"I want to be identified with the negro; until he gets his rights, we shall never have ours."
About Angelina Grimke
Angelina Grimke — Life and Legacy
Angelina Grimke was a notable abolitionist and advocate for women's rights in the 19th century, recognized for her powerful rhetoric and moral conviction. Born into a wealthy slaveholding family in South Carolina, she became one of the first women to speak publicly against slavery, challenging societal norms and expectations of her time. Grimke's writings, such as 'Appeal to the Christian Women of the South,' illustrate her profound commitment to justice and equality. Her famous assertion, 'I am a woman, and I have a right to speak,' encapsulates her belief in the necessity of women's voices in the fight for abolition. This quote not only highlights her advocacy for women's rights but also underscores the intersectionality of her activism, as she argued that the oppression of enslaved individuals was intrinsically linked to the subjugation of women. Grimke's ideas continue to resonate today, as they challenge us to consider the ongoing struggles for equality and justice. Her legacy serves as a reminder of the importance of speaking out against injustice, making her quotes relevant in contemporary discussions about civil rights and gender equality.
Quote collection
Angelina Grimke quotes (page 1 of 2)
38 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I recognize no rights but human rights - I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights."
"The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have found the anti-slavery cause to be ... the school in which human rights are more fully investigated and better understood and taught than in any other."
"Slavery always has, and always will produce insurrections wherever it exists, because it is a violation of the natural order of things."
"Women ought to feel a peculiar sympathy in the colored man's wrong, for, like him, she has been accused of mental inferiority, and denied the privileges of a liberal education."
"One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognizes a human being in a slave."
"I recognize no rights but human rights."
"Measure her rights and duties by the unerring standard of moral being… and then the truth will be self-evident, that whatever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights – I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. It is my solemn conviction, that, until this principle of equality is recognised and embodied in practice, the Church can do nothing effectual for the permanent reformation of the world."
"We Abolition Women are turning the world upside down."
"It is through the tongue, the pen, and the press that truth is principally propagated."
"The nation is in a death-struggle. It must either become one vast slaveocracy of petty tyrants, or wholly the land of the free."
"...I believe it is woman's right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed; whether in Churchor State; and that the present arrangements of society, on these points, are a violation of human rights, a rank usurpation of power, a violent seizure and confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers--and thus inflicting upon woman outrageous wrongs, working mischief incalculable in the social circle, and in its influence on the world producing only evil, and that continually."
"Only let the North exert as much moral influence over the South, as the South has exerted demoralizing influence over the North, and slavery would die amid the flame of Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy indignation"
"The denial of our duty to act in this case is a denial of our right to act; and if we have no right to act, then may we well be termed the white slaves of the North, for like our brethren in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair."
"We know it matters not what we have been but this and always this: what we shall be."
"What man or woman of common sense now doubts the intellectual capacity of colored people? Who does not know, that with all our efforts as a nation to crush and annihilate the mind of this portion of our race, we have never yet been able to do it"
"If a law commands me to sin I will break it; if it calls me to suffer, I will let it take its course unresistingly."
"The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism."
"The whole land seems aroused to discussion on the province of woman, and I am glad of it. We are willing to bear the brunt of thestorm, if we can only be the means of making a break in that wall of public opinion which lies right in the way of woman's rights, true dignity, honor and usefulness."
"I trust the time is coming, when the occupation of an instructor to children will be deemed the most honorable of human employment."