"Charlotte Forten Grimke"(August 17,1837-July 23 1914)

Was an African-American anti-slavery activist,poet,and educator.She was born in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania to Mary Woods and Robert Bridges Forten, members of the prominent black Forten-Purvis families of the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee,an anti-slavery network that rendered assistance to escape slaves.Charlotte paternal aunt Margaretta Forten worked in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society along with her sisters Harriet Forten Purvis and Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis.Charlotte grandparents were Philadelphia abolitionist James Forten,Sr.And his wife Charlotte Vandine Forten,who were also active in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.In 1854,Charlotte attended the Higginson Grammar School in Salem Massachusetts.She was the only black student in the class of 200.Known for emphasis in critical thinking,the school focused classes on history,geography,drawing and cartography.After Higginson,she studied literature and teaching at the Salem Normal School.Charlotte cited William Shakespeare,John Milton,Margaret Fuller,and William Wordsworth as some of her favorite authors.She became a member of the Salem Female Society,where she was involved in coalition building and money raising.Charlotte proved to be influential as an activist and leader of civil rights.She occasionally spoke to public groups on abolitionist issues.In addition,she arranged for lectures by prominent speakers and writers,Ralph Waldo Emerson and Senator Charles Sumner.She was acquainted with many other other anti-slavery proponents,including William Lloyd Garrison,editor of The Liberator,and the orators and activists Wendell Phillips,Maria Weston Chapman and William Wells Brown.In 1856,finances forced her to take a teaching position at Epes Grammar School in Salem.She was well received as a teacher but returned to Philadelphia after two years due to tuberculosis.At this point,Charlotte began writing poetry,much of which was activist in theme.Her work was published in in The Liberator and Anglo African magazine.Charlotte was the first black teacher to join the American Civil War's Sea Island mission.During her time in South Carolina,she worked with many former slaves who were enthusiastic about her teaching.She chronicled this time in her essays titled,"Life on the Sea Islands,"which were published in the Atlantic Monthly in the May and June issues of 1864.Charlotte struck up a deep friendship Robert Gould Shaw,the Commander of the all black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Sea Islands Campaign and was present when the 54th stormed Fort Wagner on the night of July 18,1863.Robert was killed in the battle and Charlotte volunteered as a nurse to the surviving members of the 54th.In the late 1860s,she worked for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington,DC recruiting teachers.In 1873 she became a clerk at the Treasury Department.In December 1878,when Charlotte was 41,she married Presbyterian minister Francis J. Grimke,the nephew of abolitionist Sara and Angelina Grimke,who served as US consul in the Dominican Republic from 1894-1898.While her father served in the Dominican Republic,Angelina Grimke lived with Charlotte and Francis Grimke.Angelina Weld Grimke later became an author in her own right.In 1880,Charlotte and Francis Grimke daughter Theodora Cornelia was born.She died as an infant.She helped her husband in his ministry at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington,D.C.,organized a women's missionary group,and continued her "racial uplift" efforts.Charlotte last literary effort was in response to an Evangelist editorial,"Relations of Blacks and Whites:Is there a Color Line in New England?"It asserted that blacks were not discriminated against in New England society.Charlotte stated that black Americans achieved success over extraordinary social odds,and they simply wanted fair and respectful treatment.She was a regular journal writer until she returned north after teaching in South Carolina.After her return,her entries were less frequent.While she did write about her daughter's death and her busy life with her husband,her writing was less frequent than the daily entries she made when younger.Her diary is one of few extant documents detailing the life of a free black female in the antebellum North.