Angelina E. Grimke

Letters to Catherine E. Beecher, in reply to an essay on slavery and abolitionism, addressed to A. E. Grimk has been regarded as significant work throughout human history, and in order to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to ensure its preservation by republishing this book in a contemporary format for both current and future generations. This entire book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not made from scanned copies, the text is readable and clear.

My Dear Friend: Thy book has appeared just at a time, when, from the nature of my engagements, it will be impossible for me to give it that attention which so weighty a subject demands. Incessantly occupied in prosecuting a mission, the responsibilities of which task all my powers, I can reply to it only by desultory letters, thrown from my pen as I travel from place to place. I prefer this mode to that of taking as long a time to answer it, as thou didst to determine upon the best method by which to counteract the effect of my testimony at the north-which, as the preface of thy book informs me, was thy main design. Thou thinkest I have not been 'sufficiently informed in regard to the feelings and opinions of Christian females at the North' on the subject of slavery; for that in fact they hold the same principles with Abolitionists, although they condemn their measures.

Grimke (1805-79) was an American political activist, women's rights advocate and, apart from her sister, the only known white Southern woman to be part of the abolition movement. The sisters toured New England in 1837 speaking about their first-hand experience of slavery, resulting in widespread controversy over women abolitionists' public and political work. These "open letters" to Catherine Beecher, who was strongly anti-suffragist, first appeared in The New England Spectator and The Liberator before being published in book form in 1838.