Grimké sisters: References & Edit History

Larry Ceplair (ed.), The Public Years of Sarah and Angelina Grimké (1989), collects the sisters’ writings and includes a chronology of their lives. Gerda Lerner, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women’s Rights and Abolition (1967, revised and expanded 2004), is a biography. Mark Perry, Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimké Family’s Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders (2001), describes the lives of the Grimké sisters and their mixed-race nephews Archibald and Francis.

Kerri K. Greenidge, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (2023), places the Grimké sisters within the multigenerational story of their Black relatives; it was widely praised at publication, though its research and conclusions were later contested, and its publisher appeared to withdraw it in 2026. In response, Greenidge told The New York Times that “I have never plagiarized anything in my life” and “I have never fabricated anything.” She said attacks on her book were driven by white scholars who objected to her conclusions about racism in the United States: “The attack on Black women academics is real,” she said.