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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I I. ^O^^ . V HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY IiETTERS ON THE EQUALITY OF TR^ SEXES, AND THE ' CONDITION OF WOMAN ADDRESSED TO MARY S. PARKEll^ PRESIDENT OP THE Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society* • BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 25,CORNHILL. 1838. Soc 5014,1^ i. L r> r>"N <V\V-4 V. N«^ PRESERVATION MASTER ATtMRVARQ. fSti. LETTERS. LETTER I. THE ORIGINAL EQUALITY OP WOMAN. Amesbury, 1th Mo. Wth, 1837. My Dear Friend, — In attempting to comply with thy request to give my views on the Pro- vince of Woman, I feel that I am venturing on nearly untrodden ground, and that I shall ad- vance arguments in opposition to a corrupt public opinion, and to the perverted interpreta- tion of Holy Writ, which has so universally obtained. But I am in search of truth ; and no obstacle shall prevent my prosecuting that search, because I believe the welfare of the world will be materially advanced by every new discovery we make of the designs of Je- hovah in tha creation of woman. It is impos- sible that we can answer the purpose of our being, unless we understand that purpose. It is impossible that we should fulfil our duties, unless we comprehend them ; or live up to our privileges, unless we know what they are. In examining this important subject, I sha" depend solely on the Bible to designate th sphere of woman, because I believe almos every thing that has been written on thi subject, has been the result of a misconceplioi of the simple truths revealed in the Scriptures in consequence of the false translation of man] passages of Holy Writ. My mind is entirely delivered from the superstitious reverence which is attached to the English version of the Bible.| King James's translators certainly were not inspired. I therefore claim the original as my standard, believing that to have been inspir- ed, and I also claim to judge for myself what is the meaning of the inspired writers, because I believe it to be the solemn duty of every in- dividual to search the Scriptures for themselves, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, and not be / governed by the views of any man, or set oi men. We must first view woman at the period of her creation. * And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepelh upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.' In all this sublime descrip- tion of the creation of man, (which is a generic term including man and woman,)4here is not one particle of difTerence intimated as existing . between them. They were both made in the '^ image of God ; dominion was given to both \ over every other creature, but not over each ^ other. Created in perfect equality, they were expected to exercise the vicegerence intrusted to them by their Maker, in harmony and love. Let us pass on now to the recapitulation of the creation of man : — * The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him.' All creation swarmed with animated beings capable of nat- ural affection, as we know they still are ; it was i^ot, therefore, merely to give man a crea- ture susceptible of loving, obeying, and looking up to him, for all that the animals could do and did do. It was to give him a companion, in all respects his equal ; one who was like him- self a free agent y gifted with intellect and en- dowed with immortality ; not a partaker merely of his animal gratifications, but able to enter into all his feelings as a moral and responsible being. If this had not been the case, how could she have been an help meet for him ? I understand this as applying not only to the parties entering into the marriage contract, but to all men and women, because I believe God designed woman to be an help meet for man in every good and perfect work. She was a part of himself, as if Jehovah designed to make the oneness and identity of man and . woman perfect and complete ; and when the glorious work of their creation was finished, * the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' This blissful condition was not long enjoy- ed by our first parents. Eve, it would seem from the history, was wandering alone amid the bowers of Paradise, when the serpent -*: 6 met with her. From her reply to Satan, it is evident that the command not to eat * of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,' was given to both, although the term man was used when the prohibition was issued by God. ' And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.' Here the woman was exposed to temptation from a being with whom she was unacquainted. She had been accustomed to associate with her be- loved partner, and to hold communion with God and with angels; but of satanic intelligence, she was in all probability entirely ignorant. Through the subtlety of the serpent, i>\iQ was beguiled. And * when she saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat.' We next find Adam involved in the same sin, not through the instrumentality of a super- natural agent, but through that of his equal, a being whom he must, have known was liable to transgress the divine command, because he must have felt that he was himself a free agent, and that he was restrained from disobedience only by the exercise of faith and love towards his Creator. Had Adam tenderly reproved his wife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing in her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that superi- ority which he claims ; but as the facts stand disclosed by the sacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from innocence, and consequently ? from happiness, but not from equality, » Let us next examine the conduct of this fall- en pair, when Jehovah interrogated them re- specting their fault. Thy both frankly confess- ed their guilt. ' The man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat.' And the Lord God said unto the woman, * Thou wilt be subject unto thy husband, and he will rule over thee.' That this did not allude to the subjection of woman to man is manifest, because the same mode of expression is used in speaking to Cain of Abel. The truth is that the curse, as it is termed, which was pro- nounced by Jehovah upon woman, is a simple prophecy. The Hebrew, like the French lan- guage, uses the same word to express shall and will. Our translators having been accustomed to exercise lordship over their wives, and see- ing only through the medium of a perverted judgment, very naturally, though I think not very learnedly or very kindly, translated it shaU instead of will^ and thus converted a pre- diction to Eve into a command to Adam; for observe, it is addressed to the woman and not to the man. The consequence of the fall was an immediate struggle for dominion, and Jehovah foretold which would gain the ascendency ; but as he created them in his image, as that image manifestly was not lost by the fall, because it is urged in Gen. 9:6, as an argument why the life of man should not be taken by his fellow man, there is no reason to suppose that sin pro- duced any distinction between them as moral, intellectual and responsible beings. Man might LETTER II. WOMAN SUBJECT ONLY TO GOD. Newiuryport^ 1th mo. 17, 1837. Mt dear Sister, — In my last, I traced the creation and the fall of man and woman from that state of purity and happiness which their beneficent Creator designed them to enjoy. As they were one in transgression, their chastise- ment was the same, *So God drove out the onan^ and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden a cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.' We now behold them expelled from Paradise, fallen from their original loveliness,but still bearing on their foreheads the image and .superscription of Jehovah ; still invested with liigh moral responsibilites, intellectual powers, and immortal souls. They had incurred the penalty of sin, they were shorn of their inno- cence, but they stood on the same platform side by side, acknowledging no superior but their God. Notwithstanding what has been urged, woman I am aware stands charged to the pre- fsent day with having brought sin into the world. I shall not repel the charge by any counter assertions, although, as was before hinted, Ad- am's ready acquiescence with his wife's propo- 10 sal, does not savor much of that superiority in strength of mind, which is arrogated by man. Even admitting that Eve was the greater sin- ner, it seems to me man might be satisfied with the dominion he has claimed and exercised for nearly six thousand years, and that more true nobility would be manifested by endeavoring to raise the fallen and invigorate the weak, than by keeping woman in subjection. But I ask I no favors for my sex. I sun^ender not our / claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from otf our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy. If he has not given us the rights which have, as I con- ceive, been wrested from us, we shall soon give evidence of our inferiority, and shrink back into that obscurity, which the high souled mag- nanimity of man has assigned us as our appro- priate sphere. As I am unable to learn from sacred writ when woman was deprived by God of her equality wrm man, I shall touch upon a few points in the Scriptures, which demonstrate that no suprpniav^y was granted to man. When God had destroyed the world, except Noah and his family, by the deluge, he renewed the grant formerly made to man, and again gave him do- minion over every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, over all that movelh upon the earth, and over all the fishes of the sea; into his hands they were dt livercd. But was woman, bearing the image of her God, placed under the dominion of her fellow man ? ]^'-ver ! Je- hovah could not surrender hi:> authority to gov- ern his own immortal creatures into the hands of a being, whom he I.new, and whom his 11 whole history proved, to be unworthy of a trust so sacred and important. God could not do it, because it is a direct contravention of his law, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him ] 072/2/ shalt thou serve.' If Jehovah had appoint- / ed man as the guardian, or teacher of woman, ;. he would certainly have given some intimation \ of this surrender of his own prerogative. But '. so far from it, we find the commands of God invariably the same to man and woman ; and . not the slightest intimation is given in a single passage of the Bible, that God designed to point woman to man as her instructor. The tenor of his language always is, * Look unto ME, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.' The lust of dominion was probably the first effect of the fall; and as there was no other intelligent being over whom to exercise it, v/o- man was the first victim of this unhallowed pas- sion. We afterwards see it exhibited by Cain m the murder of his brother, by Nimrod in his becoming a mighty hunter of men, and setting up a kingdom cArer which to reign. Here we see the origin of that Upas of slavery, which sprang up immediately after the fall, and has spread its pestilential branches over the whole ^ face of the known world. All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratifica- tion, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and MOW he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has . wrought, and says, the being he has thus deeply / injuLsd is his inferior. * 12 "Woman has been placed by • Adams, side by side with the sla was contending for the rir^ht sid( I thank him for rankinc: us with tl for I shall not find it difficult to s all ages and countries, not even e lightened republican America, won or less been ^Dade a means to pron fare of man, without due regard happiness, and the glory of God ; her creation. During the patriarchal ages, \ and women engaged in the same e Abraham and Sarah both assisted the food which was to be set bef( men, who visited them in the plair but although their occupations \ Sarah was not permitted to enjoy t the holy visitant ; and as we lean that she * obeyed Abraham, calling we may presume he exercised d( her. tVe shall pass on now to ] her history, w^e find another strikir of the low estimation in which held. Eleazur is sent to seek a w He finds Rebecca going down to tl her pitcher. He accosts her ; and with all humility, * Drink, my lord, he endeavor to gain her favor and Does he approach her as a dignifi whom he was about to invite to fi tant station in his master's family, of his only son? No. He offere' her vanity, and 'he took a golder half a shekel weight, and two brae hands of ten shekels weight of go. them to Kebecca. • 13 The cupidity of man soon led him to regard woman as property, and hence we find them sold to those, who wished to marry tliem, as far as appears, without any regard to those sa- cred rio:hts which belonir to woman, as well as to man in the choice of a companion. That ' women were a profitable kind of property, we may gather from the description of a virtuous woman int he last chapter of Proverbs. To work . willingly with her hands, to open her hands to the poor, to clothe herself with silk and pur- ple, to look well to her household, to make fine ' linen and sell it, to deliver girdles to the mer- ; chant, and not to eat the bread of idleness, I seems to have constituted in the view of Solo- mon, the perfection of a woman's character and achievements. * The spirit of that age w^as not favorable to intellectual improvement ; but as there were Wise men who formed exceptions to the general ignorance, and were destined to guide the world into more advanced states, so there was a corresponding proportion of wise women ; and among the Jews, as well as other nations, we find a strong tendency to believe that women were in more immediate connection with heaven than men.' — L. M. Child's Con. of Woman. If there be any truth in this tra- dition, I am at a loss to imagine in what the superiority of man consists. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER III. THE PASTORAL LETTER OF THE GENERAL - CLA.TION OF CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Haverhill, 1th Mo. 183 Dear Friend, — When 1 last addressed i I had not seen the Pastoral Letter of the < eral Association. It has since fallen intc hands, and I must digress from my intentit exhibiting the condition of women in diffi parts of the world, in order to make som- marks on this extraordinary document. ] persuaded that when the minds of men women become emancipated from the thra] of superstition and * traditions of men,' the timents contained in the Pastoral Letter wi recurred to with as much astonishment a opinions of Cotton Mather and other d: guished men of his day, on the subject of w craft ; nor will it be deemed less wond« that a body of divines should gravely asse and endeavor to prove that woman has no to * open her mouth for the dumb,' than it is that judges should have sat on the tria witches, and solemnly condemned nineteen sons ^nd one dog to death for witchcraft. But to the letter. It says, * We invite - ^^ attention to the dangers which at present seem i to threaten the FEMALE CHARACTER with = wide-spread and permanent injury.' I rejoice that they have called the attention of my sex to I this subject, because I believe if woman inves- j tigates it, she will soon discover that danger is I impending, though from a totally different I source from that which the Association appre- hends, — danger from those who, having long held the reins of usurped authority, are unwill- ing to permit us to fill that sphere which God created us to move in, and who have entered into league to crush the immortal mind of wo- man. I rejoice, because I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and asserted, even by some of those, wh^ are now endeavoring to smother the irrepr^sible desire for mental and spiritual freedom which glows in the breast of many, who hardfy dare to speak their sentiments. * The appropriate duties aj^ influence of wo- men are clearly stated in we New Testament. Those duties are unobtr^isive and private, but the sources of mighty /ower. When the mild, dependent^ softening ,/njfiuence of woman upon the sternness of nvin's opinions is fully exer- cised, society feeU the effects of it in a thousand ways.' No on^can desire more earnestly than I do, that w/>man may move exactly in the sphere whioh her Creator has assigned her ; and I believe her having been displaced from that sphere has introduced confusion into the world. It is, therefore, of vast importance to her5elf and to all the rational creation, that she skould ascertain what are her duties and her privileges as a responsible and immortal being. 16 The New Testament has been referred I am willing to abide by its decisions, bi enter my protest against the false transh some passages by the men who did that and against the perverted interpretation MEN who undertook to write comme thereon. I am inclined to think, when admitted to the honor of studying Gre< Hebrew, we shall produce some variou ings of the Bible a little different from th now have. The Lord Jesus defines the duties followers in his Sermon on the Moun lays down grand principles by w^hich they be goveined, without any reference to condition . — * Ye are the light of the woi { city that is ?et on a hill cannot be hid. ] do men light a candle and put it under a but on a candlestick, -and it giveth lig , all that are in ilie house. Let your shine before men, that they may see yoi works, and glorify your Father whicl Heaven.' I follow hiia through all his p: and find him giving th<i same directions men as to men, never ev^ referring to tinction now so strenuously^ insisted uj ' tween masculine and feminifie virtues : one of the anti-christian * traditions o which are taught instead of tl^ * cor ments of God.' Men and womeh wei ATED EQUAL ; they are both moral and i table beings, and whatever is right for do, is right for woman. But the influence of woman, says tht ) ciation, is to be private and unobtrusi^ ) light is not to shine before man like tha ( brethren ; but she is passively to let th 17 of the creation, as they call themselves, put the bushel over it, lest peradventure it might appear that the world has been benefitted by the rays ? of her candle. So that her quenched light, ac- cording to their judgment, will bo of more use than if it were set on the candlestick. * Her influence is the source of mighty power.' This has ever been the flattering language of man since he laid aside the whip as a means to keep woman in subjection. He spares her body ; but the war he has waged against her mind, her heart, and her soul, has been no less destructive to her as a moral being. How monstrous, how ; anti-christian, is the doctrine that woman is to \ be dependent on man ! Where, in all the sacred • Scriptures, is this taught ? Alas I she has too ; well learned the lesson, which man has labored to teach her. She has surrendered her dearest . RIGHTS, and been satisfied with the privileges ^ which man has assumed to grant her; she has been amused with the show of power, whilst / man has absorbed all the reality into himself. He has adorned the creature whom God gave him as a companion, with baubles and gewgaws, turned her attention to personal attractions, ofiered incense to her vanity, and made her the instrument of his selfish gratification, a play- thing to please his eye and amuse his hours of \ leisure. * Rule by obedience and by submission \ sway,' or in other words, study to be a hypo- i crite, pretend to submit, but gain your point, I has been the code of household morality which 1 woman has been taught. The poet has sung, in sickly strains, the loveliness of woman's de- \ pendence upon man, and now we find it re- echded by those who profess.to teach the relig- ion of the Bible. God says, * Cease ve from 2 I 18 man whose breath is in his nostrils, for whereit is he to be accounted of?' Man says, depend upon me. God says, * HE will teach us of his ways.' Man says, believe it not, I am to be your teacher. This doctrine of dependence upon man is utterly at variance with the doc- trine of the Bible. In that book I find nothing like the softness of Woman, nor the sternness ol man : both are equally commanded to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, meekness, gentleness, &c. But we are told, *the power of woman is in her dependence, flowing from a consciousness of that weakness which God has given her foi her protection.' If physical weakness is allu- ded to, I cheerfully concede the superiority ; ii brute force is what my brethren are claiming, 1 am willing to let them have all the honor they desire ; but if they mean to intimate, that men- tal or moral weakness belongs to woman, more than to man, I utterly disclaim the charge. Out powers of mind have been crushed, as far as man could do it, our sense of morality has ; been impaired by his interpretation of our du- . ties ; but no where does God say that he made , any distinction between us, as moral and intel- ' ligent beings. * We appreciate,' say the Association, *the unostentatious prayers and efforts of woman in advancing the cause of religion at home and abroad, in leading religious inquirers to the PASTOR for instruction.' Several points here demand attention. If public prayers and public efforts are necessarily ostentatious, then * Anna the prophetess, (or preacher,) who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day,' *and spake of 19 Christ to all them that looked for redemption in Israel,' was ostentatious in her efforts. Then, the apostle Paul encourages women to be osten- tatious in their efforts to spread the gospel, when he gives them directions how they should appear, when engaged in praying, or preaching in the public assemblies. Then, the whole as- sociatioti of Congregational ministers are osten- tatious, in the efforts they are making in preach- ing and praying to convert souls. But woman may be permitted to lead relig- ious inquirers to the pastors for instruction. Now this is assuming that all pastors are better !' qualified to give instruction than woman. This I utterly deny. I have suffered too keenly from the teaching of man, to lead any one to him for ' instruction. The Lord Jesus says, — 'Come ^ unto me and learn of me.' He points his fol- ' lowers to no man ; and when woman is made ^ the favored instrument of rousing a sinner to ^ his lost and helpless condition, she has no right to substitute any teacher for Christ ; all she has to do is, to turn the contrite inquirer to the * Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' More souls have probably been lost by going down to Egypt for help, and by trusting in man in the early stages of religious experience, than by any other error. Instead of the petition being offered to God, — * Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation,' — instead of relying on the precious promises — * What man is he that fear- eth the Lord ? