prejudices, our long cherished
opinions, let us not condemn them on that account, but investigate
them fearlessly and prayerfully, and not shrink from the examination;
because, if they are true, they place heavy responsibilities upon
women. In throwing them before the public, I have been actuated solely
by the belief, that if they are acted upon, they will exalt the
character and enlarge the usefulness of my own sex, and contribute
greatly to the happiness and virtue of the other. That there is a root
of bitterness continually springing up in families and troubling the
repose of both men and women, must be manifest to even a superficial
observer; and I believe it is the mistaken notion of the inequality of
the sexes. As there is an assumption of superiority on the one part,
which is not sanctioned by Jehovah, there is an incessant struggle
on the other to rise to that degree of dignity, which God designed
women to possess in common with men, and to maintain those rights and
exercise those privileges which every woman’s common sense, apart from
the prejudices of education, tells her are inalienable; they are a part
of her moral nature, and can only cease when her immortal mind is
extinguished.
One word more. I feel that I am calling upon my sex to sacrifice what
has been, what is still dear to their hearts, the adulation, the
flattery, the attentions of trifling men. I am asking them to repel
these insidious enemies whenever they approach them; to manifest by
their conduct, that, although they value highly the society of pious
and intelligent men, they have no taste for idle conversation, and
for that silly preference which is manifested for their personal
accommodation, often at the expense of great inconvenience to their
male companions. As an illustration of what I mean, I will state a fact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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