Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke, more commonly known as the Grimke sisters, were among the first women to become active public speakers in the abolitionist movement in the United States in the 1800s Having lived in a time when women were inferior and discouraged from getting involved in political affairs, it was not difficult for them to get noticed by speaking to the public and writing about their beliefs in support of the movement to abolish slavery. In turn, this also started a new women's rights movement to establish the right to effectively express their opinions to the public. The two sisters shared the same views on these issues and lived and worked together for much of their lives (Whipps). The Grimke sisters were born into a wealthy, well-established Southern family in Charleston, South Carolina. Their father, John Grimke, was a plantation owner and well-known judge who had previously served as a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War, as well as part of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Sarah and Angelina were two of fourteen children in the Grimke family. Sarah was born in 1792, making her the sixth child. She loved to learn and was well educated in aspects of reading, writing and simple mathematics. Although her education was thorough and of great ability for a woman, she desired more. Sarah secretly borrowed her brother's history books and taught herself, hoping to one day go to college alongside her brothers. Having lived on a plantation all her life, Sarah became well aware of the brutal treatment meted out to slaves. At a young age he witnessed numerous beatings and torture of slaves. In a small attempt to help, she secretly began teaching her maid to read so she could read and learn t... half of the paper... the most important nineteenth-century women's rights advocates, antislavery leaders, and thinkers feminists (Lerner). "Whatever is morally right for a man to do, is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights other than human rights; I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights; for in Christ Jesus there is no 'it is neither male nor female' (Grimke, Angelina). "Here then I mourn. God created us equal; - he created us free; - he is our Lawgiver, our King and our Judge, and to him alone is the woman bound to submit, and to him alone she is bound to submit . responsible for the use of those talents which her Heavenly Father has entrusted to her. One is her Master, Christ" (Grimke, Sarah). As women who spoke out publicly against slavery and for women's rights, they continued to inspire activists not to give up and to continue fighting for all human beings to be equal.