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose' — ' I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go — I will guide thee with mine eye' — the young convert is directed to go to man, as if he were I 20 in the place of God, and his instructions esj tial to an advancement in the path of righte( ness. That woman can have but a poor c ception of the privilege of being taught of G what he alone can teach, who would turn * religious inquirer aside' from the fountain living waters, where he might slake his th for spiritual instruction, to those broken ciste which can hold no water, and therefore can satisfy the panting spirit. The business of r and women, who are ordained op God preach the unsearchable riches of Christ' t lost and perishing world, is to lead souls Christ, and not to Pastors for instruction. The General Association say, that *wl woman assumes the place and tone of man a public reformer, our care and protection her seem unnecessary ; we put ourselves self-defence against her, and her character comes unnatural.' Here again the unscriptu notion is held up, that there is a distinction tween the duties of men and women as mc beings ; that what is virtue in man, is vice woman ; and women who dare to obey command of Jehovah, * Cry aloud, spare n lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show i people their transgression,' are threatened w having the protection of the brethren withdrav If this is all they do, we shall not even kni the time when our chastisement is inflicted ; c trust is in the Lord Jehovah, and in him is ev lasting strength. The motto of woman, w> she is engaged in the great work of public formation should be, — ' The Lord is my 1 and my salvation ; whom shall I fear ? ' Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom s^ I be afraid?' She must feel, if she feels righ 21 that she is fulfilling one of the important duties laid upon her as an accountable being, and that her character, instead of being *, unnatural,' is in exact accordance with the will of Him to whom, and to no other, she is responsible for the talents and the gifts confided to her. As to the pretty simile, introduced into the * Pastoral f Lerter,' * If the vine whose strength and beauty is to lean upon the trellis work, and half conceal its clusters, thinks to assume the independence and the overshadowing nature of the elm,' &c. I shall only remark that it might well suit the poet's fancy, who sings of sparkling eyes and ' coral lips, and knights in armor clad ; but it seems to me utterly inconsistent with the dig- nity of a Christian body, to endeavor to draw such an anti-scriptural distinction between men and women. Ah ! how many of my sex feel in the dominion, thus unrighteously exercised over them, under the gentle appellation o( protection^ that what they have leaned upon has proved a broken reed at best, and oft a spear. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. f LETTER IV. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE OF THE SEXES. ATtdover, 1th Mo, 21th, 1837. My Dear Friend, — ^Before I proceed wi the account of that oppression which worn; has suffered in every age and country from h protector, man, permit me to offer for your cc sideration, some views relative to the social i tercourse of the sexes. Nearly the whole this intercourse is, in my apprehension, den atory to man and woman, as moral and int lectual beings. We approach each other, a mingle with each other, under the constant pr sure of a feeling that we are of different sexe and, instead of regarding each other only in I light of immortal creatures, the mind is fett ed by the idea which is early and industrioui infused into it, that we must never forget 1 distinction between male and female. Her our intercourse, instead of being elevated a refined, is generally calculated to excite a keep alive the lowest propensities of our natu Nothing, I believe, has tended more to desti the true dignity of woman, than the fact tl she is approached by man in the character o female. The idea that she is sought as an telligent and heaven-born creature, whose 9» ciety will cheer, refine and elevate her compan- ion, and that she will receive the same blessings she confers, is rarely held up to her view. On the contrary, man almost always addresses himself to the weakness of woman. By flat- tery, by an appeal to her passions, he seeks access to her heart ; and when he has gain- ed her affections, he uses her as the instrument of his pleasure — the minister of his temporal • comfort. He furnishes, himself with a house- keeper, whose chief business is in the kitchen, or the nursery. And whilst he goes abroad and enjoys the means of improvement afforded by collision of intellect with cultivated minds, ms wife is condemned to draw nearly all her instruction from books, if she has time to pe- ruse them ; and if not, from her meditations, i whilst engaged in those domestic duties, which are necessary for the comfort of her lord and master. Surely no one who contemplates, with the eye of a Christian philosopher, the design of God in the creation of woman, can believe that she is now fulfilling that design. The literal translation of the word * help-meet ' is a help- er like unto himself; it is so rendered in the Septuagint, and manifestly signifies a compan- ion. Now I believe it will be impossible for woman, to fill the station assigned her by God, until her brethren mingle with her as an equal, as a moral being ; and lose, in the dignity of her immortal nature, and in the fact of her bear- ing like himself the image and superscription of her God, the idea of her being a female. The apostle beautifully remarks, * As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, 04 there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male WOT female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' Until our intercourse is purified by the forgetfulness of sex, — until we rise above the present low and sordid views which entwine themselves around our social and domestic inter- change of sentiment and feelings, we never can derive that benefit from each other's society which it is the design of our Creator that we should. Man has inflicted an unspeakable in- jury upon woman, by holding up to her view her animal nature, and placing in the back ground her moral and intellectual being. Wo- man has inflicted an injury upon herself by submitting to be thus regarded ; and she is now called upon to rise from the station where mariy not God, has placed her, and claim those sacred and inalienable rights, as a moral and respon- sible being, with which her Creator has invest- ed her. What but these views, so derogatory to the character of woman, could have called forth the remark contained in the Pastoral Letter ? * We especially deplore the intimate acq^jaint- ance and promiscuous conversation oi females with regard to things " which ought not to be named," by which that modesty and delicacy, which is the charm of domestic life, and which constitutes the true influence of woman^is con- sumed.' How wonderful that the conceptions of man relative to woman are so low, that he cannot perceive that she may converse on any subject connected with the improvement of her species, without swerving in the least from that modesty which is one of her greatest virtues ! Is it designed to insinuate that woman should possess a greater degree of modesty than man ? 05 This idea I utterly reprobate. Or is it suppos- ed that woman cannot go into scenes of misery, the necessary result of those very things, which the Pastoral Letter says ought not to be named, for the purpose of moral reform, without be- coming contaminated by those with whom she thus mingles ? This is a false position ; and I presume has grown out of the never-forgotten distinction of male and female. The woman who goes forth, . . clad in the panoply of God, to stem the tide of • iniquity and misery, which she beholds rolling through our land, goes not forth to her labor of love as a female. She goes as the dignified messenger of Jehevah, and all she does and says must be done and said irrespective of sex. She is in duty bound to communicate with all, ■ ^who are able and willing to aid her in saving her fellow creatures, both men and women, from that destruction which awaits them. So far from woman losing any thing of the purity of her mind, by visiting the wretched victims of vice in their miserable abodes, by talking with them, or of them, she becomes more and more elevated and refined in her feel- ings and views. While laboring to cleanse the minds of others from the malaria of moral pol- lution, her own heart becomes purified, and her soul rises to nearer communion with her God. Such a woman is infinitely better qualified to fulfil the duties of a wife and a mother, than the woman whose false delicacy leads her to shun her fallen sister and brother, and shrink from Tiaming those sins which she knows exist, but which she is too fastidious to labor by deed and by word to exterminate. Such a woman feels, when she enters upon the marriage relation, r S6 that God designed that relation not to debase her to a level with the animal creation, but to increase the happiness and dignity of his crea- tures. Such a woman comes to the important task of training her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, with a soul filled with the greatness of the beings committed to her charge. She sees in her children, creatures bearing the image of God ; and she approaches them with reverence, and treats them at all times as moral and accountable beings. Her own mind being purified and elevated, she in stils into her children that genuine religion which induces them to keep the commandments of God. Instead of ministering with ceaseless care to their sensual appetites, she teaches them to be temperate in all things. She can con- verse with her children on any subject relating to their duty to God, can point their attention to those vices which degrade and biutify human nature, without in the least defiling her own mind or theirs. She views herself, and teach- es her children to regard themselves as moral beings ; and in all their intercourse with their fellow men, to lose the animal nature of man and woman, in the recognition of that immortal mind wherewith Jehovah has blessed and en- riched them. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER V. CONDITION IN ASIA AND AFRICA. Groton, 8th Mo. Uh, 1837. My Dbar Sister, — I design to devote this letter to a brief examination of the condition of women in Asia and Africa. I believe it will be found that men, in the exercise of their usurped , ■ dominion over woman, have almost invariably done one of two things. They have either made slaves of the creatures whom God design- ed to be their companions and their coadjutors in every moral and intellectual improvement, or they have dressed them like dolls, and used them as toys to amuse their hours of recreation. I shall commence by statincf the degrading practice of SELLING WOMEN, which we find prevalent in almost all the Eastern nations. Among the Jews, — « Whoever wished for a wife must pay tlie parents for lier, or perform a stipulated period of service; sometimes tlie parties were solemnly betrotlied in childhood, and tlie price of the bride stipalated.' In Babylon, they had a yearly custom of a peculiar kind. 'In every district, three men, respectable for their virtue, were chosen to conduct all the marriageable girls to the pablic assembly. Here they were pot u|) at auction by tlie 28 public crier, whil^ the magistrate presided over The most beautiful were sold first, and the rich < the sale9. contended eagerly for a choice. The most ugly, or deformed girl was sold next in succession to the handsomest, and assigned to any person who would take her with the leasv-sum of money. Tiie price given fur the beautiful was divided into dowries for the lionrveiy.' Two things may here be noticed ; first, the value set upon personal charms, just as a hand- some horse commands a high price ; and see-r ond, the utter disregard which is manifested to- wards the feelings of woman. * In no part of the world docs the condition of women appear more dreary than in Hindostan. The arbitrary power of a father disposes of (hem in childhood. When they are married, their husbands have despotic control aver them ; if unable to support them, they can lend or sell them to a neighbor, and in the Hindoo rage for gambling, wives and children are frequently staked and lost. If they survive their husbands, they must pay implicit obedience to the old- est son ; if they have no sons, the nearest male relation Inilds them in BubjectioH ; and if there happen to be bo kinsmen, they must be dependent on the chief of the tribe.' Even the English, who are numerous in Hin-^ dostan^ have traded in women. * India has been a great marriage market, on account of tlie emigration of young enterprising Englishmen, without a corresponding mimber of women. Some persons actually imported women to the British settlements, in order to sell them to rich Europeans, or nabobs, who would give a good price for them. How the importers acquired a right thusta dispose of them is not mentioned ; it is probable that the women themselves, from extreme poverty, op some other cause, consented to become articles of speculation, upon con- sideration of receiving a certain remuneration. In Septem- ber, 1818, the following' advertisement appeared in the Cal- cttita Advertiser r FEMALES RAFFLEI> FOR. Be it known, that six fuir pretty young ladips, with two sweet engT\ging children, lately imported from Kurope, hav- ing the roses of health blooming on their cheeks, and joy- sparkling in their eyes, possessing amiaiile tempers and high- ly accomplished, whum the most indifferent cannot behold without rapture, are to be rafflc-l lor next door to the Brit* ish gallery^' A 29 The enemy of all good could not have devis- ed a better means of debasing an immortal creature, than by turning her into a saleable commodity ; and hence we find that wherever this custom prevails, woman is regarded as a mere machine to answer the purposes of domes- tic combat or sensual indulgence, or to gratify the taste of her oppressor by a display of per- sonal attractions. * Weighed is the balance with a tyraot'd goM, Though nature ca«t her in a heavenly mould.' I shall now take a brief survey of the em- PLOTMBNTs of women in Asia and Africa. In doing this, I have two objects in view ; first to show, that women are capable of acquiring as great physical power as men, and secondly to show, that they have been more or less the vie* tims of oppression and contempt. ' The occupations of the ancient Jewish women were la- borious. They spent their time in spinning and weaving cloth lor garmenu, ai^ ibr the coverii^ of tJie tents, in cooking the food, tending the flocks, grincOng the com, and drawing water from the wells.' Of Trojan women we know little, but we find that — ' Andromache, thongfa a prin«» and well bclored by her buslnad, fed and took care of the horses of Hector.' So in Persia, women of the middling class see that proper care is taken of the horses. They likewise do all the laborioa? part of the house work. « The Hindoo women are engas«l >■ ,^^ variety of oc- copation, according to the «*te ^f^'\ k•J^x.nd,. They ^bw^.« »lw. land, make bukeiM »md maU, Scmg irater in cnpation, accoroing wj "*«^ ^-«'*' ^- \ , . - '^.J ca&ate the Uod, make bukett a^ mau, brmg ^ter m JMn, cairy manore and rarmw other article* to market m 30 basket! on their beads, cook food, tend children, weave cloth, reel thread and wind cocoons.* * The Thibetian women of the laboring classes are inured to a great deal of toil. They plant, weed, reap, and thresh grain, and are exposed to the roughest weather, while their indolent husbands are perhaps living at tlicir ease.' < Females of the lower classes among the Chinese endure as much labor and fatigue as the men. A wife sometimes dra^ the plough in rice fields with an infant tied upon her back, while her husband performs the less arduous task of holding the plough.' * The Tartar women in general perform a greater share of labor than the men ; for it is a prevalent opinion that they were sent into the world for no other purpose, but to be use- ful and convenient slaves to the stronger sex.' * Among some of the Tartar tribes of the present day, females man- age a horse, hurl a javelin, hunt wild animals, and fight an enemy as well as the men.' < In the island of Sumatra, the women do all the work, while their husbands lounge in idleness, playing on the flute, with wreaths of globe amaranth on their heads, or racing with each other, without saddle or stirrup, or bunting deer, or gambling awa^ their wives, their children, or themselves. The Battas consider their wives and children as slaves, and sell them whenever they choose.' ' The Moors are indolent to excess. They lie whole days upon their mats, sleeping and smoking, while the women and slaves perform all the labor. Owing to their uncleanly hal)- its, they are much infested with vermin; and as they con- sider it beneath their dignity to remove this annoyance, the task is" imposed on the women. They are very impatient and tyrannical, and for the slightest ofi'ence beat their wives most cruelly.' In looking over the condition of woman as delineated in this letter, how amply do we find the prophecy of Jehovah to Eve fulfilled, * Thy husband will rule over thee.' And yet we per- ceive that where the physical strength of woman is called into exercise, there is no inferiority even in this respect; she performs the labor, while man enjoys what are termed the pleasures of life. 31 I have thought it necessary to adduce various proofs of my assertion, that men have always in some way regarded women as mere instruments of selfish gratification ; and hope this sorrowful detail of the wrongs of woman will not be te- dious to thee. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER VI. WOMEN IN ASIA AND AFRICA. Grotan, 8tk 3Io. 15tk, 1837. Dear Frlend, — In pursuing the history of woman in different ages and countries, it will be necessary to exhibit her in ail the various situations in which she has been placed. We find her sometimes ^/Zm^ the throne, and exercising the functions of royalty. The name of Semiramis is familiar to every reader of an- cient history. She succeeded Ninus in the government of the Assyrian empire ; and to render her name immortal, built the city of Ba- bylon. Two millions of men were constantly employed upon it. Certain dykes built by order of this queen, to defend the city from in- undations, are spoken of as admirable. Nicotris, wife of Nabonadius, the Evil-Mero- dach of Scripture, was a woman of great en- dowments. While her husband indulged in a life of ease and pleasure, she managed the affairs of state with wisdom and prudence. * Zenobia queen of Palmyra and the East, is the most re- markable among Asiatic women. Her genius struggled with and overcame all the obstacles presented by oriental laws and customs. She knew the Latin, Greek, Syriac» and Egyptian languages ; and had drawn up for her own use an abridgement of oriental history. She was the companioD J and friend of her bosband, aod accompanied him on hif hunting excursions with eagerness aud courage equal to bis own. She despised the eneminacy of a covered carriagei and often appeared on horseback in military costume. Some- times she marched several miles on foot, at the head of tlie troops. Having revenged the murder of her husband, she ascended the throne, and for five years governed Palmyra, Syria, and the East, with wonderful steadiness and wis- dom.' ' Previous to the introduction of Mohammedism into Java, women often held the highest offices of government ; and when the chief of a district dies, it is even now not uncom- mon for the widow to retain the authority that belonged to her deceased husband.* Other instances might be adduced to prove I that, there is no natural inferiority in woman. Not that I approve of woman's holding the reins of government over man. I maintain that they are equal, and that God never invest- ed fallen man with unlimited power over his fel- low man ; and I rejoice that circumstances have prevented woman from being more deeply in- volved in the guilt which appears to be insepa- rable from political affairs. The few instances which I have mentioned prove that intellect is , not sexed ; and doubtless if woman had not t almost universally been depressed and degraded, ^i the page of history would have exhibited as f many eminent statesmen and politicians among women as men. We are much in the situation ^ of the slave. Man has asserted and assumed '-. authority over us. He has, by virtue of his t power, deprived us of the advantages of im* ^ provement which he has lavishly bestowed upon himself, and then, after having done all \ he can to take from us the means of proving our equality, and our capability of mental culti- vation, he throws upon us the burden of proof that God created man and woman equal, and en- dowed them, without any reference to sex, with 3 34 intelligence and responsibilities, as rational and accountable beings. Hence in Hindostan, even women of the higher classes are forbidden-la read or write; because the Hindoos think-it would inevitably spoil them for domestic Ufej, and assuredly bring some great misfortune upon them. May we not trace to the same feeling, the disadvantages under which women labor even in this country, for want of an education, which would call into exercise the powers of her mind, and fortify her soul with those great moral principles by which she would be qualified to fill every department in social^ domestic and religious life with dignity ? In Hindostan, the evidence of women is not received in a court of justice. In Burmah, their testimony is not deemed equal to that of a man, and they are not allowed to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but are obliged to give their testimony outside of the building. In Siberia, women are no I allowed to step across the foot-prints of men, or reindeer ; they are not allowed to eat with men, or to partake of particular dainties. Among many tribes, they seem to be regarded as impure, unholy beings. * The Mohammedan law forbids pigs, dogs, women and other impure animals to enter a mosque ', and the hour of prayers must not be proclaimed by a female, a madman, a drunkard; or a decrepit person.* Here I am reminded of the resemblance be- tween the situation of women in heathen and Mohammedan countries, and our brethren and sisters of color in this Christian land, where 35 they are despised and cast out as though they were unclean. And on precisely the same ground, because they are said to be inferior. The treatment of women as wives is almost uniformly the same in all heathen countries. The ancient Lydians are the only exception that I have met with, and the origin of their peculiar customs is so much obscured by fable, that it is difficult to ascertain the truth. Proba- bly they arose from some great benefit conferred on the state by women. Among the Druses who reside in the moun- tains of the Anti Libanus, a wife is often di- vorced on the slightest pretext. If she ask her husband's permission to go out, and he says, — • Go,' without adding * but come back again,' she is divorced. In Siberia, it is considered a wife's duty to obey the most capricious and unreasonable de- mands of her husband, without one word of expostulation or inquiry. If her master be dissatisfied with the most trifling particular in her conduct, he tears the cap or veil from her head, and this constitutes a divorce. A Persian woman, under the dominion of the kindest master, is treated much in the same manner as a favorite animal. To vary her personal graces for his pleasure, is the sole end and aim of her existence. As moral or intel- lectual beings, it would be better for them to be among the dead than the living. The mother instructs her daughter in all the voluptuous co- quetry, by which she herself acquired precarious ascendency over her absolute master ; but all that is truly estimable in female character is utterly neglected. Hence we find women extravagantly fond of 36 adorning their persons. Regarded as instru- ments of pleasure, they have been degraded into mere animals, and have found their own gratification principally in the indulgence of personal vanity, because their external charms procured for them, at least a temporary ascen- dency over those, who held in their hands the reins of government. A few instances must suffice, or I shall exceed the limits I have pre- scribed to myself in this letter. During the magnificent prosperity of Israel, marriages were conducted with great pomp; and with the progress of luxury and refinement, women became expensive, rather than profitable in a pecuniary point of view. Hence probably arose the custom of wealthy parents giving a handsome dowry with their daughters. On the day of the nuptials, the bride was conducted by her female relations to the bath, where she was anointed with the choicest perfumes, her hair perfumed and braided, her eyebrows deepened with black powder, and the tips of her fingers tinged with rose color. She was then arrayed in a marriage robe of brilliant color ; the girdle and bracelets were more or less costly. Notwithstanding the Chinese women have no opportunity to rival each other in the conquest of hearts, they are nevertheless very fond of ornaments. Bunches of silver or gilt flowers are always interspersed among their ringlets, and someties they wear the Chinese phoenix made of silver gilt. It moves with the slight- est motion of the wearer, and the spreading tail forms a glittering aigrette on the middle of the head, and the wings wave over the front. Yet a Chinese ballad says, — The pearls and precious stones, the silk and gold with which a coquette 37 so studiously bedecks herself, are a transparent varnish which makes all her defects the more apparent. ^ The Moorish women have generally a great passion for ornament. They decorate their persons with heavy gold ear-rings, necklaces of amber, coral and gold ; gold bracelets ; gold chains and silver bells for the ankles ; rings on the fingers, &c. &c. The poorer class wear glass beads around the head, and curl the hair in large ringlets. Men are proud of having their wives handsomely dressed. The Moors are not peculiar in this fancy. Christian men still admire women who adorn their persons to gratify the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Women, says a Brahminical expositor, are characterized by an inordinate love of jewels, fine clothes, &c. &c. I cannot cleny this charge, but it is only one among many instances, wherein men have reproached us with those very faults and vices which their own treatment has engendered. Is it any matter of surprise that women, when unnat- urally deprived of the means of cultivating their minds, of objects which would elevate and refine their passions and • affections, should seek gratification in the toys and the trifles which now too generally engage their atten- tion ? I cannot close this, without acknowledging the assistance and information I have derived, and shall continue to derive on this part of my subject, from a valuable work entitled * Condi- tion of Women, by Lydia M Child.' It is worth the perusal of every one who is interest- ed in the subject. