American women's rights Activist, abolitionist, and Writer whose activism and writings inspired such famous Suffragists as Lucy Stone and Lucretia Mott. She published her famous essay, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women, in 1837.
She learned of the evils of slavery while growing up on a plantation in South Carolina. As a young girl, she secretly gave reading and writing lessons to one of her family's slaves and also taught weekly Bible lessons to the enslaved children who worked on her father's plantation.
She challenged the hypocrisy of a church that touted its inclusiveness but denied true membership to slaves. Later in her life, she joined the Quaker community.
She was one of four children born to judge and plantation owner, John Faucheraud Grimke, and his wife, Mary. She was the sister of fellow Activist Angelina Grimke.
She was an abolitionist, author and lecturer during the Civil War, much like Frederick Douglass.
