Charlotte Forten Grimké

NAME: Charlotte Forten Grimke

DATE OF BIRTH: 1837

PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

DATE OF DEATH: 1914

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Charlotte belonged to the prominent member of the famous Forten-Purvis family. Her family were activists for Black causes and Charlotte proved to be just as influential an activist and leader of civil rights. Her parents were Robert Bridges and Mary Woods Forten. Her father and his brother in law, Robert Purvis were key members of the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee, an antislavery, slave assistance network. Her mother worked in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Charlotte's grandfather was James Forten, Sr., a successful abolitionist and sailmaker in Philadelphia. Charlotte married Francis J. Grimke when she was 41,on December 19, 1878. Francis was a Presbyterian minister who graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Princeton Theological Seminary. They had one daughter, Theodora Cornelia in June of 1880 who died as an infant.

EDUCATION: Charlotte's father sent her to Salem to attend the Higginson Grammar School; in 1854 she was the only non-white student out of 200. The Higginson school was known for emphasis in critical thinking founded in studying history, geography, drawing and cartography. After Higginson, she attended the Normal School in Salem. Charlotte loved to read; some of her favorites were Shakespeare, Milton, Margaret Fuller and William Wordsworth.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: It is obvious that Charlotte's upbringing which included a blending of intellectual pursuits with real life civil liberties devotion proved her to be the noted antislavery, poet, educator and abolitionist herself. She herself became a member of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society where she worked to promote the cause through raising money, talking and meeting with others and hearing other prominent speakers and writers of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Senator Charles Sumner. She frequently met and dined with other famous anti-slavery proponents such as William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Liberator;Wendell Philips, the orator and activists Maria Weston Chapman and William Wells Brown.

Charlotte became a teacher in 1856 due to financial difficulties . She taught at Epes Grammar School in Salem but after two years tuberculosis forced her to return to Philadelphia. The school was unhappy to see her go and promised her a position upon her return. While in Salem, her poetry talent emerged, her works published in various antislavery publications such as the Liberator and Anglo African magazine. At home, she became the first black teacher involved in the Civil War's Sea Islands mission. In South Carolina, she touched many students and thoroughly enjoyed her work. She chronicled this time in her essays, "Life on the Sea Islands" which were published in Atlantic Monthly in the May and June issues of 1864.

She held national influence recruiting teachers in the late 1860's and on July 3, 1873 she became one a clerk at the U.S. Treasury Department: she was one of 15 out of a 200 candidates. She wed her husband at this time and tragically the couple lost their child as an infant. Charlotte then aided her husband in his ministry and organized a women's missionary group. Her husband became pastor at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. and Charlotte only continued her civil rights efforts. Her last efforts were answering an Evangelist editorial, " Relations of Blacks and Whites: Is There a Color Line in New England?" Her answer asserted that unlike the assertions of the author that Blacks were not prejudiced against, Black American did achieve over extraordinary odds and simply wanted fair and respectful treatment.

WEB SITES:

Africans in America: The Forten Women

Charlotte L. Forten Grimke at Africana.com

Daily Tidbits Celebrating Women's History

Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) and Angelina Grimke Weld (1805-1879): Letters on the Equality of the Sexes 1838; Letters to Catherine E. Beecher 1837 at Sunshine for Women

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Billington, Ray Allen, ed. The Journal of Charlotte Forten: a Free Negro in the Slave Era. New York: Norton, 1981, c1953. [Cleveland Public Library]

Burchard, Peter. Charlotte Forten: a Black Teacher in the Civil War. New York: Crown Publishers, c1995. [Cleveland Public Library Juvenile]

Douty, Esther Morris. Charlotte Forten, Free Black Teacher. Champaign: Garrard Pub. Co., 1971. [Cleveland Public Library Juvenile]

Forten, Charlotte L. A Free Black Girl Before the Civil War: the Diary of Charlotte Forten, 1854.
Mankato: Blue Earth Books, c2000. [Cleveland Public Library Juvenile]

Forten, Charlotte L. The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimké. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. [Cleveland Public Library]

Lockwood, Lewis C. Two Black Teachers During the Civil War: Mary S. Peake; the Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe. Life on the Sea Islands [by] Charlotte Forten. New York: Arno Press, 1969. [Cleveland Public Library]

Longsworth, Polly, I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free. New York: Crowell, c1970. [Cleveland Public Library Juvenile]

Stevenson, Brenda, ed. The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimké. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

 

This page may be cited as: Women in History. Charlotte Forten Grimke biography.  Created/Last modified: March 06 2005. Lakewood Public Library.  Accessed: March 06 2005. <http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/grim-cha.htm>.

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