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Saeah M. Grimke. LETTER VII. * CONDITION IN SOME PARTS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. Brookline, 8th Mo., 22d, 1837. Dear Sisteji, — I now come to the consider- ation of the condition of woman in Europe. — In this portion of the world, she does not ap< pear to have been as uniformly or as deeply de based, as in Eastern countries ; yet we shal find little in her history which can yield us sat isfaction, when we regard the high station eh< was designed to occupy as a morcU and inteL lectual being. In Greece, if we may judge from what Eos tathius says, * women should keep within doors and there talk,' — we may conclude, that ii general their occupations were chiefly domestic Thucydides also declares, that *she was th< best woman, of whom the least was said, eithe of good or of harm.' The heathen philoso phers doubtless wished to keep woman in he * appropriate sphere ;' and we find our clerics brethren of the present day re-echoing thes pagan sentiments, and endeavoring to drive wo man from the field of moral labor and intellect ual culture, to occupy her talents in the pursui 30 of those employments which will enahle her to regale the palate of her lord with the delica- cies of the table, and in every possible way minister to his animal comfort and gratification. In my humble opinion, woman has long enough subserved the interests of man ; and in the spirit of self-sacrifice, submitted almost without remonstrance to his oppression ; and now that her attention is solicited to' the subject of her rights, her privileges and her duties, I would entreat her to double her diligence in the per- formance of all her obligations as a loife, a mo" ther, a sister, and a daughter. Let us remem- ber that our claim to stand on perfect equality with our brethren, can only be substantiated by a scrupulous attention to our domestic duties, as well as by aiding in the great work of moral reformation — a work which is now calling for j The energies and consecrated powers of every \ man and .woman who desires to see the Re- deemer's kingdom established on earth. That man must indeed be narrow minded, and can have but a poor conception of the power of moral truth on the female heart, who supposes that a correct view of her own rights can make woman less solicitous to fill v/p every department of duty. If it should have this effect, it must be because she has not taken a comprehensive view of the whole subject. In the history of Rome, we find a little spot of sunshine in the valley where woman has been destined to live, unable from her lowly sit- uation to take an expansive view of that field of moral and mental improvement, which she should have been busy in cultivating. * In the earliest and best days of Rome, the first magis- trates and generals of armies ploughed their own fields, and 40 threshed their own grain. Integrity, industry and simplici* ty, were the prevailing virtues of the times; and the char- acter of woman was, as it always must be, graduated in a degree by that of man. Columella says, Roman husbands^ having completed the labors of tlie day, entered their housei free from till care, and there enjoyed perfect repose. Therd reigned union and concord and industry, supported by mu- tual affections. The most beautiful woman depended fot distinction on her economy and endeavors to assist in crown- ing her husband's diligence with prosperity. All was in common between them ; nothing was thought to belong mor^ to one than another. The wife by her assiduity and activi' ty within doors, equalled and seconded the industry and la* bor of her hustand.* In the then state of the world, we may con- clude from this description, that woman enjoy- ed as much happiness as was consistent with that comparatively unimproved condition of our species ; but now a new and vast sphere of use- fulness is opened to her, and she is pressed by surrounding circumstances to come up to the help of the Lord against the giant sins which desolate our beloved country. Shall woman shrink from duty in this exigency, and retiring within her own domestic circle, delight her- self in the abundance of her own selfish enjoy- ments. Shall she rejoice in lier home, her hus- band, her children, and forget her brethren and sisters in bondage, who know not what it is to call a spot of earth their own, whose hus- bands and wives are torn from them by relent- less tyrants, and whose children are snatch- ed from their arms by their unfeeling task-mas- ters, whenever interest, or convenience, tempts them to this sacrilegious act ? Shall woman disregard the situation of thousands of her fel- low creatures, who are the victims of intem- perance and licentiousness, and. retreating to the privacy of her own comfortable home, be satisfied that her whole duty is performed, when 41 she can exhibit * her children well clad and smiling, and her table neatly spread with whole- some provisions V Shall she, because * her house is her home,^ refuse her aid and her sym- pathy to the down trodden slave, to the poor unhappy outcasts who are deprived of those blessings which she so highly prizes ? Did God give her those blessings to steel her heart to the sufferings of her fellow creatures ? Did he grant her the possession of husband and chi^ren, to dry up the fountains of feeling for those who know not the consolations of tender- ness and reciprocal affection ? Ah no ! for ev- ery such blessing, God demands a grateful heart ; and woman must be recreant to her du- ty, if she can quietly sit down in the enjoy- ments of her own domestic circle, and not exert herself to procure the same happiness for others. But it is said woman has a mighty weapon in secret prayer. She has, I acknowledge, in common toith Tuan ; but the woman who prays in sincerity for the regeneration of this guilty world, will accompany her prayers by her la- hors. A friend of mine remarked—* I was sit- ting in my chamber, weeping over the miseries of the slave, and putting up my petitions for his deliverance from bondage ; when in the midst of my meditations, it occurred to me that my tears, unaided by effort, could never melt the chain of the slave. I must be up and do- ing.' She is now an active abolitionist — her prayers and her works go hand in hand. I am here reminded of what a slave once said to his master, a Methodist minister. The filaveholder inquired, * How did you like mj 42 sermon to-day V * Very good, master, did not preach me free.' Oh, my sisters, suffer me to entreat assert your privileges, and to perform y ties as moral beings. Be not dismayed ridicule of man ; it is a weapon worthy little minds, and is employed by those v that they cannot convince our judgmei not alarmed at contumely, or scorn ; w expect this. I pray that we may : with forbearance and love ; and that nothi drive us from the performance of our h holy duties. Let us * cease from man, breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is 1 accounted of?' and press forward in all tl moral enterprises of the age, leaning i the arm of our Beloved. But I must return to the subject I coi ed with, viz. the condition of woman rope. •The northern nations bore a general resem each otiter. War and hunting were considered honorable occupations fur men, and all other em were left to women and slaves. Even the Visigot) ooaats of Spain, left their fields and flocks to ih women. The people who inhabit the vast extent try between the Black sea and the North sea, ar into various distinct races. The women are gene industrious ; even in their walks, they carry a port taff, and spin every step of the way. Boih Cro: Walachian women perform ail the agricultural ope addition to their own domestic concerns.' Speaking of the Morlachian women, '. tis says, ^ Being treated like beasts of and expected to endure submissively ev( cies of hardship, they naturally beeoir dirty and careless in their habits.' The Cossack women afford a contrasl disgusting picture* They are very clea 43 industrious, and in the absence of their hus« bands, supply their places by taking charge of all their usual occupations, in addition to their own. It is rare for a Cossack woman not to know some trade^ such as dyeing cloth, tanning leather, &c. The condition of Polish and Russian serfs in modern times is about the same. The Pol- ish women have scarcely clothing enough for decency, and they are subjected to great hard- ships and privations. * In Russia, women have been seen paving the streets, and performing other similar drudgery. In Finland, they work like beasts of burden, and may be seen for hours in snow water, up to the middle, tugging at* boats and sledges.' In Flanders and in France, women are en- gaged in performing laborious tasks ; and even in England, it is not unusual to see them scrap- ing up manure from the streets with their hands, and gathering it into baskets. In Greece, even now the women plough and carry heavy burdens, while the lordly master of the family may be seen walking before them without any incumbrance-'*^ *Since the preceding lf»tters were in type, I have met with the followrng account in a French work entitled * De 1' education des meres de famille on de la civilization dii Genre Humain par lesfeminea,' printed at Brussels in 1837- *Tbe periodicals have lately published the following circum- stance from the journal of an English pfeysician, who travel- led in the East. He visit«d a slave market, whei'c he saw about twenty Greek women half naked, lying on tlie ground waiting for a purchaser. One of them attracted the atten- tion of an old Turk. The barbarian examined her should- «crs, her legs, her ears, h^r mouth, her ueck, with the minu- test care, just as a horse is examined, and during the inspec- tion, the merchant 4)raised the beauty of ber eyes* the ele- ^^ 44 Generally speaking, however, there is mudi more comparative equality of labor between the sexes in Europe than among the Orientak I shall close this lettei: with a brief survey o( the condition of women among the Aborigmo of America. * Before America was settled by Europeans, it was ialiab ited by Indian tribes, which greatly resembled each othc in the treatment of their women. Every tiling, except wa and hunting, was considered beneath the dignity of man^ During Ions and wearisome marches, women were^ oblig* to carry children, provisions and hammocks on their aiiMl ders ; they had the sole care of the horses and dogs, ei wood, pitched the tents, raised the com, and made the ck^ ing. When the husband killed game, he left it by a trea i the forest, returned home, and sent his wife several miles i search of it. In most of the tribes, women were not alloa ad to eat and drink witli men, but stood and served thea and then ate what they left.' The following affecting anecdote may givt some idea of the sufierings of these women : ' Father Joseph reproved a female savage for destroyiBj her infant danghter. She replied, ** I wisn my mother ha thus prevented the manifold sufferings I have endured. Cob sider, father, our deplorable situation. Our husbands go os to hunt ; we are dracged along with one infant at onr breast and another in a basket. Though tired with k>ng walkiof we are not allowed to sleep when we return, but must labo all night in grinding maize and making chica for tbeoi.- Thev get drunk and beat us, draw us by the hair of th head, and tread us under foot. Would to God my moths had put me under ground the moment I was born." * gaace of her shape, and other perfections ; he protested tba the poor girl was but thirteen years of age, &c. After i severe scrutiny and some dispute about the price, she wa sold body and soul for 1875 francs. The soul, it is true, ws accounted of little value in the bargain. The unfortunat creature, half fainting in the arms of her mother, implore help in the most touching accents, but it availed nothing- This infernal scene passed in Europe in 1829, only 60 leagues from Paris and Loudon, the two rapitals of the ho man species, and at the time in which I write, it is th living history of two thirds of the inhabitants of the earth. 45 In Greenland, the situation of woman is equally deplorable. The men hunt bears and catch seals ; but when they have towed their booty to land, they would consider it a disgrace to help the women drag it home, or skin and dress it. They often stand and look idly on, while their wives are staggering beneath the load that almost bends them to the earth. The women are cooks, butchers, masons, curriers, shoemakers and tailors. They will manage a boat in the roughest seas, and will often push off from the shore in the midst of a storm, that would make the hardiest European sailor trem- ble. The page of history teems with woman's wrongs, and it is wet with woman's tears. — For the sake of my degraded sex every where, ; and for the sake of my brethren, who suffer ":< just iM proportion as they place woman lower in the scale of creation than man, lower than / her Creator placed her, I entreat my sisters to • arise in all the majesty of moral power, in all the dignity of immortal beings, and plant them- selves, side by side, on the platform of human rights, with man, to whom they were designed to be companions, equals and helpers in every good word and work. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER VIII. ON THE CONDITION OP WOMEN IN THE UNITE] STATES. Brookliney 1837, My dear Sister, — I have now taken a brii survey of the condition of woman in varioii parts of the world. I regret that my time hfl been so much occupied by other things, that have been unable to bestow that attention- upo the subject which it merits, and that my coi stant change of place has prevented me froi having access to books j which might probaU have assisted me in this part of my work, hope that the principles I have asserted wi claim the attention of some of my sex, wh may be able to bring into view, more thorougl ly than I have done, the situation and degradi tion of woman. I shall now proceed to mak a few remarks on the condition of women i my own country. During the early part of my life, my lot wc cast among the butterflies of the fashiondbi world ; and of this class of women, I am coi strained to say, both from experience and obse: vation, that their education is miserably def cient ; that they are taught to regard marriag as the one thing needful, the only avenue t 47 ction ; hence to attract the notice and the attentions of men, hy their external Qs, is the chief business of fashionable They seldom think that men will be al- by intellectual acquirements, because they that where any mental superiority exists, man is generally shunned and regarded as ing out of her * appropriate sphere,' which, 3ir view, is to dress, to dance, to set out to est possible advantage her person, to read ovels which inundate the press, and which ore to destrey her character as a rational lire, than any thing else. Fashionable 3n regard themselves, and are regarded by as pretty toys or as mere instruments of are ; and the vacuity of mind, the heart- ess, the frivolity which is the necessary re- ef this false and debasing estimate of 3n, can only be fully understood by those have mingled in the folly and wickedness shionable life ; and who have been called such pursuits by the voice of the Lord 3, inviting their weary and heavy laden souk me unto Him and learn of Him, that they find something worthy of their immortal :, and their intellectual powers ; that they learn the high and holy purposes of their ion, and consecrate themselves unto the ser- of God ; and not, as is now the case, to the lure of man. lere is another and much more numerous in this country, who are withdrawn by ation or circumstances from the circle of onable amusements, but who are brought ith the dangerous and absurd idea, that 'iage is a kind of preferment ; and that to )le to keep their husband's house, and ren- (• 48 der his situation comfortable, is the end of h< being. Much that she does and says and thin) is done in reference to this situation ; and to 1 married is too often held up to the view of gii as the sine qua non of human happiness andh man existence. For this purpose more than f any other,! verily believe the majority of girls a trained. This is demonstrated by the imperfecta ucation which is bestowed upon them,and the 1 tie pains taken to cultivate their minds, after th< leave school, by the little time allowed them f reading, and by the idea being constantly inculc ted, that although all household concerns shou be attended to with scrupulous punctuality particular seasons, the improvement 'of the intellectual capacities is only a secondary ,Qp sideration, and may serve as an occupation fill up the odds and ends of time. In rnc families, it is considered a matter of far mo consequence to call a girl off from ma ing a pie, or a pudding, than to interra her whilst engaged in her studies. Th mode of training necessarily exalts, in the view, the animal above the intellectual ai spiritual nature, and teaches women to rega themselves as a kind of machinery, necessa: to keep the domestic engine in order, but of 1 tie value as the intelligent companions of me Let no one think, from these remarks, that regard a knowledge of housewifery as benea the acquisition of women. Far from it: lb lieve that a complete knowledge of househo affairs is an indispensable requisite in a womar education, — that by the mistress of a famil whether married or single, doing her duty tho oughly and understandingly, the happiness the family is increased to an incalculable degre OS well as a vast amount of time and mom 49 saved. All I complain of is, that our education consists so almost exclusively in culinary and other manual operations. I do long to see the time, when it virill no longer be necessary for women to expend so many precious hours in furnishing * a well spread table,' but that their husbands will forego some of their accustomed indulgences in this way, and encourage their wives to devote some portion of their time to mental cultivation, even at the expense of hav- ing lo dine sometimes on baked potatoes, or bread and butter. I believe the sentiment expressed by the author of * Live and let Live,' is true : ' Other things being equal, a woman of the highest mental endowments will always be the best housekeeper, lor do- mestic economy, is a science that brings into action the -qualities of the mind, as well as the graces of the heart. \ quick perception, judgment, discrimination, decision and order are high attributes of mind, and are all in daily exer- cise in the well ordering of a family. If a sensible woman, an intellectual woman, a woman of genius, is not a good housewife, it is not because she is either, or all ot those, but because there is some deficiency in her character, or some omission of duly which should make her very humble, in- stead of her indulging in any secret self-complacency on ac- count of a certain superiority, which onlv aggravates her fault.' The influence of women over the minds and character of children of both sexes, is allowed to be far greater than that of men. This being the case by the very ordering of nature, women should be prepared by education for the per- formance of their sacred duties as mothers and as sisters. A late American writer,^ speak- ing on this subject, says in reference to an arti- cle in the Westminster Review : * Thomas S. Grimke. 4 r ■?