The document itself drew from writings by the evangelical Quaker Sarah Grimké to make biblical claims that God had created woman equal to man and that man had usurped God's authority by establishing " absolute tyranny " over woman.

Angelina was named for her father's aunt Angelina Grimké Weld, who with her sister Sarah Grimké had brought him and his brothers into her family after learning about him.

Among Henry's family were two sisters who had opposed slavery and left the South before he began his relationship with Weston ; Sarah and Angelina Grimké became notable abolitionists in the North.

Together they had a total of fourteen children, of which Angelina Grimké was the youngest.

In 1868 Grimké discovered three illegitimate nephews that her older brother had had by his personal slave.

Sarah Moore Grimké was the author of the first developed public argument for women's equality and she strived to rid the United States of slavery, Christian churches which had become “ unchristian ,” and prejudice against African-Americans and women.

Although Weld was said to have been supportive of Grimké ’ s desire to remain politically active after their marriage, Grimké eventually retreated to a life of domesticity due to failing health.

Sarah and the traditional Quakers disapproved of Grimké ’ s new-found interest in radical abolitionism, but Grimké became steadily more involved in the movement.

Grimké was greatly impressed with Weld ’ s speeches and wrote in a letter to a friend that Weld was “ a man raised up by God and wonderfully qualified to plead the cause of the oppressed .” In the two years before they married, Weld encouraged Grimké ’ s activism, arranged for many of her lectures and the publication of her writings, and also greatly influenced her abolitionist philosophy.

American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, a volume co-authored by Theodore Dwight Weld and the Grimké sisters, is also a source of some of the novel's content.

" Inspired by prior wedding statements made by John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill in 1851, and by Theodore Dwight Weld and Angelina Grimké in 1838, the two wrote up a tract they called " Marriage Protest " and printed a number of copies to hand out at their wedding.

Grimké wrote essays, short stories and poems which were published in The Crisis, the newspaper of the NAACP, edited by W. E. B.

Walking by Faith: The Diary of Angelina Grimké, 1828-1835, Columbia: U of South Carolina P ; 2003.

In the biography, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina, historian Gerda Lerner writes that “ It never occurred to that she should abide by the superior judgment of her male relatives or that anyone might consider her inferior, simply for being a girl .” More so than her elder sister ( and later, fellow abolitionist ), Sarah, Angelina seemed to be naturally inquisitive and outspoken, a trait which often offended her rather traditional family and friends.

Thus, at the time Grimké was unaware ( and therefore, uninfluenced by ) events such as the Webster – Hayne debates and the Maysville Road veto, as well as controversial public figures such as Frances Wright.

Grimké was struck by the lack of options for widowed women – during this period they were mostly limited to remarriage or joining the working world – and realized the importance of education for women.

Over time, Grimké became frustrated by the Quaker community ’ s slow and passive response to the contemporary debate on slavery.

Grimké, though initially embarrassed by the letter ’ s publication, refused, and the letter was later reprinted in the New York Evangelist, other abolitionist papers and was also included in a pamphlet with Garrison ’ s noteworthy Appeal to the Citizens of Boston.

In 1836, Grimké wrote her famous An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South ( see below ), which is often considered by scholars one of the best manifestations of Grimké ’ s sociopolitical agenda.

Grimké ’ s lectures were critical of Southern slaveholders, but she also argued that Northerners tacitly complied with the status quo by purchasing slave-made products and exploiting slaves through the commercial and economic exchanges they made with slaveowners in the South.

Though the Grimké sisters were strongly supported by some male abolitionists such as Weld and Garrison, they were met with a considerable amount of opposition – both because they were female and because they were abolitionists.

In 1831, Grimké was courted by Edward Bettle, the son of Samuel and Jane Bettle, both of whom were active members of Philadelphia Quaker society.

Grimké ’ s Appeal was widely distributed by the American Anti-Slavery Society, and was received with great acclaim by radical abolitionists.

Grimké continues by directly responding to Beecher ’ s traditionalist argument on the place of women in all spheres of human activity: “ I believe it is the woman ’ s right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed, whether in Church or 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 .”

Garrison was so impressed with Grimké ’ s letter that he published it in the next issue of The Liberator without her consent.

Her letter to Garrison and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South gave Grimké a considerable amount of national recognition as a figure in the abolitionist movement, which enabled her to participate in many anti-slavery events, even though she was female.

Nicknamed “ Nina ,” young Angelina Grimké was very close to her older sister Sarah Moore Grimké, who, at age thirteen, begged her parents to allow her to be Angelina ’ s godmother.

This incident led to Grimké ’ s loss of faith in the values of the Presbyterian church.

With her sister Sarah ’ s support, Grimké adopted the tenets of the Quaker faith.

However, given Grimké ’ s self-righteous nature, her comments about their wasteful and flashy behavior merely served to condescend and offend those around her.

Grimké ’ s behavior even led to her official expulsion from the Presbyterian church in 1829.

Soon after she moved to Philadelphia, Grimké ’ s widowed sister Anna moved in with her.

Abolitionist Robert F. Wolcutt stated that “ Angelina Grimké ’ s serene, commanding eloquence enchained attention, disarmed prejudice and carried her hearers with her .”

Records from Grimké ’ s diaries show that Bettle intended to marry Grimké, though he never actually proposed.

Sarah, Grimké ’ s closest family member at the time of Bettle ’ s courtship, supported the match.

Grimké agreed to take in Bettle ’ s cousin Elizabeth Walton, who, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, was dying of the disease.

At the Agents ’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1836, Grimké became acquainted with Theodore Dwight Weld, a member of the New England Weld Family, and an abolitionist leader and suffragist.

Afterwards, Grimké became convinced that the South was not the proper place for her or her work, and so she relocated to Philadelphia.

In the summer, she took a teaching position and repaid her father's promissory note, and she took Latin, grammar, and mathematics instruction from Alfred Bartlett, a divinity student and an admirer of the abolitionist Grimké sisters.

When Grimké and Sarah Stanley married, they faced strong opposition from her family, due to concerns over race.

Angelina Grimké would have little to no contact with her mother after that.

The ' Dictionary of Literary Biography: African-American Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance ', states, " In several poems and in her diaries Grimké expressed the frustration that her lesbianism created ; thwarted longing is a theme in several poems ".

After her father died in 1930, Grimké left Washington, DC, for New York.

Even as a young child, Grimké was described in family letters and diaries as the most self-righteous, curious and self-assured of all her siblings.

Grimké became a close friend of the pastor of her church, Rev.