21 February 1838
Angelina Grimké addresses legislators on women’s antislavery petitions
Boston, Massachusetts
Angelina Grimké addressed a Massachusetts legislative committee on antislavery petitions submitted by women. Speaking as a citizen and a former slaveholder, she argued that women had a political and moral responsibility to oppose slavery and participate in public debate.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The published speech identifies petitions from 20,000 women; that is the speaker’s figure, not a signature count independently checked here. This was committee testimony, not passage of an emancipation law. The report says the address was to continue at a later meeting. The Black communities tag reflects the petition’s aim of ending the enslavement of Black people, not Grimké’s identity.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 6, pp. 120–121; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Angelina Grimké, address to a Massachusetts legislative committee, February 21, 1838; Speaking While Female transcription citing The Liberator ↗