■ 50 * I agree entirely with the writer in the high estiimtt which he places on female education, and have long since been satisfied, ihat the subject not only merits, but impair ously demands a thorough reconsideration. The whole scheme must, in my opinion, be reconstructed. The great elements of usefulness and duty are too little attended to. Women ought, in ray view of the subject, to approach to the best education now given to men, (I except matliematics and the classics,) far more I believe than has ever yet been at- tempted. Give me a host of educated, pious mothers and listers, and I will do more to revolutionize a country, in moral and religious taste, in manners and in social virtoes and intellectual cultivation, than I can possibly do in doiiUo or treble the time, with a similar host of educated men. I cannot but think that the miserable condition of the great body of the people in all ancient communities, is to be ac- crikied in a very great degree to the degradation of womeu.' There is another way in which the general opinion, that women are inferior to men, is man- ifested, that bears with tremendous effect on the laboring class, and indeed on almost all who are obliged to earn a subsistence, whether it be by mental or physical exertion — I allude to the disproportionate value set on the time and labor of men and of women. A man who is engaged in teaching, can always, I believe, command a higher price for tuition than a woman— even when he teaches the same branches, and is not in any respect superior to the woman. This I know is the case in boarding and other schools with which I have been acquainted, and it is so in every occupation in which the sexes engage indiscriminately. As for example, in tailoring, a man has twice, or three times as much for making a waistcoast or pantaloons as a woman, although the work done by each may be equal- ly good. In those employments which are pe- culiar to women, their time is estimated at only half the value of that of men. A woman who goes out to wash, works as hard in proportion as a wood sawyer, or a coal heaver, but she is 51 not generally able to make more than half as much by a day's work. The low remuneration which women receive for their work, has claim- ed the attention of a few philanthropists, and I hope it will continue to do so until some remedy is applied for this enormous evil. I have known a widow, left with four or five children, to pro- vide for, unable to leave home because her help- less babes demand her attention, compelled to earn a scanty subsistence, by making coarse shirts at 12 1-2 cents a piece, or by taking in washing, for which she was paid by some wealthy persons 12 1-2 cents per dozen. All these things evince the low estimation in which woman is held. There is yet another and more discustrous consequence arising from this un- scriptural notion — women being educated, from earhest childhood, to regard themselves as infe- nor creatures, have not that self-respect which conscious equality would engender, and hence when their virtue is assailed, they yield to temptation with facility, under the idea that it rather exalts than debases them, to be connect- ed with a superior being. There is another class of women in this coun- try, to whom I cannot refer, without feelings of the deepest shame and sorrow. I allude to our female slaves. Our southern cities are whelmed beneath a tide of pollution ; the virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of irresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave markets, to gratify the brutal lust of those who bear the name of Christians. In our slave States, if amid all her degradation and igno- rance, a woman desires to preserve her virtue unsullied, she is either bribed or whipped into compliance, or if she dares resist her seducer. her life by the laws of some of the slave Statet iTiay be, and has actually been sacriticed to the fury of disappointed passion. Where suck iaus do not exist, the power which is necessfr riiy vested in the master over his property, leavet the defenceless slave entirely at his mercy, and the sufferings of some females on this account both physical and mental, are intense. Mr. Gholsoii, in the House of Delegates of Virginia, in 1S32, said, ' He really had been under the iiiiprcs^ion that he owned his slaves. He had lately purchased four women and ten children, in whom he thought he had obtained a great bargain ; for he supposed they were his own property, as were his brood maresJ' But even if any laws existed in the United Stales, as in Athens formerly, for the protection of female slaves, they would be null and void, because the cviilence of a colored person is not admitted against a white, in any of our Courts of Justice in the slave States. * In Athens, if a i'emale slave had cause to complain of any want of re- spect to the laws of modesty, she could seek the protection of the temple, and demand a change of owners ; and such appeals were nev- er discountenanced, or neglected by the luagis- trate.' In Christian America, the slave has no refuire from unbridled cruelty and lust. S. A. Forrall, speaking of the state of morals at the South, says, * Negresses when young and likely, are often employed by the planter, or his friends, to administer to their sensual desires. Tills frequently is a matter of speculation, for if the ollspring, a mulatto, be a handsome fe- male, 800 or 1000 dollars may be obtained for her in the New Orleans market. It is an oc- currence of no uncommon nature to see a Chris- 63 rian father sell his own daughter, and the hroth- er his own sister.' The following is copied by the N. Y. Evening Star from the Picayune, a paper published in New Orleans. *A very beautiful girl, belonging to the estate of John French, a deceased gambler at New Orleans, was sold a few days since for the round sum of $7,000. An ugly-looking bachelor named Gouch, a member of the Council of one of the Mncipalities, was the purchaser. The girl is a brunette ; remarkable for her beauty and in- telligence, and there was considerable conten- tion, who should be the purchaser. She was, however, persuaded to accept Gouch, he having made her princely promises.' I will add but one more from the numerous testimonies re- specting the degradation of female slaves, and the licentiousness of the South. It is from the Circular of the Kentucky Union, for the moral and religious improvement of the colored race. ' To the female character among our black pop- ulation, we cannot allude but with feelings of the bitterest shame. A similar condition of moral pollution and utter disregard of a pure and virtuous reputation, is to be found only witkout the pale of Christendom. That such I state of society should exist in a Christian nation, claiming to be the most enlightened upon earth, without calling forth any particular %ttention to its existence, though ever before our eyes and in our families, is a moral phe- nomenon at once unaccountable and disgrace- ful.' Nor does the colored woman suffer alone : :he moral purity of the white woman is deeply contaminated. In the daily habit of seeing the virtue of her enslaved sister sacrificed without hesitancy or remorse, she looks upon the crimes Vv H of seduction and illicit intercourse without hoi ror, and although not personally involved in th guilt, she loses that value for innocence in he own, as well as the other sex, which is one c the strongest safeguards to virtue. She live in habitual intercourse with men, whom sh knows to be polluted by licentiousness, and ofte is she compelled to witness in her own domet tic circle, those disgusting and heart-sickenin jealousies and strifes which disgraced and dii tracted the family of Abraham. In addition t all this, the female slaves suffer every specie of degradation and cruelty, which the moi wanton barbarity can inflict ; they are indecen ly divested of their clothing, sometimes tied u and severely whipped, sometimes prostrated o the earth, while their naked bodies are torn b the scorpion lash. * The whip on woman's shrinking flesh ! Our soil yet reddening with the stains Caught from her scourging warm and fresh.' Can any American woman look at these seem of shocking licentiousness and cruelty, and fol her hands in apathy ,and say, * I have nothing 1 do with slavery ' ? She cannot and be guiltles I cannot close this letter, without saying few words on the benefits to be derived by mei as well as women, from the opinions I advoca relative to the equality of the sexes. Man women are now supported, in idleness and e: travagance, by the industry of their husband fathers, or brothers, who are compelled to tc out their existence, at the counting house, or i the printing office, or some other laborious o cupation, while the wife and daughters and si ters take no part in the support of the famil and appear to think that their sole business 65 to spend the hard bought earnings of their male friends. I deeply regret such a state of things, because I believe that if women felt their re- sponsibility, for the support of themselves, or their families it would add strength and dignity to their characters, and teach them more true sympathy for their husbands, than is now gen- erally manifested, — a sympathy which would be exhibited by actions as well as words. Our brethren may reject my doctrine, because it runs counter to common opinions, and because it wounds their pride ; but I believe they would be * partakers of the benefit ' resulting from the Equality of the Sexes, and would find that woman, as their equal, was unspeakably more valuable than woman as their inferior, both as a moral and an intellectual being. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER IX. HEROISM OP WOMEN — WOMEN IN AUTHORITY. Brookline, Stk Mo. 25th, 1837. My Dear Sister, — It seems necessary to glance at the conduct of women under circum- stances which place them in juxtaposition with men, although I regard it as entirely unimpor- tant in proving the moral equality of the sexes ; because I condemn, in both, the exercise of that brute force which is as contrary to the law of God in men as in women ; still, as a part of our history, I shall notice some instances of courage exhibited by females. *Phiiippa, wife of Edward III., was the prin- cipal cause of the victory gained over the Scots at Neville Cross. In the absence of her hus- band, she rode among the troops, and exhorted them to " be of good courage." ' Jane, Coun- tess of Mountfort, and a contemporary of Phi- lippa, likewise possessed a great share of phy- sical courage. The history of Joan of Arc is too familiar to need repetition. During the reign of James II. a singular instance of female intrepidity occurred in Scotland. Sir John Cochrane being condemned to be hung, his \ daughter twice disguised herself, and robbed \ the mail that brought his death warrant. In A 67 he mean time, his pardon was obtained from the King. Instances might be multiplied, but it is unnecessary. I shall therefore close these proofs of female courage with one more fact. * During the revolutionary war, the women shar- ed in the patriotism and bravery of the men. Several individuals carried their enthusiasm so far as to enter the army, where they faced all the perils and fatigues of the camp, until the close of the war.' When I view my countrywomen in the char- acter of soldiers, or even behold them loading fire arms and moulding bullets for their breth- ren to destroy men's lives, I, cannot refrain a sigh. I cannot but contrast their conduct at that solemn crisis with the conduct of those women who followed their Lord and Master with unresisting submission, to Calvary's Mount. With the precepts and example of a crucified Redeemer, who, in that sublime precept, * Resist not evil,' has interdicted to his disciples all war and all violence, and taught us that the spirit of retaliation for injuries, whether in the camp, or at the fire-side, is wholly at variance with the peaceful religion he came to promulgate. How little do we comprehend that simple truth, * By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another J* Women have sometimes distincruished them- selves in a way more consistent with their duties as moral beings. During the war be- tween the Romans and the Sabines, the Sabine women who had been carried oflT by the Ro- mans, repaired to the Sabine camp, dressed in deep mourning, with their little ones in their arms, to soften, if possible, the feelings of their parents. They knelt at the feet of their rela- f 58 lives ; and when Hersilia, the wife of Romuluj described the kindness of their husbands, an their unwillingness to be separated from then their fathers yielded to their entreaties, and a alliance was soon agreed upon. In consequenc of this important service, peculiar privilege were conferred on women by the Romans Brutus said of his wife, * I must not answc Portia in the words of Hector, " Mind you wheel, and to your maids give law," for in coi rage, activity and concern for her country freedom, she is inferior to none of us.' Aftc the fatal battle of Can nee, the Roman wome consecrated all their ornaments to the service < the state. But when the triumvirs attempte to tax them for the expenses of carrying on civil war, they resisted the innovation. The chose Hortensia for their speaker, and went i a body to the market-place to expostulate wit the magistrates. The triumvirs wished to driv them away, but they were compelled to yiel to the wishes of the people, and give the wome a hearing. Hortensia pleaded so well the cans of her sisters, virho resolved that they would nc voluntarily aid in a civil war^ that the numbe of women taxed was reduced from 1400 t 400. In the wars of the Guelphs and the Ghibbe lines, the emperor Conrad refused all terms o capitulation to the garrison of Winnisberg, tu he granted the request of the women to pas out in safety with such of their effects as the] could carry themselves. Accordingly, they is sued from the besieged city, each bearing or her shoulders a husband, son, father, or brother They passed unmolested through the enemy'f camp, which rung with acclamations of ap plause. 59 During our struggle for independence, the women were as exemplarj'^ as the men in vari- ous instances of self-denial : they refused every article of decoration for their persons ; foreign elegances were laid aside, and they cheerfully abstained from luxuries for their tables. English history presents many instances of women exercising prerogatives now denied them. In an action at law, it has been deter- mined that an unmarried woman, having a free- Hold, might vote for members of Parliament ; md it is recorded that lady Packington returned two. Lady Broughton was keeper of the gate- house prison. And in a much later period, a woman was appointed governor of the house of correction at Chelmsford, by order of the court. In the reign of George II. the minister of Clerk- en well was chosen by a majority of women. The office of grand chamberlain in 1822 was filled by two women ; and that of clerk of the crown, in the court of king's bench, .has been granted to a female. The celebrated Anne, countess of Pembroke, held the hereditary office of sheriff of Westmoreland, and exer- cised it in person, sitting on the bench with the judges. I need hardly advert to the names of Eliza- beth of England, Maria Theresa of Germany, Catharine of Russia, and Isabella of Spain, to prove that women are capable of swaying the sceptre of royalty. The page of history proves incontestibly, not only that they are as well qualified to do so as men, but that there has been a comparatively greater proportion of good queens, than of good kings ; women who have purchased their celebrity by individual strength of character. r . 60 I mention these women only to prove tha ^' intellect is not sexed; that strength of mind ii ) not sexed ; and that our views about the dutiei / of men and the duties of women, the sphere o / man and the sphere of woman, are mere arbi '; trary opinions, differing in different ages and '>, countries, and dependant .solely on the will and judgment of erring mortals. As moral and responsible beings, men and women have the same sphere of action, and the same duties devolve upon both ; but no one can doubt that the duties of each vary according tc circumstances ; that a father and a mother, a husband and a wife, have sacred obligations resting on them, which cannot possibly belong to those who do not sustain these relations. But these duties and responsibilities do not attach to them as men and as women, but as parents, husbands, and wives. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimkb. LETTER X. INTELLLECT OF WOMAN. Brookline, 8th Mo. 1837. My Dear Sister, — It will scarcely be de- nied, I presume, that, as a generalfrule, men do not desire the improvement of women. There are few instances of men who are magnanimous enough to be entirely willing that women should know more than themselves, on any subjects except dress and cookery; and, indeed, this necessarily flows from their assumption of supe- riority. As they have determined that Jehovah has placed woman on a lower platform than man, they of course wish to keep her there ; and hence the noble faculties of our minds are crushed, and our reasoning powers are almost wholly uncultivated. A writer in the time of Charles I. says — * She that knoweth how to compound a pud- ding, is more 'desirable than she who skilfully compounded a poem. A female poet I mislike at all times.' Within the last century, it has been gravely asserted that, * chemistry enough to keep the pot boiling, and geography enough to know the location of the different rooms in her house, is learning sufficient for a woman.' Byron, who was too sensual to conceive of a 62 pure and perfect companionship be sexes, would limit a woman's library and cookery book. I have myself he who knew for themselves the value o tual culture, say they cared very 1 wife who could not make a pudding, with contempt at the ardent thirst for k exhibited by some women. But all this is miserable vrit and wc sophy. It exhibits that passion for t cation of a pampered appetite, which i those who claim to be so far above us, justly be placed on a par with the pol slaveholder, who says that men will slaves, if they are not permitted to read. In spite, however, of the obstacles i pede the progress of women towards of high mental cultivation for which tor prepared her, the tendency toward versal dissemination of knowledge hi influence on their destinies ; and in a few have surmounted every hindra proved, beyond dispute, that they ha" equal to their brethren. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio i was distinguished for virtue, learning sense. She wrote and spoke with ui elegance and purity. Cicero and Q bestow high praise upon her letters, eloquence of her children was attribut careful superintendence. This remin a remark made by my brother, Th Grimke, when speaking of the 'flftpo women being well educated, that * »en would never make educated wo educated women would make educat ii: 63 [ believe the sentiment is correct, because if the wealth of latent intellect among women was fully evolved and improved, they would rejoice ;o communicate to their sons all their own aiowledge, and inspire them with desires to irink from the fountain of literature. I pass over many interesting proofs of the ntellectual powers of women ; but I must not )mit glancing at the age of chivalry, which has )een compared to a golden thread running hrough the dark ages. During this remark- ible era, women who, before this period, had )een subject to every species of oppression and leglect, were suddenly elevated into deities, md worshipped with a mad fanaticism. It is lot improbable, however, that even the absur- lities of chivalry were beneficial to women, as t raised them from that extreme degradation which they had been condemned, and pre- pared the way for them to be permitted to enjoy ome scattered rays from the sun of science and iterature. As the age of knight-errantry de- lined, men began to take pride in learning, ,nd women shared the advantages which this hange produced. * Women preached in public, upported controversies, published and defended heses, filled the chairs of philosophy and law, larangued the popes in Latin, wrote Greek and ead Hebrew. Nuns wrote poetry, women of ank became divines, and young girls publicly xhorted Christian princes to take up arms for lie recovery of the holy sepulchre. Hypatia, aughter of Theon of Alexandria, succeeded er father in the government of the Platonic chool, and filled with reputation a seat, where lany celebrated philosophers had taught. The eople regarded her as an oracle, and ' magis 64 trates consulted her in all important case No reproach was ever uttered against the pe feet purity of her manners. She was unei barrassed in large assemblies of men, becau their admiration was tempered with the m< scrupulous respect. In the 13th century, young lady of Bologna pronounced a ta oration at the age of twenty-three. At tweni six, she took the degree of doctor of laws, a began publicly to expound Justinian. At thir she was elevated to a professor's chair, a taught the law to a crowd of scholars from nations. Italy produced many learned a gifted women, among whom, perhaps none v more celeBrated than Victoria Colonna, Maw ioness of Pescara. In Spain, Isabella of Ros< converted Jews by her eloquent preaching;' a in England the names of many women, fr< Lady Jane Gray down to Harriet Martinei are familiar to every reader of history. Of t last mentioned authoress, Lord Brougham ss that her writings on political economy w< doing more good than those of any man England. .There is a contemporary of Han Martineau, who has recently rendered valua! services to her country. She presented a n morial to Parliament, stating the danfferc parts of the coast, where light-houses wc needed, and at her sugf^estion, several w( erected. She keeps a life-boat and sailors her pay, and has been the means of savi many lives. Although she has been depriv of the use of her limbs since early chiidhoj yet even when the storm is unusually seve she* goes herself on the beach in her carria| that she may be sure her men perform th duty. She understands several languages, a 65 w engaged in writing a work on the North- anguages of Europe. *In Germany, the ence of women on literature is considerable, ^h less obvious than in some other coun- Literary families frequently meet at each 's houses, and learned and intelligent wo- are often the brightest ornaments of these l1 circles.' France has produced many dis- lished women, whose names are familiar ery lover of literature. And I believe it is eded universally, that Madame de Stael intellectually the greatest woman that ever '; The United States have produced sev- female writers, some of whom have talents e highest order. But women, even in this republic, do not enjoy all the intellectual ntages of men, although there is a percep- improvement within the last ten or twenty s ; and I trust there is a desire awakened in sisters for solid acquirements, which will ate them to their * appropriate sphere,' and lie them to ' adorn the doctrine of God our our in all things.' hine in the bonds of womanhood, Sar^^h M. Grimke. LETTER XL DRESS OF WOMEN. Brooklhie, 9th Mo., 1837. My Dear Sister, — When I view woman as an immortaf being, travelling through this world to that city whose builder and maker is God, — when I contemplate her in all the sublimity of her spiritual existence, bearing the image and superscription of Jehovah, emanating from Him and partaking of his nature, and destined, if she fulfils her duty, to dwell with him through the endless ages of eternity, — I mourn that she has lived so far below her privileges and her obligations, as a rational and accountable crea- ture ; and I ardently long to behold her occupy- ing that sphere in which I believe her Creator designed her to move. Woman, in all ages and countries, has been the scoff and the jest of her lordly master. If she attempted, like him, to improve her mind, she was ridiculed as pedantic, and driven from the temple of science and literature by coarse attacks and vulgar sarcasms. If she yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and sought relief from the monotony of existence by resorting to the theatre and the ball-room, by ornamenting her person with flowers and with jewels, while 67 her mind was empty and her heart desolate ; she was still the mark at which wit and satire and cruelty levelled their arrows. * Woman/ says Adam Clarke, * has been in- vidiously defined, an animal of dress. How long will they permit themselves to be thus de- graded V I have been an attentive observer of my sex, and I am constrained to believe that the passion for dress, which so generally char- acterizes them, is one cause why there so is little of that solid improvement and weight of character which might be acquired under almost any circumstances, if the mind were not occu- pied by the love of admiration, arjd the desire to gratify personal vanity. I have already ad- duced some instances to prove the inordinate love of dress, which is exhibited by women in a state of heathenism ; I shall, therefore, con- fine myself now to what are called Christian countres ; only remarking that previous to the introQUction of Christianity into the Roman empire, the extravagance of apparel had arisen to an unprecedented height. * Jewels, expen- sive embroidery, and delicious perfumes, were used in great profusion by those who could afford them.' The holy religion of Jesus Christ came in at this period, and stript luxury . and wealth of all their false attractions. * Wo- men of the noblest and wealthiest families, surrounded by the seductive allurements of worldly pleasure, renounced them all. Undis- mayed by severe edicts against the new religion, they appeared before the magistrates, and by pronouncing the simple words, " I am a Chris- tian," calmly resigned themselves to imprison- ment, ignominy and death.' Could such women have had their minds occupied by the foolish 68 vanity of ornamental apparel ? No ! Chris- tianity struck at the root of all sin, and conse- quently we find the early Christians could not fight, or swear, or wear costly clothing. Cave, in his work entitled 'Primitive Christianity,' has some interesting remarks on this subject, showing that simplicity of dress was not then esteemed an unimportant part of Christianity. Very soon, however, when the fire of perse- cution was no longer blazing, pagan customs became interwoven with Christianity. The professors of the religion of a self-denying Lord, whose kingdom was not of this world, began