Angelina Grimke: Rhetoric, Identity, and the Radical Imagination

Abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and social reformer, Angelina Grimke (1805-79) was among the first women in American history to seize the public stage in pursuit of radical social reform. I will lift up my voice like a trumpet she proclaimed, and show this people their transgressions . And when she did lift her voice in public, on behalf of the public, she found that, in creating herself, she might transform the world. In the process, Grimke crossed the wires of race, gender, and power, and produced explosions that lit up the world of antebellum reform. Among the most remarkable features of Angelina Grimke’s rhetorical career was her ability to stage public contests for the soul of America - bringing opposing ideas together to give them voice, depth, and range to create new and more compelling visions of social change.

This is the first full-length study to explore the rhetorical legacy of this most unusual advocate for human rights. Stephen Browne examines her epistolary and oratorical art and argues that rhetoric gave Grimke a means to fashion not only her message but her very identity as a moral force.