Women Challenge their audience
Introduction
As stated by Michals, Angelina Grimke Wield was an ardent abolitionist writer, speaker, and women’s rights activist. (Michals, 2). Wield was born on February 20, 1805, in Charleston, South Carolina. Her childhood experiences would influence her and her sister, Sarah Moore Grimke, to stand and fight against slavery, racial and gender inequality. In a while in this quest, Sarah and Wield became the first women to defy gender norms by publicly speaking against slavery. “She and her sister Sarah Moore Grimke were among the first women to speak in public against slavery, defying gender norms and risking violence in doing so,” Writes Michals. (Michals, 2). She wrote letters, held meetings, and antislavery talks before she retired to be a teacher with her husband, Thomas Wield, in 1838.
This essay look at the speech made by Angelina Grimke Wield at Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia. It was her last speech in public made in 1838.
BACKGROUND
Grimke spoke to a crowd in Philadelphia. By that time, Southern and Northern Carolina were hot spots of slavery and injustice against women. Due to the ongoing racial revolts, Wield took a stand to speak against this vice. She sensitized the people and influenced them through public speeches, writings, and conventions to stand and fight slavery from within themselves. They also read her works and passed her papers to the others from the North and South Carolina.
The main reason why Angelina Grimke made this speech is that the North waged against those who rebelled against the established rules. In her address, she says,” This opposition shows slavery has done its deadliest work in the hearts of our citizens. Do you ask, then ‘what has the North to do?’ “(Grimke, 3). In the statement, she urged her audience that their conscience had directed their stand against the evils of slavery.
EVIDENCE
The main point that Wield addressed was how to end slavery. Convinced beyond reproach that slavery was a grave evil in the society, she shows the people that the only way to end it was to fight against it. This fight she said was to be won first from within them, only then would they influence others to stop slavery. Wield persuades them that the men and the church, engulfed in the norm, were not be counted on to aid in ending slavery. ”The great men of this country will not do this work; the church will never do it.”(Grimke, 3). Therefore, she outlines that by changing their hearts through ripping this vice off it, is the key. She says, “I answer cast out the spirit of slavery from your hearts, and then lend your aid to convert the South.”(Grimke, 3).
Furthermore, she urges them to keep on building on their little efforts without tiring. They should work, each person in his position, ability, and situation. This struggle she says they commit to it, however, limited their means or insignificance their supposed influence may be. (Grimke, 3)
DISCUSSION
Wield was speaking to the men and women who made up the society in which slavery existed. She begins her speech by mentioning her audience, “Men, brethren and fathers, mothers, daughters and sisters, what came ye out to see?” (Grimke, 3). This shows that her address was to the community and through the town, the entire nation as well. While she made her address amid the chaos, she was determined to pinpoint to the people that they were the change they wanted to see. Wield supposed that they were the reason slavery existed, and it will take them to end it. Without them, nobody will. This is asserted when she tells them that the change longed for was inherent first in them than through them to the rest of the South. “I answer, cast out first the spirit of slavery from your own hearts, and then lend your aid to convert the South, ” (Grimke, 3).
CONCLUSION
Through centuries gone, the words of Angelina Wield still stand relevant today. Slavery, in her time, the most prevalent racial injustices. In our modern world, systematic inequalities and white privileges and structural, institutional racism are widespread. Racism has become the norm, and we can only overcome it when we realize that we have been raised and trained to be racists. Just as she spoke more than 200 years ago, that this vice should be cast out first from our hearts. Only then can we convert the entire society and the world to overcome racial injustice against the people of color.
SOURCES
- Henry Sayre. (2015). The humanities: Culture, continuity, and change, Volume 2 (3rd). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
- Michals, Debra. (2015). “Angelina Grimke Weld.” National Women’s History Museum, https://www.womenhistory.org/education-resources/biographies/angelina-grimke-weld.
- Angelina Grimke Weld’s speech at Pennsylvania Hall. (1838). https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon!/grimke.html