to use the sword, to return railing for railing, to take oaths, to mingle heathen forms and cer- emonies with Christian worship, to engraft on the beautiful simplicity of piety, the feasts and observances which were usual at heathen festi- vals in honor of the gods, and to adorn their persons with rich and ornamental apparel. And now if we look at Christendom, there is scarcely a vestige of that religion, which the Redeemer of men came to promulgate. The Christian world is much in the situation of the Jewish nation, when the babe of Bethlehem was born, full of outside observances, which they substitute for mercy and love, for self- denial and good works, rigid in the performance of religious duties, but ready, if the Lord Jesus came amongst them and judged them by their fruits, as he did the Pharisees forroerly, to crucify him as a slanderer. Indeed, I believe the remark of a late author is perfectly cor- rect: * Strange as it may wem, yet I do not hesitate to declare my belief that it is easier to make Pa^an nations Christiaos, than to reform Christian communities and fashion tbeai 69 anew, after the pure and simple standard of the gospel. Cast your eye over Christian countries, and see what a mul* titude of causes combine to resist and impair the influence of Christian institutions. Behold the conformity of Chris- tians to the world, in its prodigal pleasures and frivolous amusements, in its corrupt opinions and sentiments, of false honor. Behold the wide spread ignorance and degrading superstition; the power of prejudice and the authority of custom; the unchristian character of our syfitems of educa- tion ; and the dread of the frowns and ridicule of the world, and we discover at once a ho<>t of more formidable enemies to the progress of true religion in Christian, than in heathen lands.' But I must proceed to examine what is the state of professing Christendom, as regards th^ subject of this letter. A few words will suffice. The habits and employments of fashionable circles are nearly the same throughout Chris- tian communities. The fashion of dress, which varies more rapidly than the changing seasons, is still, as it has been from time immemorial, an all-absorbing object of interest. The simple cobbler of Agawam, who wrote in Massachu- setts as early as 1647, speaking of women, says, ' It is no narvel ^hey wear drailes on the hinder part of their heads, havins nothing, as it seems, in the fore part, but a few squirrels' brains to help them frisk from one fashion to another.' It must, however, be conceded, that although there are too many women who merit this severe reprehension, there is a numerous class whose improvement of mind and devotion to the cause of humanity justly entitle them to our respect and admiration. One of the most striking characteristics of modern times, is the tendency toward a universal dissemination of knowledge in all Protestant communities. But the charac- ter of woman has been elevated more by par- 70 ticipating in the great moral enterprises of the day, than by anything else. It would astonish us if we could see at a glance all the labor, the patience, the industry, the fortitude which wo- man has exhibited, in carrying on the causes of Moral Reform, Anti-Slavery, &c. Still, even these noble and ennobling pursuits have not destroyed personal vanity. Many of those who are engaged in these great and glorious refor- mations, watch with eager interest, the ever varying freaks of the goddess of fashion, and are not exceeded by the butterflies of the ball- room in their love of curls, artificial flowers, embroidery and gay apparel. Many a woman will ply her needle with ceaseless industry, to obtain money to forward a favorite benevolent scheme, while at the same time she will expend on useless articles of dress, more than Jreble the sum which she procures by the employment of her needle, and which she might throw into the Lord's treasury, and leave herself leisure to cultivate her mind, and to mingle among the poor and the afflicted more than she can possi- bly do now. I feel exceedingly solicitous to draw the at- tention of my sisters to this subject. I know that it is called trifling, and much is said about dressing fashionably, and elegantly, and becom- ingly, without thinking about it. This I do not believe can be done. If we indulge our fancy in the chameleon caprices of fashion, or in wearing ornamental and extravagant apparel, the mind must be in no small degree engaged in the gratification of personal vanity. Lest any one may suppose from my being a Quaker, that I should like to see a uniform dress adopted, I will say, that I have no par- 72 is, God created me neither a Wrd nor a flower ; and I aspire to something more than a rosemblance to them. Besides, the gaudy colors in which birds and flowers are arrayed, create in them no feelings of vanity ; but as human beings, we are susceptible of these pas- sions, which are nurtured and strengthened by such adornments. ' Well,' I am often asked, * where is the limitation V This it is not my business to decide. Every woman, as Judson remarks, can best settle this on her knees before God. He has commanded her not to be con- formed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of her mind, that she may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. He made the dress of the Jew- ish women the subject of special denunciation by his prophet — Is. 3. 16 — 26; yet the chains and the bracelets, the rings and the ear-rings, and the changeable suits of apparel, are still worn by Christian women. He has command- ed them, through his apostles, not to adorn themselves with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array. Not to let their adorn- ing be the * outward adorning of plaiting the hair, or of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price ; ' yet we disregard these solemn admonitions. May we not form some correct estimate of dress, by ask- ing ourselves how we should feel, if we saw ministers of the gospel rise to address an audi- ence with ear-rings dangling from their ears, glittering rings on their fingers, and a wreath of artificial flowers on their brow, and the rest 71 tiality for their peculiar costume, except so far as I find it simple and convenient ; and I have not the remotest desire to see it worn, where one more commodious can be substituted. But I do believe one of the chief obstacles in the way of woman's elevation to the same platform of human rights, and moral dignity, and intellect- ual improvement, with her brother, on which God placed her, and where he designed her to act her part as an immortal creature, is her love of dress. * It has been observed,' says Scott, ' that foppery and extravagance as to dress in men are most emphatically condemned by the apostle's silence on the subject, for this intima- ted that surely they could be under no tempta- tion to such a childish vanity.' But even those men who are superior to such a childish vanity in themselves, are, nevertheless, ever ready to encourage it in women. They know that so long as we submit to be dressed like dolls, we never can rise to the stations of duty and use- fulness from which they desire to exclude us ; and they are willing to grant us paltry indul- gences, which forward their own design of keeping us out of our appropriate sphere, while they deprive us of essential rights. To me it appears beneath the dignity of wo- man to bedeck herself in gewgaws and trinkets, in ribbons and laces, to gratify the eye of man. I believe, furthermore, that we owe a solemn duty to the poor. Many a woman, in what is called humble life, spends nearly all her earn- ings in dress, because she wants to be as well attired as her employer. It is often argued that, as the birds and the flowers are gaily adorned by nature's hand, there can be no sin in wo- man's ornamenting her person. My reply 73 of their apparel in keeping ? If it would be wrong for a minister, it is wrong for every pro- fessing Christian. God makes no distinction between the moral and religious duties of min- isters and people. We are bound to be * a cho- sen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a holy nation; that we should show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.' Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sabah M. Grimke. LETTER XIL l£GAh DISABILITIES OF WOMEN. Concord, 9th Mo., 6th, 1837. My Dear Sister, — There are few things which present greater obstacles to the improve- ment and elevation of woman to her appropriate sphere of usefulness and duty, than the laws which have been enacted to destroy her inde- pendence^ and crush her individuality ; laws which, although they are framed for her gov- ernment, she has had no voice in establishing, and which rob her of some of her essential rights. Woman has no political existence. With the single exception of presenting a peti- tion to the legislative body, she is a cipher in the nation ; or, if not actually so in representa- tive governments, she is only counted, like thf slaves of the South, to swell the number of law-makers who form decrees for her gov- ernment, with little reference to her benefit, except so far as her good may promote their owm. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the laws respecting women on the conti- nent of Europe, to say anything about them. But Prof. Pollen, in his essay on * The Cause of Preedom in our Country,' says, * Woman, •' though fully possessed of that rational and J 75 moral nature which is the foundation of all rights, enjoys amongst us fewer legal rights than under the civil law of continental Europe.* I shall confine myself to the laws of our coun- try. These laws hear with peculiar rigor on married women. Blackstone, in the chapter entitled * Of husband and wife,* says : — * By marriaf^e, tlie husband and wife are one person in law ; that is, the very being, or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is in- corjl^raled and consolidated into that of the husband tinder 'whose wing, protection and cover she performs everything.' * For this reason, a man cannot grant anything to his wife« or enter into covenant with hei*; for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence, and to covenant with her would be to covenant with himself; and therefore it is also generally true, that all compacts made between hu«l)and and wife when single, are voided by the intermarriage. A woman indeed maybe attorney for her husband, but that implies no ■eparation from, but i« rather a represeatatioa o^ her love.' Here now, the very being of a woman, like that of a slave, is absorbed in her master. All contracts made with her, like those made with slaves by their owners, are a mere nullity. Our kind defenders have legislated away almost all our legal rights, and in the true spirit of such injustice and oppression, have kept us in ignorance of those very laws by which we are governed. They have persuaded us, that we have no right to investigate the laws, and that, if we did, we could not comprehend them; they alone are capable of understanding the mysteries of Blackstone, &c. But they are not backward to make us feel the practical opera- tion of their power over our actions. * The husband is bouixl to provide his wife with neces- saries by law. as much as himself; and if she contracts debts for them, he is obliged to pay for them; but for anvthiog be- Aides necessaries, he is not chargeable.' 76 Yet a man may spend the property he hai acquired by marriage at the ale-house, the gam bling table, or in any other way that he pleases Many instances of this kind have come to in^ knowledge ; and women, who have brougb their husbands handsome fortunes, have b«Bi left, in consequence of the wasteful and disso lute habits of their husbands, in straitened cir cumstances, and compelled to toil for the suppoi of their families. * If the wife be indebted before marriage, the husband i bound afterwardfl to pay the debt ; fur he has adopted be and her circumstances together.' The wife's property is, I believe, equally lia ble for her husband's debts contracted befon marriage. * If the wife be injured in her person or property, she tm bring no action for redress without her hu8band*8 cooeur rence, and his name as well as her own : neither caa sbt b sued, without making her husband a defendant.' This law that * a wife can bring no action, &c., is similar to the law respecting slaves * A slave cannot bring a suit against his mastei or any other person, for an injury — his master must bring it.' So if any damages are recov ered for an injury committed on a wife, tli< husband pockets it ; in the case of the slave, th< master does the same. « < In criminal prosecutions, the wife may be indicted a* punished separately, unless there be evidence of ceercioi from the fact that the offence was committed in the presencf or by the command of her husband. A wife is excused froH punishment for theft committed in the presence, or by tK command of her husband.' It would be difficult to frame a law bettei calculated to destroy the responsibility of womai as a moral being, or a free agent. Her hu» 77 band is supposed to possess unlimited control over her ; and if she can offer the flimsy excuse that he bade her steal, she may break the eighth commandment with impunity, as far as human laws are concerned. ' Our lawy in general, considers rnan and wife as one per- son ; vet there are some instances in which she is separately considered, as inferior to him and acting by his compulsion. Therefore, all deeds executed, and acts done by her during her coverture (i. e. marriage,) are void, except it \ie a fine, or like matter of record, in which case she roust be solely and secretly examined, to learn if her act be voluntary.' Such a law speaks volumes of the abuse of that power which men have vested in their own hands. Still the private examination of a wifp, to know whether she accedes to the disposition of property made by her husband is, in most cases, a mere form ; a wife dares not do what will be disagreeable to one who is, in his own estimation, her superior, and who makes her feel, in the privacy of domestic life, that she has thwarted him. With respect to the nullity of deeds or acts done by a wife, I will mention one circumstance. A respectable woman bor- rowed of a female friend a sum of money to re- lieve her son from some distressing pecuniary embarrassment. Her husband was from home, and she assured the lender, that as soon as he returned, he would gratefully discharge the debt. She gave her note, and the lender, entirely ig- norant of the law that a man is not obliged to discharge such a debt, actually borrowed the money, and lent it to the distressed and weep- ing mother. The father returned home, refused to pay the debt, and the person who had loaned the money was obliged to pay both principal and interest to the friend who lent it to her. Women should certainly know the laws by 78 which they are governed, and from which they frequently suffer ; yet they are kept in igno- rance, nearly as profound, of their legal rights, and of the legislative enactments which are to regulate their actions, as slaves. ' The husband, by tbe old law, might gUe bis wife mode- rate correction, as be is to answer for lier misliehavior. The law tluHight it reasonable to entrust biiii with this power of restraining her by domestic cliastisement. The couru of law will still permit a busliand to restrain a wife of her liberty, in case of any gross misbehavior.' What a mortifying proof this law afibrds, of the estimation in which woman is held! She is placed completely in the hands of a being subject like herself to the outbursts of passion, and therefore unworthy to be trusted with pow- er. Perhaps I may be told respecting this law, that it is a dead letter, as I am sometimes told about the slave laws ; but this is not true in either case. The slaveholder does kill his slave by mo.derate correction, as the law allows ; and many a husband, among the poor, exercises the right given him by the law, of degrading woman by personal chastisement. And among the higher ranks, if actual imprisonment is not resorted to, women are not unfrequently restrain- ed of the liberty of going to places of worship by irreligious husbands, and of doing many other things about which, as moral and respon- sible beings, they should be the sole judges. Such laws remind me of the reply of some lit- tle girls at a children's meeting held recently at Ipswich. The lecturer told them that God had created four orders of beings with which he had made us acquainted through the Bible. The first was angels, the second was man> 79 the third heasts ; and now, children, what is the fourth ? After a pause, several girls replied, * WOMEN.' * A woman'fl personal property by marriage becomes ab* solutely der husband's, which, at his death, he may leaTe entirely away fcoxa her.' And farther, all the avails of her labor are absolutely in the power of her husband. All that she acquires by her industry is his ; so that she cannot, with her own honest earnings, become the legal purchaser of any property. If she expends her money for articles of furni- ture, to contribute to the comfort of her family, they are liable to be seized for her husband's debts : and I know an instance of a woman, who by labor and economy had scraped togeth- er a little maintenance for herself and a do-little husband, who was left, at his death, by virtue of his last will and testament, to be supported by charity. I knew another woman, who by great industry had acquired a little money which she deposited in a bank for safe keeping. She had saved this pittance whilst able to work, in hopes that when age or sickness disqualified her for exertion, she might have something to ren- der life comfortable, without being a burden to her friends. Her husband, a worthless, idle man, discovered this hid treasure, drew her lit- tle stock from the bank, and expended it all in extravagance and vicious indulgence. I know of another woman, who married without the least idea that she was surrendering her rights to all her personal property. Accordingly, she went to the bank as usual to draw her divi- dends, and the person who paid her the money, and to whom she was personally known as an 80 owner of shares in that hank, remarking the change in her signature, withdrew the money, informing her that if she were married, she hid no longer a right to draw her dividends withoat an order from her hushand. It appeared that she intended having a little fund for private use, and had not even told her husband that she owned this stock, and she was not a little cha- grined, when she found that it was not at her disposal. I think she was wrong to conceal the circumstance. The relation of husband and wife is too near and sacred to admit of secrecy about money matters, unless positive necessity demands it ; and I can see no excuse for any woman entering into a marriage engagement with a design to keep her husband ignorant that ' she was possessed of property. If she was nn- ; willing to give up her property to his disposal, • she had infinitely better have remained single. The laws above cited are not very unlike the slave laws of Louisiana. ' All that a slave pomesseft belong! to bia master ; be pos- sesses nothing of bis own, except what bis master chooees he should possess.' * By the marriage, the husband is absolutely master of the profits of the wife^s lands during the covertore, and if he Das had a living child, and survives the wife, be retains the whole of those lands, if they are estates of inheritance, dar- ing his life ; but the wife is entitled only to one third if she survives, out of the husband's estates of inheritance. But this she has, whether she has bad a child or not.* * With regard to the property of women, there is taxation without representation ; for they pay taxes without having the liber- ty of voting for representatives.' And this taxation, without representation, be it remembered, was the cause of our Revolu- tionary war, a grievance so heavy, that it was thought necessary to purchase exemption from 81 it at ari immense expense of blood and treasure, yet the daughters of New England, as well as of all the other States of this free Republic, are safiering a similar injustice — ^but for one, I had rather we should suffer any injustice or oppres- sion, than that my sex should nave any voice in the political affairs of the nation. The laws I have quoted, are, I believe, the laws of Massachusetts, and, with few excep- tions, of all the States in this Union. * In Louisiana and Missouri, and possibly, in some o&er southern States, a woman not only has half her husband's property by right at his death, but may always be considered as pos- sessed of half his gains during his life ; hav- ing at all times power to bequeath that amount.' That the laws wnich have generally been adopt- ed in the United States, for the government of women, have been framed almost entirely for the exclusive benefit of men, and with a design to oppress women, by depriving them of all control over their property, is too manifest to be denied. Some liberal and enlightened men, I know, regret the existence of these laws ; and I quote with pleasure an extract from Harriet Martineau's Society in America, as a proof of the assertion. * A liberal ' minded lawyer of Boston, told me that his advice to testators al- ways is to leave the largest possible amount to the widow, subject to the condition of her leav- ing it to the children ; but that it is with shame that he reflects that any woman should owe that to his professional advice, which the law should have secured to her as a right.' I have known a few instances where men have left their whole property to their wives, when they have died, leaving only minor children ; but I have known 6 82 more instances of * the friend and helper of many years, being portioned ^ like a salaried domestic/ instead of having a comfortable inde- pendence secured to her, while the childiea were amply provided for. As these abuses do exist, and women sufier intensely from them, our brethren are called upon in this enlightened age, by every senti- ment of honor, religion and justice, to repeal these unjust and unequal laws, and restore to woman those rights which they have wrested from her. Such laws approximate too nearly to the laws enacted by slaveholders for the gov- ernment of their slaves, and must tend to de- base and depress the mind of that being, whom God created as a help meet for man, or ' helper like unto himself,' and designed to be his equal and his companion. Until such laws are an- nulled, woman never can occupy that exalted station for which she was intended by her Ma- ker. And just in proportion as they are prac- tically disregarded, which is the case to some extent, just so far is woman assuming that in- dependence and nobility of character which she ought to exhibit. The various laws which I have transcribed, leave women very little more liberty, or power, in some respects, than the slave. ' A slave,' says the civil code of Louisiana, * is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he be- longs. He can possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master.' I do not wish by any means to intimate that the condition of free women can be compared to that of slaves in suffering, or in degradation ; still, I believe the laws which deprive married , women of their rights and privileges, have a 83 tendency to lessen them in their own estimation /' lis moral and responsible beings, and that their • being made by civil law inferior to their hus- I bands, has a debasing and mischievous effect ( upon them, teaching them practically the fatal i lesson to look unto man for protection and in- , dulgence. Ecclesiastical bodies, I believe, without ex- . ception, follow the example of legislative assera-s blies, in excluding woman from any participa- k lion in forming the discipline by which she is ) governed. The men frame the laws, and, with \ few exceptions, claim to execute them on both ) sexes. In ecclesiastical, as well as civil courts, v^ woman is tried and condemned, not by a jury / of her peers, but by beings, who regard them- ' selves as her superiors in the scale of creation. ' Although looked upon as an inferior, when con-' sidered as an intellectual being, woman is pun- / ished with the same severity as man, when she [ is guilty of moral offences. Her condition re- / sembles, in some measure, that of the slave, who, while he is denied the advantages of his more enlightened master, is treated with even greater rigor of the law. Hoping that in the various reformations of the day, women may be relieved from some of their legal disabilities, I remain. