Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimké Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders

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Viking, 2001 - Biography & Autobiography - 406 pages
THE STORY OF RACE CONSCIOUSNESS AND POLITICS IN AMERICA TOLD THROUGH THE LIVES OF ONE EXTRAORDINARY FAMILYBy the beginning of the 19th century, the American south encompassed two strikingly different societies: one lived as wealthy slaveholders, and the other lived under the lash. Daughters of a prominent slaveholding family in Charleston, South Carolina, Sarah and Angelina GrimkÉ, vowed to change the dynamics of their harsh society. The sisters (mostly in secret) began to educate their slaves as best they could, by teaching them reading and religion-and the basic rights to which all humans are entitled. Eventually they moved to the north, where they dedicated their lives to abolitionism and advocacy of women's rights.In 1868, Angelina and Sarah discovered that their deceased brother had had children with a slave. True to their ideals, the GrimkÉ sisters invited their nephews into their lives, helped educate them, and gave them the means to start a new life. Archibald and Francis GrimkÉ continued their aunts' fight for racial equality into the early decades of the 20th century, involving themselves in the founding of the NAACP and becoming two of the most notable African-Americans of their time. The GrimkÉs' work helped to lay the groundwork of the civil rights movement to follow-and, as Perry notes, helped to shape many kinds of American social activism.At once an inspiring social history and a fascinating group biography, LIFT UP THY VOICE: The GrimkÉ Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders illustrates how the question of race dominates American history. This family saga, which spans 150 years, is a book for anyone interested in women's history, African-American history, the Civil War-for anyone who cares about making America a better place to live.

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Contents

They shall be your bondmen for ever
11
a stern and relentless God
35
He trod the pulpit like a giant
55
Copyright

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About the author (2001)

Mark Perry's books include Conceived in Liberty, a main selection of the History Book Club. An award-winning writer, he has written on history, the Middle East conflict, and American foreign policy for numerous magazines and newspapers. PRAISE FOR MARK PERRY: "Mark Perry...has made their dual biography the basis for an ambitious book, a history of the North and South from before the war to the end of Reconstruction. That he succeeds so well is remarkable." - The New York Times Book Review "A thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully readable account of two valiant men, the war that brought them together, and the ideologies that ultimately kept them apart." - Cleveland Plain Dealer