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER XIII. BELATIOM OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. Brookline, 9th Mo., 1837. Mt Dear Sister, — Perhaps some persons may wonder that I should attempt to throw out my views on the important subject of marriage, and may conclude that I am altogether disqual- ified for the task, because I lack experience. However, I shall not undertake to settle the Spe- cific duties of husbands and wives, but only^to exhibit opinions based on the word of God, and formed from a little knowledge of human na- ture, and close observation of the working of generally received notions respecting the do- minion of man over woman. When Jehovah ushered into existence man, created in his own image, he instituted marriage as a part of paradisaical happiness : it was a divine ordination, not a civil contract. God es- tablished it, and man, except by special permis- sion, has no right to annul it. There can be no doubt that the creation of Eve perfected the happiness of Adam ; hence, our all -wise and merciful Father made her as he made Adam, in his own image after his likeness, crowned her with glory and honor, and placed in her hand, as well as in his, the sceptre of dominion 85 over the whole lower creation. Where thefe -^ was perfect equality, and the same ability to ^ receive and comprehend divine truth, and to obey divine injunctions, there could be no su- ';; periority. If God had placed Eve under the guardianship of Adam, after having endowed ( her, as richly as him, with moral perceptions, { intellectual faculties, and spiritual apprehen* j sions, he would at once have interposed a falli- I ble being between her and her Maker. He j could not, in simple consistency with himself, > have done this ; for the Bible teems with in- > structions not to put any confidence in man. The passage on which the generally received opinion, that husbands are invested by divine command with authority over their wives, as I have remarked in a previous letter, is a predic- tion ; and I am confirmed in this belief, because the same language is used to Gain respecting Abel. The text is obscure ; but on a comparison of it with subsequent events, it appears to me that it was a prophecy of the dominion which Cain would usurp over his brother, and which issued in the murder of Abel. It could not allude to any thing but physical dominion, be- cause Gain had already exhibited those evil passions which subsequently led him .to become an assassin. I have already shown, that man has exercis- ed the most unlimited and brutal power over woman, in the peculiar chafacter of husband, — a word in most countries synonymous with ty- rant. I shall not, therefore, adduce any further proofs of the fulfilment of that prophecy, * He will rule over thee,' from the history of heathen nations, but just glance at the condition of 86 \vt>man in the relation of wife in Christian countries. * Previotis to the introduction of the religion of Jesus Christ, the state of society was wretch- edly diseased. The relation of the sexes to each other had hecome so gross in it& manifest- ed forms, that it was difficult to perceive the pure conservative principle in its inward es- sence.' Christianity came in, at this juncture, with its hallowed influence, and has without doubt tended to lighten the yoke of bondage, to purify the manners, and give the spiritual in some degree an empire over the animal nature. Still, that state which was designed by God to increase the happiness of woman as well as man, often proves the means of lessening her comfort, and degrading her into the mere mai- chine of another's convenience and pleasure. Woman, instead of being elevated by her union with man, which might be expected from an al- liance with a superior being, is in reality low- ered. She generally loses her individuality, her independent character, her moral being. She becomes absorbed into him, and henceforth is looked at, and acts through the medium of her husband. In the wealthy classes of society, and those who are in comfortable circumstances, women are exempt from great corporeal exertion, and are protected by public opinion, and by the genial influence of Christianity, from much physical ill treatment. Still, there is a vast amount of secret suffering endured, from the forced submission of women to the opinions and whims of their husbands. Hence they are fre- quently driven to use deception, to compass their ends. They are early taught that to ap- 87 pear to yield, is the only way to crovern. Mis- erable sophism ! I deprecate such sentiments, as being peculiarly hostile to the dignity of woman. If she submits, let her do it openly, honorably, not to gain her point, but as a mat- ter of Christian duty. But let her beware how she permits her husband to be her conscience- keeper. On all moral and religious subjects, she is bound to think and to act for herself. Where confidence and love exist, a wife will naturally converse with her husband as with her dearest friend, on all that interests her heart, and there will be a perfectly free inter- change of sentiment ; but she is no more bound to be governed by his judgment^ than he is by hers. They are standing on the same platform of human nghts, are equally under the govern- ment of God, and accountable to him, and him alone. I have sometimes been astonished and griev- ed at the servitude of women, and at the little idea many of them seem to have of their own moral existence and responsibilities. A woman who is asked to sign a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or to join a society for the purpose of carrying for- ward the annihilation of American slavery, or , any other great reformation, not unfrequently replies, * My husband does not approve of it.' She merges her rights and her duties in her husband, and thus virtually chooses him for a savior and a king, and rejects Christ as her Ruler and Redeemer. I know some women are very glad of so convenient a pretext to shield themselves from the performance of duty ; but there are others, who, under a mistaken view of their obligations as wives, submit con- I 88 scientiously to this species of oppression, and go mourning on their way, for want of that holy fortitude, which would enable them to fulfil their duties as moral and responsible be- ings, without reference to poor fallen man. 0_ that woman may arise in her dignity as an im- mortal creature, and speak, think and act as unto God, and not unto man ! There is, perhaps, less bondage of mind among the poorer classes, because their sphere of duty is more contracted, and they are de- prived of the means of intellectual culture, and of the opportunity of exercising their judgement, on many moral subjects of deep interest and of vital importance. Authority is called into ex- ercise by resistance, and hence there will be mental bondage only in proportion as the facul- ties of mind are evolved, and woman feels her- self as a rational and intellifirent being, on a footing with man. But women, among the lowest classes of society, so far as my observa- tion has extended, suffer intensely from the brutality of their husbands. Duty as well as inclination has led me, for many years, into the abodes of poverty and sorrow, and I have been amazed at the treatment which women receive at the hands of those, who arrogate to them- selves the epithet of protectors. Brute force, the law of violence, rules to a great extent in the poor man's domicil ; and woman is little more than his drudge. They are less under the supervision of public opinion, less under the restraints of education, and unaided or unbias- ed by the refinements of polished society. Re- ligion, wherever it exists, supplies the place of all these ; but the real cause of woman's de- f gradation and suffering in married life is to be ^ bund in the erroneous notion of her inferiority ^ to man ; and never will she be rightly regard- ; ed by herself, or others, until this opinion, so derogatory to the wisdom and mercy of God, ■ is exploded, and woman arises in all the ma« jesty of her womanhood, to claim those rights '; which are inseparable from her existence as an n immortal, intelligent and responsible being. Independent of the fact, that Jehovah could not, consistently with his character as the King, the Lawgiver, and the Judge of his people, give the reins of government over woman into the hands of man, I find that all his commands, all his moral laws, are addressed to women as well as to men. When he assembled Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, to issue his command- ments, we may reasonably suppose he gave all the precepts, which he considered necessary for the government of moral beings. Hence we find that God says, — ' Honor thy father and thy mother,' and he enforces this command by se- vere penalties upon those who transgress it : ' He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death ' — * He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death ' — Ex. 21 : 15, 17. But in the deca- logue, there is no direction given to women to obey their husbands : both are commanded to have no other God but Jehovah, and not to bow down, or serve any other. When the Lord Jesus delivered his sermon on the Mount, full of the practical precepts of religion, he did not issue any command to wives to obey their hus- bands. When he is speaking on the subject of divorce, Mark 16: 11, 12, he places men and women on the same gound. And the Apostle, 90 1st Cor. 7 : 12, 13, speaking of ihe duties of the Corinthian wives and husbands, who had embraced Christianity, to their unconverted partners, points out the same path to both, al- though our translators have made a distinction. * Let him not put her away,' 12 — * Let her not leave him,' 13— is precisely the same in the original. If man is constituted the governor of woman, he must be her God ; and the senti« ment expressed to me lately, by a married man, 18 perfectly correct : * In my opinion,' said he, ' the greatest excellence to which a married woman can attain, is to worship her husband/ He was a professor of religion — his wife a love- ly and intelligent woman. He only spoke out what thousands think and act. Women are in- debted to Milton for giving to this false notion, • confinhation strong as proof of holy writ' His Eve is embellished with every personal grace, to gratify the eye of her admiring hus- band ; but he seems to have furnished the mother of mankind with just intelligence enough to comprehend her supposed inferiority to Adam, and to yield unresisting submission to her lord and master. Milton puts into Eve's mouth the following address to Adam : * My author and dliposer, what thon bidfit. Unargued I obey; so God ordains — God 18 thy law, thou mine : to know no more. Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise.' This much admired sentimental nonsense is fraught with absurdity and wickedness. If it were true, the commandment of Jehovah should have run thus : Man shall have no other gods before me, and woman shall have no other gods before man. 91 The principal support of the dogma of wo- man's inferiority, and consequent submission to her husband, is found in some passages of* Paul's epistles. .1 shall proceed to examine those passages, premising 1st, that the antiquity of the opinions based on the false construction of those passages, has no weight with me : they are the opinions of interested judges, and I have no particular reverence for them, merely because the*y have been regarded with venera- tion from ^neration to generation. So far from this being the case, I examine any opin- ions of centuries standing, with as much free- dom, and investigate them with as much care, as if they were of yesterday. I was educated to think for myself, and it is a privilege I shall always claim to exercise. 2d. Notwithstand- ing my full belief, that the apostle Paul's testi- mony, respecting himself, is true, * I was not a whit behind the chiefest of the apostles,' yet I believe his mind was under the influence of Jewish prejudices respecting women, just as Peter's and the apostles were about the un- cleanness of the Gentiles. * The Jews,' says Clarke, * would not suffer a woman to read in the synagogue, although a servant, or even a child, had this permission.' When I see Paul shaving his head for a vow, and offering sacri- fices, and circumcising Timothy, to accommo- date himself to the prepossessions of his coun- trymen, I do not cjDnceive that I derogate in the least from his character as an inspired apostle, to suppose that he may have been imbued with the prevalent prejudices against women. In 1st Cor. 11:3, after praising the Corin- thian converts, because they kept the 'ordi- nances,' or ' traditions,' as the margin reads, the 92 apostle says, * I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ, and the head oi ^he woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God.* Eph. 5: 23, is a parallel pavsage. * For the hushand is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church.' The apostle closes his remarks on this subject, hv observing, ' This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.' I shall pass over this with simply remarking, that God and Christ are one. ' I and my Father are one,' and there can be no inferiority where there is no divisibility. The commentaries on this and similar texts, afford a striking illustra- tion of the ideas which men entertain of their own superiority) I shall subjoin Henry's re- marks on 1st (5or. li : 5, as a specimen : ' To understand this text, it must be observed, that it was a signification either of shame, or sub- jection, for persons to be veiled, or covered in Eastern countries ; contrary to the custom of ours, where the being bare-headed betokens subjection, and being covered supeiiority and dominion ; and this will help us the better to understand the reason on which he grounds his reprehension, ' Every man praying, &;c.di8bon* oreth his head,' i. e. Christ, the head of every man, by appearing in a habit unsuitable to the rank in which God had placed him. The wo- man, on the other hand, that prays, &c. dishon- oreth her head, i. e. the man. She appears in the dress of her superior ^ and throws off the token of her subjection ; she might with equal decency cut her hair short, or cut it off, the common dress of the man in that age. Anoth- er reason against this conduct was, that the man is the image and glory of God^ the representa- 93 live of that glorious dominion and headship which God has over the world. It is the man who is set at the head of this lower creation, and therein bears the resemblance of God. The woman, on the other hand, is the glory of the man : she is his representative. Not but she has dominion over the inferior creatures, and she is a partaker of human nature, and so far is God's representative too, but it is at second band. She is the image of God, inasmuch as she is the image of the man. The man was first made, and made head of the creation here below, and therein the image of the divine do- minion ; and the woman was made out of the man, and shone with a reflection of his glory, being made superior to the other creatures here below, but in subjection to her husband, and de- riving that honor from him^ out of whom she was made. The woman was made for the man to be his help meet, and not the man for the woman. She was, naturally, therefore, made subject to him, because made for him, for his USE AND HELP AND COMFORT.' We see in the above quotation, what degrad- ing views even good men entertain of women. Pity the Psalmist had not thrown a little light on this subject, when he was paraphrasing the account of man's creation. * Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet.' Surely if woman had been placed below man, and was to shine only by a lustre borrow- ed from him, we should have some clear evi- dence of it in the sacred volume. Henry puts her exactly on a level with the beasts ; they 94 were made for the use, help and comfort of man ; and according to this commentator, this was the whole end and design of the creation of woman. The idea that man, as roan is su- perior to woman, involves an ahsurdity 80 gross, that I really wonder how any man of reflection can receive it as of divine origin ; and I can only account for it, hy that passion for supremacy, which characterizes man as a corrupt and fall- en creature. If it he true that he is more ex- cellent than she, as man, independent of his moral and intellectual powers, then erery man is superior by virtue of his manship, to every woman. The man who sinks his moral capac- ities and spiritual powers in his sensual appe- tites, is still, as a man, simply by the con- j formation of his body, a more dignified be- | ing, than the woman whose intellectual powers are highly cultivated, and whose approximation to the character of Jesus Christ is exhibited in a blameless life and conversation. But it is strenuously urged by those, who are anxious to maintain their usurped authority, that wives are, in various passages of the New Testament, commanded to obey their husbands. Let us examine these texts. Eph. 5, 22. 'Wives, submit yourselves unto y«ar owi bosbRiHls as unto the Lord.* * As the church is subject unto Christ, so 1st the wives be to their own husbands in atery thing.' * Col. 3, 18. Wives, submit yourselves unto yonr own hat- bands, as it is fit in the Lord.' 1st Pet. 8, 2. < Likewise ye wives, be in subfectioo to your own husbands; that it any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.' Accompanying all these difections to wife** are commands to husbands. 95 Eph. 5> 25. ' Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it.' 'So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that lovelh bis wife, loveth himself.' ' Col. 3, 19. ' Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.* ^ 1st Pet. 3» 7. ' Likewise ye husbandsj dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of liie.' I may just remark, in relation to the expres- sion * weaker vessel,' that the word in the orig- inal has no reference to intellect : it refers to physical weakness merely. The apostles were writing to Christian con- verts, and laying down rules for their conduct towards their unconverted consorts. It no doubt frequently happened, that a husband or a wife would embrace Christianity, while their com- panions clung to heathenism, and husbands might be tempted to dislike and despise those, who pertinaciously adhered to their pagan su- perstitions. And wives who, when they were pagans, submitted as a matter of course to their heathen husbands, might be tempted knowing that they were superior as moral and religious characters, to assert that superiority, by paying less deference to them than heretofore. Let us examine the context of these passages, and see what are the grounds of the directions here given to husbands and wives. The whole epistle to the Ephesians breathes a spirit of love. The apostle beseeches the converts to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love. The verse preceding 5, 22, is * SUBMITTING YOURSELVES ONE TO ANOTHER IN THE FEAR OF GOD.' Colossians 3, from 11 to 17, contains similar injunctions. The 17th verse says, ' Whatsoever ye do in word, or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.' Peter, after drawing a most touching picture of Christ's suflerings for us, and remind- ing the Christians, that he had left us an exam- ple that we should follow his steps, * who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,* exhorts wives to he in suhjection, &c. From an attentive consideration of these pas- sages, and of those in which the same words *suhmit,' * subjection,' aroused, I cannot but he* lieve that the apostles designed to recommend tb wives, as they did to subjects and to servants, to carry out the holy principle laid down by Jesus Christ, * Resist not evil.' And this with- out in the least acknowledging the right of the governors, masters, or husbands, to exercise the authority they claimed. The recognition of the existence of evils does not involve approba- tion of them. God tells the Israelites, he gave them a king in his wrath, but nevertheless as they chose to have a king, he laid down direc- tions for the conduct of that king, and had him anointed to reign over them. According to the generally received meaning of the passages I have quoted, they directly- contravene the laws of God, as given in various parts of the Bible. Now I must understand the sacred Scriptures as harmonizing with themselves, or I cannot receive them as the word of God. The com- mentators on these passages exalt man to the station of a Deity in relation to woman. Clarke says, * As the Lord Christ is the head, or gov- ernor of the church, and the head of the man, so is the man the head, or governor of the wo- man. This is God's ordinance, and should not 97 be transgressed. * As unto the Lord.* The word church seems necessarily to be understood here : that is, act under the authority of your husbands, as the church acts under the author- ity of Christ. As the church submits to the Lord, so let wives submit to their husbands.' Henry goes even further — * For the husband is the head of the wife. The metaphor is taken from the head in the natural body, which being the seat of reason, of wisdom and of knowledge, and the fountain of sense and motion, is more excellent than the rest of the body.' Now if God ordained man the governor of woman, he must be able to save her, and to answer in her stead for all those sins which she commits by his direction. Awful responsibility. Do hus- bands feel able and willing to bear it ? And what becomes of the solemn affirmation of Je- hovah? * Hear this, all ye people, give ear all ye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor.' * None can by any means re- deem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of the soul is precious, and man cannot accomplish it.' — French Bible. Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER XIV. MINISTRY OF WOMEN. Brookline, 9th Mo. 1837. My Dear Sister, — According to the princi- ple which I have laid down, that man and wo- man were created equal, and endowed by their beneficent Creator with the same intellectual powers and the same moral responsibilities, and that consequently whatever is morally right for a man to do, is morally right for a woman to do, it follows as a necessary corollary, that if it is the duty of man to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, it is the duty also of woman. I am aware, that I haVe the prejudices of education and custom to combat, both in my own and the other sex, as well as * the traditions of men,' which are taught for the command- ments of God. I feel that I have no sectarian views to advance ; for although among the Quakers, Methodists, and Christians, women are permitted to preach the glad tidings of peace and salvation, yet I know of no religious body, who entertain the Scripture doctrine of the perfect equality of man and woman, which is the fundamental principle of my argument in favor of the ministry of women. I wish sim- 99 ply to throw my views before thee. If they are based on the immutable foundation of truth, they cannot be overthrown by unkind insinua- tions, bitter sarcasms, unchristian imputations, or contemptuous ridicule. These are weapons which are unworthy of a good cause. If I am mistaken, as truth only can prevail, my suppos- ed errors will soon vanish before her beams ; but I am persuaded that woman is not filling the high and holy station which God allotted to her, and that in consequence of her having been driven from her * appropriate sphere,' both herself and her brethren have suffered an in- finity of evils. Before I proceed to prove, that wonjian is bound to preach the gospel, I will examine the ministry under the Old Testament dispensa- tion. Those who were called to this office were known under various names. Enoch, who prophesied, is designated as walking with God. Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. They were denominated men of God, seers, prophets, but they all had the same great work to perform, viz. to turn sinners from tlie error of their ways. This ministry existed previous to the institution of the Jewish priesthood, and continued after its abolition. It has nothing to do vnth the priesthood. It was rarely, as far as the Bible informs us, exercised by those of the tribe of Levi, and was common to all the people, women as well as men. It differed essentially from the priesthood, because there was no com- pensation received for calling the people to re- pentance. Such a thing as paying a prophet for preaching the truth of God is not even men- tioned. They were called of Jehovah to go forth in his name, one from his plough, another 100 from gathering of sycamore fruit, &c. &c. Lei us for a moment imagine Jeremiah, when God says to him, * Gird up thy loins, and arise and speak unto the people all that I command ihee,' replying to Jehovah, * I will preach repentance to the people, if they will give me gold, hut if they will not pay me for the truth, then let them perish in their sins.' Now, this is virtually the language of the ministers of the present day; and I believe the secret of the exclusion of wo- men from the ministerial office is, that that office has been converted into one of emolu- ment, of honor, and of power. Any attentive observer cannot fail to perceive, that as far as possible, all such offices are reserved by men for themselves. The common error that Christian ministers are the successors of the priests, is founded in mistake. In the particular directions given to Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the office of the priesthood, their duties are clearly defined : see Ex. 28th, 29th and 30th chap. There is no commission to Aaron to preach to the people ; his business was to offer sacrifice. Now why were sacrifices instituted? They were types of that one great sacrifice, which in the fulness of time was offered up through the eternal Spirit 'j^'ithout spot to God. Christ as- sumed the office of priest ; he * offered him- self,' and by so doing, abolished forever the or- der of the priesthood, as well as the sacrifices which the priests were ordained to offer.''*' * I cannot enter fully into this part of my subject. It i** liowe?er, one of great importance, and I recommend tboM who wish to examine it, to read * The Book of the Priest- hood,' by an English Dissenter, and Beverly's 'View of the Present State of the Visible Church of Christ.' They are both masterly productions. 101 But it may be inquired, whether the priests were not to teach the people. As far as I can discover from the Bible, they were simply com- manded to read the law to the people. There was no other copy that we know of, until the time of the kings, who were to write out a copy for their own use. As it was deposited in the ark, the priests were required, * When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, women, and children, that they may hear,' Deut. 31 : 9 — 33. See also Lev. 10: 11, Deut. 33: 10, 2d Chr. 17 : 7 — 9, and numerous other passagies. When God is enumerating the means he has used to call his people to repentance, he never, as far as I can discover, speaks of sending his priests to warn them ; but in various passages we find language similar to this : * Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but harden- de their neck ; they did worse than their fath- ers.' Jer. 7 : 25, 26. See also, 25 : 4. 2 Chr. 36 : 15. and parallel: passages. God says. Is. 9: 15, 16. * The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail ; for the leaders of this people cause them to err.' The distinction between priests and prophets is evident from their being men- tioned as two classes. * The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means,' Jer. 5 : 31. See also, Ch. 2 : 8. S :1— 10. and many others. That women were called to the prophetic 102 office, I believe is universally admitted. 1 Deborah and Huldah were prophetesses, judgments of the Lord are denounced b} kiel on false prophetesses, as "well as prophets. And if Christian ministers are apprehend, successors of the prophets, an of the priests, then of course, women are called to that office as well as men, because has no where withdrawn from them the p lege of doing what is the great businesi preachers, viz. to point the penitent sinne. the Redeemer. * Behold the Lamb of G which taketh away the sins of the world.' It is often triumphantly inquired, why, men and women are on an equality, are i women as conspicuous in the Bible as mei I do not intend to assign a reason, but I thn one may readily be found in the fact, that fro< the days of Eve to the present time, the aii of man has been to crush her. He has accoir plished this work in various ways ; sometime oy brute force, sometimes by making her sul servient to his worst passions, sometimes b treating her as a doll, and while he exclude from her mind the light of knowledge, decke her person with gewgaws and frippery whic he scorned for himself, thus endeavoring t render her like unto a painted sepulchre. It is truly marvellous that any woman ca rise above the pressure of circumstances whic combine to crush her. Nothing can strengthe her to do this in the character of a preacher < righteousness, but a call from Jehovah himsel And when the voice of God penetrates the de€ recesses of her heart, and commands her to g and cry in the ears of tlie people, she is read to exclaim, * Ah, Lord God, behold I cann< 103 speak, for I am a woman.' I have known wo- men in diflferent religious societies, who have felt like the prophet. * His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my benes, and I was weary with forbearing.' But they have not dared to open their lips, and have en- dured all the intensity of suffering, produced by disobedience to God, rather than encounter heartless ridicule and injurious suspicions. I rejoice that we have been the oppressed, rather than the oppressors. God thus rrnpared his people for deliverance from outwar i bondage ; and I hope our sorrows have prepared us to ful- fil our high and holy duties, whether public or private, with humility and meekness ; and that suffering has imparted fortitude to endure trials, ( which assuredly await us in the attempt to sun- der those chains witif which man has bound us, galling to the spirit, though unseen by the eye. Surely there is nothing either astonishing or novel in the gifts of the Spirit behig bestowed . on woman : nothing astonishing, because there is no respect of persons with God ; the soul of the woman in his sight is as the soul of the man, and both are alike capable of the influence of the Holy Spirit. Nothing novel, because, as has been already shown, in the sacred records there are found examples of women, as well as of men, exercising the gift of prophecy. We attach to the word prophecy, the exclu- sive meaning of foretelling future events, but this is certainly a mistake ; for the apostle Paul defines it to be * speaking to edification, exhor- tation and comfort.' And there appears no possible reason, why women should not do this as well as men. At the time that the Bible was translated into English, the meaning of the 104 word prophecy, was delivering a message from God, whether it was to predict future events, or to warn the people of the consequences of sin. Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, men- tions in a letter, that the minister being absent, he went to, to prophecy to the people. Before I proceed to prove that women, under the Christian dispensation, were anointed of the Holy Ghost to preach, or prophecy, I will men- tion Anna, the (last) prophetess under the Jew- ish dispensation. * She departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day.* And coming into the temple, while Simeon was yet speaking to Mary, with the infant Savior in his arms, * spake of Christ to all them that looked for redemption in Jeru- salem.' Blackwall, a learned English critic, in his work entitled, * Sacr^ Classics,' says, in reference to this passage, Luke 2 ; 37 — * Ac- cording to the original reading, the sense will be, that the devout Anna, who attended in the temple, both night and day, spoke of the Mes- siah to all the inhabitants of that city, who constantly worshipped there, and who prepared themselves for the worthy reception of that di- vine person, whom they expected at this time. And 'tis certain, that other devout Jews, not in- habitants of Jerusalem, frequently repaired to the temple-worship, and might, at this remark- able time, and several others, hear this admira- ble woman discourse upon the blessed advent of the Redeemer. A various reading has Israel instead of Jerusalem, which expresses that re- ligious Jews, from distant places, came thither to divine offices, and would with high pleasure hear the discourses of this great prophetess, so famed for her extraordinary piety and valuable 105 talents, upon the most important and desirable subject.' I shall now examine the testimony of the Bible on this point, after the ascension of our Lord, beginning with the glorious effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. I presume it will not be denied, that women, as well as men, were at that time filled with the Holy Ghost, because it is expressly stated, that women were among those who continued in prayer and supplication, waiting for the fulfil- ment of the promise, that they should be endu- ed with power from on high. * When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And there ap- peared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.' Peter savs, in reference to <his miracle, * This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy — and on my servants and on my hand-maidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall proph- esy.' There is not the least intimation that this was a spasmodic influence which was soon to cease. The men and women are classed to- gether ; and if the power to preach the gospel was a supernatural and short-lived impulse in women, then it was equally so in men. But we are told, those were the days of miracles. I grant it; but the men, equally with the wo- men, were the subjects of this marvellous ful- filment of prophecy, and of course, if women 106 have lost the gift of prophesying, so have men. We are also gravely told, that if a woman pre- tends to inspiration, and thereupon grounds the right to plead the cause of a crucified Redeem- er in public, she will be believed when she shows credentials from heaven, i. e. when she works a miracle. I replvi if this be necessary to prove her right to preach the gospel, then I demand of my brethren to show me their cre- dentials ; else I cannot receive their ministrvi by their own showing. John Newton has just- ly said, that no power but that which created a world, can make a minister of the gospel ; and man may task his ingenuity to the utmost, to prove that this power is not exercised on wo- men as well as men. He cannot do it until he has first disclaimed that simple, but all compre- hensive truth, * in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.' Women then, according to the Bible, were, under the New Testament dispensation, as well as the Old, the recipients of the gift of proph- ecy. That this is no sectarian view may be proved by the following extracts. The first I shall offer is from Stratton's *Book of the Priesthood.* • While they were assemhled in the upper room to wait for the blessing, in numl)er about one hundred and twenty, they receired the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit's grace ; they became the channels through which its more ordinary, but not less saving streams flowed to three thona- «nd persons in one day. The whole company of the assem- bled disciples, male and female, young and old, were all filled with tlie Huly Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues ns the Spirit gave them utterance. They all con- tributed in producing thai impression upon the assembled multitude, which Peter was instrumental in ad?aDcing to it* decisive results.' 107 Scott, in his commentary on this passage, says — * At the inine time, there appeared the form of tongueg divided at the tip and resemhlinfj^ fire; one of which rested on each of the whole company.' • They sat on every one present, as the original determines. At the time of these extraordinary appearances, the whole company were abun- dantly replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, so that they began to speak with other tongues.' Henry in his notes confirms this : * It seems evident to me that not the twelve apostles only, but all the one hundred and twenty disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost alike at this time, — all the seventy disciples, who were apostolical men and employed in the same work, and ail the rest too that were to preach the gospel, (or it is said expressly, Cph. 4: 8 — 12: 'When Christ ascended up on high, (which refers to this) he gave gifts unto men.' The all here must refer to the all that were together.' I need hardly remark that man is a generic term, including both sexes. Let us now examine whether women actual- ly exercised the office of minister, under the gospel dispensation. Philip had four daughters, who prophesied or preached. Paul calls Pris- cilla, as well as Aquila, his helpers ; or, as in the Greek, his fellow laborers'^ in Christ Jesus. Divers other passages might be adduced to prove that women continued to be preachers, and that many of them filled this dignified sta- tion. We learn also from ecclesiastical history, that female ministers suffered martyrdom in the early ages of the Christian church. In ancient councils, mention is made of deaconesses ; and in an edition of the New Testament, printed in 1574, a woman is spoken of as minister of a * Rom. 16 : 3, compare Gr. text of v. 21, 2. Cor. 8 : 23; Phil. 2: 25; 1 Thes. 3: 2. 106 charch. The same word, which, in oor com- inon translation, is now rendered a servant of the church, in speaking of Phehe, Rom. 16 : 1, is rendered minister, Eph. 6 : 21, when applied to Tychicus. A minister, with whom 1 had lately the pleasure of conversing, remarked, * My rule is to expound scripture by scripture, and I cannot deny the ministry of women, be- cause the apostle says, * help those women who labored with me in the gospel.' He certainly meant something more than pouring out tea for him.' In the 11th Ch. of 1 Cor., Paul gives direc- tions to women and men how they should ap- pear when they prophesy, or pray in public as- semblies. It IS evident that the design of the apostle, in this and the three succeeding chap- ters, is to rectify certain abuses which had crept into the Christian church. He therefore ad- monishes women to pray with their heads cov- ered, because, according to the fashion of that day, it was considered immodest and immoral to do otherwise. He says, * that were all one as if she were shaven ; ' and shaving the head was a disgraceful punishment that was inflict- ed on women of bad character. < These things/ says Scott, * tke apostle stated as dcceiu and prui)cr, but if any of tlie Corinthian teachers inclined to excite contention about tWm, he would only add, t. 16, that he an^f his bretliren knew of no such custom as preraiU •d among thetn, nor was there any such in the churches of God which had been planted by the other apostles.' John Locke, whilst engaged in writing his notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, was at a meeting where two women preached. After hearing them, he became convinced of their commission to publish the gospeU and thereupon 109 altered his notes on the 11th Ch. 1 Cor. in fa- vor of women's preaching. He says, — * This about women seeming as difficult a passage as most in St. PruI*8 Epistles, I crave leave to premise some few considerations. It is plain that this covering the head ia women is restrained to some peculiar actions which they performed in the assembly, expressed by the words praying, prophesying, which, whatever they signify, must have the same meaning applied to women in the 5th verse, tliat they have when applied to men in the 4th, &c. The next thing to be considered is, what is here to be understood by pray- ing and prophesying. And that seems to me the performing of some public action in the assembly, by some one person which was for that time peculiar to that person, and whilst it lasted, the rest of the assembly silently assisted. As to prophesying, the apostle in express words tells us, Ch. 14: 3, 12, that it was speaking in the assembly. The same is evident as to praying, that the apostle means by it publicly with an audible voice, ch. 14 : 19.' In a letter to these two women, Rebecca Col- lier and Rachel Bracken, which accompanied a little testimony of his regard, he says, * I admire no converse like that of Christian freedom; and I fear no bondnge like that of pride and prejudice. I now see that acquaintance by wight cannot reach the height of enjoyment, which arquamtance by knowledge arrives unto. Outward hearing may misguide us, but internal knoW' ledge cannot err.' * Women, indeed, had tiie honor of first publishing the resurrection of the Ood of love — whv not again the resurrection of the spirit of love 1 And let all the disciples of Christ rejoice therein, as doth your partner, John Locke.' See ' The Friend,' a periodical published in Philadelphia. Adam Clarke's comment on 1 Cor. 11 : 5, is similar to Locke's : « Whatever be the meaning of praying and prophesying in respect to the man, they have precisely the same mean- ing in respect to the woman. So that some women at least, as well as some men, might speak to others to edification and exhortation and comfort. And this kinW of prophesy- ing, or teaching, was predicted by Joel 2 : 28, and referred 110 to by Peter ; and had tliere not been such glHs bestowed on women, the prophesy could not have had its fulfilment.' In the autobiography of Adam Clarke, there is an interesting account of his hearing Mary Sewall and another female minister preach, and he acknowledges that such was the power ac- companying their ministry, that though he had been prejudiced against w^omen's preaching, he could not but confess that these women were anointed for the office. But there are certain passages in the Epistles of St. Paul, which seem to be of doubtful in- terpretation ; at which we cannot much marvel, seeing that his brother Peter says, there are some things in them hard to be understood. Most commentators, having their m.inds preoc- cupied with the prejudices of education, aflbrd little aid ; they rather tend to darken the text by the multitude of words. One of these pas- sages occurs in 1 Cor. 14. I have already re- marked, that this chapter, with several of the preceding, was evidently designed to correct abuses which had crept into the assemblies of Christians in Corinth. Hence we find that the men were commanded to be silent, as well as the women, when they were guilty of any thing which deserved reprehension. The apostle says, * If there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church.' The men were doubt- less in the practice of speaking in unknown tongues, when there was no interpreter present ; and Paul reproves them, because this kind of preaching conveyed no instruction to the peo- ple. Again he says, * If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.' We may infer from this, that two men HI ♦ sometimes attempted to speak at the same time, and the apostle rebukes them,and adds, * Ye may ALL prophesy one by one, for God is not the au- thor of confusion, but of peace.' He then pro- ceeds to notice the disorderly conduct of the women, who were guilty of other improprieties. They were probably in the habit of asking questions, on any points of doctrine which they wished more thoroughly explained. This cus- tom was common among the men in the Jewish synagogues, after the pattern of which, the meetings of the early Christians were in all probability conducted. And the Christian wo- men, presuming on the liberty which they en- joyed under the new religion, interrupted the assembly, by asking questions. The apostle disapproved of this, because it disturbed the so- lemnity of the meeting : he therefore admon- ishes the women to keep silence in the church- es. That the apostle did not allude to preaching is manifest, because he tells them, * If they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home.' Now a person endowed with a gift in the ministry, does not ask questions in the pub- lic exercise of that gift, for the purpose of gain- ing information : she is instructing others. Moreover, the apostle, in closing his remarks on this subject, says, * Wherefore, brethren, (a generic term, applying equally to men and wo- men,) covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.' Clarke, on the passage, * Let women keep si- Jence in the churches,' says : * This was a Jewish ordinance. Women were not per- fliiued to teach in the assemblies, or even to ask questions The rabbins taught that a woman should know nothing ba 112 the age of her distmff; nnd th« saying of Rabbi K1 lexer u worthy of remark and execration: 'Let the words of the law be burned, rather thao that they should be delivered by women.* Are there not many of our Christian breth- ren, whose hostility to the ministry of women is as bitter as was that of Rabbi Eliezer, and who would rather let souls perish, than that the truths of the gospel should be delivered by women ? * This,* says Clarke, ' was their condition till the time of the gospel, when, according to the ^prediction of Joel, the Spirit of God was to be poured out on the women afe well as the men, that they might prophesy, that is, teach. And that they did prophesy, or teach, is evident from what the apos- tie says, ch. 11 : 5, where he lays down rules to regulate this part of their conduct while ministering in the church. But does not what the apostle says here, let your women keep si- lence in the churches, contradict that statement, and sliow tliat the words in cb. 11, should be understood in another sense 1 for here it is expressly said, that they should keep silence in the churches, for it was not permitted to a woman to speak. Both places seem perfectlv consistent. It is ev- ident from the context, that the apostle refers here to asking questions, and what we call dictating in the assemblies.' The Other passage on which the opinion, that women are not called to the ministry, is found- ed, is 1 Tim. 2d ch. The apostle speaks of the duty of prayer and supplication, mentions his own ordination as a preacher, and then adds, * I will, therefore, that men pray every- where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,' &;c. I shall here premise, that as the punctuation and division into chapters and verses is no part of the original arrangement, they cannot deter- mine the sense of a passage. Indeed, every at- tentive reader of the Bible must observe, that the injudicious separation of sentences often 113 destroys their meaning and their beauty. Jo- seph John Gurney, whose skill as a biblical critic is well known in England, commenting on this passage, says, * It is worded in a manner somewhat obscure ; but ap- pears to be best construed according to the opinion of va- rious commentators (See Pool's Synopsis) as conve>ing an injunction, that women as well as men should pray every- where, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubling. 1 Tim. 2 : 8, 9. * 1 will therefore that men pray everywhere* &c. ; likewise also the women in a modest dress.' (Com- pare 1 Cor. 11 : 5.) * I would have them adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety.* ' I have no doubt this is the true meaning of the text, and that the translators would never have thought of altering it had they not been under the influence of educational prejudice. The apostle proceeds to exhort the women, who thus publicly made intercession to God, not to adorn themselves with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.* The word in this verse translated * professing,' would be more properly rendered preaching godliness, or enjoining piety to the gods, or conducting public worship. After describing the duty of female ministers about their appar- el, the apostle proceeds to correct some impro- prieties which probably prevailed in the Ephe- sian church, similar to those which he had re- proved among the Corinthian converts. He says, 'Let the women learn in silence with all subjection ; but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence,' or quietness. Here again it is evident that the women, of whom he was speaking, were admonished to learn in silence, which could not refer to their public rainistra- 8 114 tions to others. The verb to teach, verse 12, is one of very general import, and may iu this Slace more properly be rendered dictate. It is ighly probable that women who had long been in bondage, when set free by Christianity from the restraints imposed upon them by Jewish traditions and heathen customs, run into an ex- treme in their public assemblies, and interrupted the religious services by frequent interrogations, which they could have had answered as satis- factorily at home. On a candid examination and comparison of the passages which I have endeavored to ex- plain, viz., 1 Cor. chaps. 11 and 14, and 1 Tim. 2, 8 — 12. I think we must be compelled to adopt one of two conclusions ; either that the apostle grossly contradicts himself on a subject of great practical importance, and that the ful- filment of the prophecy of Joel was a shameful infringement of decency and order; or that the directions given to women, not to speak, or to teach in the congregations, had reference to some local and peculiar customs, which were then common in religious assemblies, and which the apostle thought inconsistent with the pur- pose for which they were met together. No one, I suppose, will hesitate which of these two conclusions to adopt. The subject is one of vital importance. That it may claim the calm and prayerful attention of Christians, is the de- sire of Thine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. LETTER XV. MAN EQUALLY GUILTY WITH WOMAN IN THE FALL. Uxbridge, lOth Mo. 20tk, 1837. My Dear Sister, — It is said that * modern Jewish women light a lamp every Friday even- ing, half an hour before sunset, which is the beginning of their Sabbath, in remembrance of their original mother, who first extinguished the lamp of righteousness, — to remind them of their obligation to rekindle it.' I am one of those who always admit, to its fullest extent, the pop- ular charge, that woman brought sin into the world. I accept it as a powerful reason, why woman is bound to labor with double diligence, for the regeneration of that world she has been instrumental in ruining. But, although I do not repel the imputation, I shall notice some passages in the sacred Scriptures, where this transaction is mentioned, which prove, I think, the identity and equality of man and woman, and that there is no differ- ence in their guilt in the view of that God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men. In Is. 43 : 27, we find the following passage — * Thy first father hath sin- 116 ned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me' — which is synonymous with Rom. 5: 12. * Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, &c.' Here man and woman are included under one term, and no distinction is made in their criminality. The circumstances of the fall are again referred to in 2 Cor. 11 : 3 — * But I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtil- ity, so your mind should be beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ.' Again, 1st Tim. 2 : 14 — * Adam was not deceived; but the wo- man being deceived^ was in the transgression.' Now, whether the fact, that Eve was beguiled and deceived, is a proof that her crime was of deeper dye than Adam's, who was not deceiv- ed, but was fully aware of the consequences of sharing in her transgression, I shall leave the candid reader to determine. • My present object is to show, that, as woman is charged with all the sin that exists in the world, it is her solemn duty to labor for its ex- tinction ; and that this she can never do effect- ually and extensively, until her mind is disen- thralled of those shackles which have been riv- eted upon her by a * corrupt public opinion, and a perverted interpretation of the holy Scrip- tures.^ Woman must feel that she is the equal, and is designed to be the fellow laborer of her brother, or she will be studying to find out the imaginary line which separates the sexes, and divides the duties of men and women into two distinct classes, a separation not even hinted at . in the Bible, where we are expressly told, * there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' My views on this subject are so much better 117 embodied in the language of a living author than I can express ihem, that I quote the pas- sage entire : * Woman's rights and man's rights are both contained in the same charter, and held by the same tenure. All rights spring out of the moral nature : they are both the root and the offspring of responsibilities. The physical constitution is the mere instrument of the mor- al nature ; sex is a mere incident of this con- stitution, a provision necessary to this form of existence; its only design, r;.,t to give, nor to take away, nor in any resp. t to modify or even touch rights or responsibiliti^ s in any sense, except so far as the peculiar officrs of each sex may afford less or more opportu.uty and ability for the exercise of rights, and the discharge of responsibilities ; but merely to continue and en- large the human department of God's govern- ment. Consequently, I know nothing of man's rights, or womanh rights ; human rights are all that I recognise. The doctrine, that the sex of the body presides over and administers upon the rights and responsibilities of the moral, immor- tal nature, is to my mind a doctrine kindred to blasphemy, when seen in its intrinsic nature. It breaks up utterly the relations of the tw^o na- tures, and reverses their functions ; exalting the animal nature into a monarch, and humbling the moral into a slave ; making the former a proprietor, and the latter its property.' To perform our duties, we must comprehend our rights and responsibilities; and it is because we do not understand, that we now fall so far short in the discharge of our obligations. Un- accustomed to think for ourselves, and to search the sacred volume, to see how far we are living up to the design of Jehovah in our creation, we ( 118 have rested satisfied with the sphere marked out for us by man, never detecting the fallacy of that reasoning which forbids woman to exer- cise some of her noblest faculties, and stamps with the reproach of indelicacy those actions by which women were formerly dignified and ex- alted in the church. I should not mention this subject again, if it were not to point out to my sisters what seems to me an irresistible conclusion from the literal interpretation of St. Paul, without reference to the context, and the peculiar circumstances and abuses which drew forth the expressions, *I suffer not a woman to teach ' — * Let your wo- men keep silence in the church,' i. e. congrega- tion. It is manifest, that if the apostle meant what his words imply, when taken in the strict- est sense, then women have no right to teach Sabbath or day schools, or to open their lips to sing in the assemblies of the people ; yet young and delicate women are engaged in all these offices; they are expressly trained to exhibit themselves, and raise their voices to a high pitch in the choirs of our places of worship. I do not intend to sit in judgment on my sisters for doing these things ; I only want them to see, that they are as really infringing a suppos* ed divine command, by instructing their pupils in the Sabbath or day schools, and by singing in the congregation, as if they were engaged in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to a lost and perishing world. Why, then, are we permitted to break this injunction in some points, and so seduously warned not to overstep the bounds set for us by our brethren in another ? Simply, as I believe, because in the one case we subserve their views and their interests, and 119 act in subordination to them; whilst in the other, we come in contact with their interests, and claim to he on an equality with them in the highest and most importa,nt trust ever commit- ted to man, namely, the ministry of the word. It is manifest, that if women were permitted to be ministers of the gospel, as they unquestion- ably were in the primitive ages of the Christian church, it would interfere materially with the present organized system of spiritual power and ecclesiastical authority, which is now vested solely in the hands of men. It would either show that all the paraphernalia of theological seminaries, &c. &c. to prepare men to become evangelists, is wholly unnecessary, or it would create a necessity for similar institutions in or- der to prepare women for the same office ; and this would be an encroachment on that learning, which our hind brethren have so ungenerously monopolized. I do not ask any one to believe my statements, or adopt my conclusions, because, they are mine ; but I do earnestly entreat my sisters to lay aside their prejudices, and exam- ine these subjects for themselves, regardless of the * traditions of men,' because they are inti- mately connected with their duty and their use- fulness in the present important crisis. All who know any thing of the present sys- tem of benevolent and religious operations, know that women are performing an important part in them, in subserviency to men, who guide our labors, and are often the recipients of those benefits of education we toil to confer, and which we rejoice they can enjoy, although it is their mandate which deprives us of the same advantages. Now, whether our brethren have defrauded us intentionally, or unintentionally, 120 the wrong we suffer is equally the same. For years, they have been spurring ns up to the performance of our duties. The immense use- fulness and the vast influence of woman have been eulogized and called into exercise, and many a blessing has been lavished upon us, and many a prayer put up for us, because we have labored by day and by night to clothe and feed and educate young men, whilst our own bodies sometimes suffer for want of comfortable gar- ments, and our minds are left in almost utter destitution of that improvement which we are toiling to bestow upon the brethren. ' Full many a gem of purest rny serene, The d<irk unfaihomed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a dower is born to bUiih unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air.* If the sewing societies, the avails of whose industry are now expended in supporting and educating young men for the ministry, were to withdraw their contributions to these objects, and give them where they are more needed^ to the advancement of their own sex in useful learning, the next generation might furnish suflicie^nt proof, that in intelligence and ability to master the whole circle of sciences, woman is not inferior to man ; and instead of a sensible woman being regarded as she now is, is a lusses naturae, they would be quite as common as sen- sible men. I confess, considering the high claim men in this country make to great polite- ness and deference to women, it does seem a little extraordinary that we should be urged to work for the brethren. I should suppose it would be more in character with * the generous promptings of chivalry, and the poetry of ro- mantic gallantry,' for which Catherine E. 121 Beecher gives them credit, for them to form so- cieties to educate their sisters, seeing our infe- rior capacities require more cultivation to bring them into use, and qualify us to be helps meet for them. However, though I think this would be but a just return for all our past kindnesses in this way, I should be willing to balance our accounts, and begin a new course. Henceforth, let the benefit be reciprocated, or else let each sex provide for the education of their own poor, whose talents ought to be rescued from the ob- livion of ignorance. Sure I am, the your\g men who are now benefitted by the handy work of their sisters, will not be less honorable if they occupy half their time in earning enough to pay for their own education, instead of depending on the industry of women, who not unfrequent- ly deprive themselves of the means of purchas- ing valuable books which might enlarge their stock of useful knowledge, and perhaps prove a blessing to the family by furnishing them with instructive reading. If the minds of women were enlightened and improved, the domestic circle would be more frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a means of edification now deplorably neglected, for want of that cul- tivation which these intellectual advantages would confer. DUTIES OF WOMEN. One of the duties which devolve upon women in the present interesting crisis, is to prepare themselves for more extensive usefulness, by making use of those religious and literary priv- ileges and advantages that are within their reach, if they will only stretch out their hands and possess them. By doing this, they will 122 become better acquainted with their rights as moral beings, and with their responsibilities growing out of those riffhts : they will regard themselves, as they really are, free agents, immortal beings, amenable to no tribunal but that of Jehovah, and bound not to submit to any restriction imposed for selfish purposes, or to gratify that love of power which has reigned in the heart of man from Adam down iq the pres- ent time. In contemplating the great moral re- formations of the day, and the part which they are bound to take in them, instead of puzzling themselves with the harassing, because unne- cessary inquiry, how far they may go without overstepping the bounds of propriety, which separate male and female duties, they will only inquire, * Lord, what wilt thou have ws to do ? ' They will be enabled to see the simple truth, that God has made no distinction between men and women as moral beings ; that the distinc- tion now so much insisted upon between male and female virtues is as absurd as it is nnscrip- tural, and has been the fruitful source of much mischief— granting to man a license for the ex- hibition of brute force and ccmfiict on the battle field ; forst ernness, selfishness, and the exercise of irresponsible power in the circle of home — and to woman a permit to rest on an arm of flesh, and to regard modesty and delicaicy, and all the kindred virtues, as peculiarly appropriate to her. Now to me it is perfectly clear, that WHATSOEVER IT IS MORALLY RIGHT FOR A MAN TO DO, IT IS MORALLY RIGHT FOR A WOMAN TO DO ; and that confusion must exist in the moral world, until women takes her stand on the same platform with man, and feels that she is clothed 123 by her Maker with the sarne rights, and, of course, that upon her devolve the same duties. It is not my intention, nor indeed do I think it is in my power, to point out the precise du- ties of women. To him who still teacheth by his Holy Spirit as never man taught, I refer my beloved sisters. There is a vast field of use- fulness before them. The signs of the times give portentous evidence, that a day of deep trial is approaching ; and I urge them, by every consideration of a Savior's dying love, by the millions of heathen in our midst, by the sufferings of woman in almost every portion of the world, by the fearful ravages which slave- ry, intemperance, licentiousness and other ini- quities are making of the happiness of our fellow creatures, to come to the rescue of a ruined world, and to be found co-workers with Jesus Christ. < Ho ! to the rescue, ho ! Up every one that feels— 'Tis a sad and fearful cry of woe From a guilty world that steals. Hark ! harki how the horror rolls. Whence can this anguish be 1 'Tis the groan of a tramniel*d people's souls, Now bursting to be free** And here, with all due deference for the of- fice of the ministry, which I believe was estab- lished by Jehovah himself, and designed by Him to be the means of spreading light and salvation through a crucified Savior to the ends of the earth, I would entreat my sisters not to compel the ministers of the present day to give their names to great moral reformations. The practice of making ministers life members, or officers of societies, when their. hearts have not been touched with a live coal from the altar, 124 and animated with love for the work we are engaged in, is highly injurious to them, as well as to the cause. They often satisfy their con- sciences in this way, without doing anything to promote the anti-slavery, or temperance, or oth- er reformations ; and we please ourselves with the idea, that we have done something to for- ward the cause of Christ, when, in effect, we have been sewing pillows like the false proph- etesses of old under the arm-holes of our cler- ical brethren. Let us treat the ministers with all tenderness and respect, but let us be careful how we cherish in their hearts the idea that they are of more importance to a cause than other men. I rejoice when they take hold heartily. I love and honor some ministers with whom I have been associated in the anti-slavery ranks, but I do deeply deplore, for the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us ; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their co-operation. It is the Lord's work, and it must go forward with or without their aid. As well might the convert- ed Jews have despaired of the spread of Chris- tianity, without the co-operation of Scribes and Pharisees. Let us keep in mind, that no abolitionism is of any value, which is not accompanied with deep, heartfelt repentance ; and that, whenever a minister sincerely repents of having, either "by his apathy or his efforts, countenanced the fearful sin of slavery, he will need no induce- ment to come irrto our ranks ; so far from it> he 125 will abhor himself in dust and ashes, for his past blindness and indifTerence to the cause of God's poor and oppressed : and he will regard it as a privilege to be enabled to do something in the cause of human rights. I know the min- istry exercise vast power ; but I rejoice in the belief, that the spell is broken which encircled them, and rendered it all but blasphemy to ex- pose their errors and their sins. We are be- ginning to understand that they are but men, and that their station should not shield them from merited reproof. I have blushed for my sex when I have heard of their entreating ministers to attend their as- sociations, and open them with prayer. The idea is inconceivable to me, that Christian wo- men can be engaged in doing God's work, and yet cannot ask his blessing on their efforts, ex- cept through the lips of a man. I have known a whole town scoured to obtain a minister to open a female meeting, and their refusal to do so spoken of as quite a misfortune. Now, I am not glad that the ministers do wrong; but I am glad that my sisters have been sometimes com- pelled to act for themselves : it is exactly what they need to strengthen them, and prepare them to act independently. And to say the truth, there is something really ludicrous in seeing a minister enter the meeting, open it with prayer, and then take his departure. However, I only throw out these hints for the consideration of women. I believe there are solemn responsibili- ties resting upon us, and that in this day of light and knowledge, we cannot plead ignorance of duty. The great moral reformations now on the wheel are only practical Christianity ; and if the ministry is not prepared to labor with 126 us in these righteous causes, let ns press for- ward, and they will follow on to know the Lord. CONCLUSION. I have now, my dear sister, completed my series of letters. I am aware, they contain some new views ; but I believe they are based on the immutable truths of the Bible. All I ask for them is, the candid and prayerful consideration of Christians. If they strike at some of our bosom sins, our deep-rooted prejudices, our long cherished opinions, let us not condemn them on that account, but investigate them fearlessly and prayerfully, and not shrink from the examina- tion; because, if they are true, they place heavy responsibilities upon women. In throw- ing them before the public, I have been actuat- ed solely by the belief, that if they are acted upon, they will exalt the character and enlarge the usefulness of my own sex, and contribute greatly to the happiness and virtue of the other. That there is a root of bitterness continually springing up in families and troubling the repose of both men and women, must be manifest to even a superficial observer ; and I believe it is the mistaken notion of the inequality of the sexes. As there is an assumption of superiority on the one part, which is not sanctioned by Jehovah, there is an incessant struggle on the other to rise to that degree of dignity, which God de- signed women to possess in common with men, and to maintain those rights and exercise those privileges which every woman's common sense, apart from the prejudices of education, tells her are inalienable ; they are a part of her moral 127 nature, and can only cease when her immortal mind is extinguished. One word more. I feel that I am calling upon my sex to sacrifice what has been, what is still dear to their hearts, the adulation, the flat- tery, the attentions of trifling men. I am ask- ing them to repel these insidious enemies when- ever they approach them ; to manifest by their conduct, that, although they value highly the society of pious and intelligent men, they have no taste for idle conversation, and for that silly preference which is manifested for their person- al accommodation, often at the expense of great inconvenience to their male companions. As an illustration of what I mean, I will state a fact. I was traveling lately in a stage coach. A gentleman, who was also a passenger, was made sick by riding with his back to the horses. I offered to exchange seats, assuring him it did not affect me at all unpleasantly ; but he was too polite to permit a lady to run the risk of being discommoded. I am sure he meant lobe very civil, but I really thought it was a foolish piece of civility. This kind of attention en- courages selfishness in woman, and is only ac- corded as a sort of quietus, in exchange for those rights of which we are deprived. Men and women are equally bound to cultivate a spirit of accommodation ; but I exceedingly de- precate her being treated like a spoiled child, and sacrifices made to her selfishness and van- ity. In lieu of these flattering but injurious attentions, yielded to her as an inferior, as a mark of benevolence and courtesy, I want my sex to claim nothing from their brethren but what their brethren may justly claim from them, 128 in their intercourse as Christians. I am per- suaded woman can can do much in this way to elevate her own character. And that we may become duly sensible of the dignity of our na- ture, only a little lower than the angels, and bring forth fruit to the glory and honor of Emanuel's name, is the fervent prayer of ""hine in the bonds of womanhood, Sarah M. Grimke. ♦PB-45343.SB 75-46T BT ■t \ \ ' THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARGED AN OVERDUE FEE IF THIS BOOK IS NOT RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY ON OR BEFORE THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 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