{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_69485/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_69485","id":"gutenberg_69485","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69485","summary":null,"tags":["Category: American Literature","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Women -- History","Women -- United States","Women's rights -- United States"],"text":"LETTERS\n\n                                ON THE\n\n                        EQUALITY OF THE SEXES,\n\n                                AND THE\n\n                          CONDITION OF WOMAN.\n\n\n                             ADDRESSED TO\n\n                            MARY S. PARKER,\n\n                           PRESIDENT OF THE\n\n                  Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.\n\n\n                                BOSTON:\n                       PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP,\n                             25, CORNHILL.\n\n                                 1838.\n\n\n\n\n                               LETTERS.\n\n\n\n\n                               LETTER I.\n\n                    THE ORIGINAL EQUALITY OF WOMAN.\n\n\n                                        _Amesbury, 7th Mo. 11th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR FRIEND,--In attempting to comply with thy request to give my\nviews on the Province of Woman, I feel that I am venturing on nearly\nuntrodden ground, and that I shall advance arguments in opposition to\na corrupt public opinion, and to the perverted interpretation of Holy\nWrit, which has so universally obtained. But I am in search of truth;\nand no obstacle shall prevent my prosecuting that search, because I\nbelieve the welfare of the world will be materially advanced by every\nnew discovery we make of the designs of Jehovah in the creation of\nwoman. It is impossible that we can answer the purpose of our being,\nunless we understand that purpose. It is impossible that we should\nfulfil our duties, unless we comprehend them; or live up to our\nprivileges, unless we know what they are.\n\nIn examining this important subject, I shall depend solely on the\nBible to designate the sphere of woman, because I believe almost every\nthing that has been written on this subject, has been the result of\na misconception of the simple truths revealed in the Scriptures, in\nconsequence of the false translation of many passages of Holy Writ. My\nmind is entirely delivered from the superstitious reverence which is\nattached to the English version of the Bible. King James\u2019s translators\ncertainly were not inspired. I therefore claim the original as my\nstandard, _believing that to have been inspired_, and I also claim to\njudge for myself what is the meaning of the inspired writers, because\nI believe it to be the solemn duty of every individual to search the\nScriptures for themselves, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, and not be\ngoverned by the views of any man, or set of men.\n\nWe must first view woman at the period of her creation. \u2018And God said,\nLet us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have\ndominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and\nover the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing\nthat creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in\nthe image of God created he him, male and female created he them.\u2019\nIn all this sublime description of the creation of man, (which is a\ngeneric term including man and woman,) there is not one particle of\ndifference intimated as existing between them. They were both made in\nthe image of God; dominion was given to both over every other creature,\nbut not over each other. Created in perfect equality, they were\nexpected to exercise the vicegerence intrusted to them by their Maker,\nin harmony and love.\n\nLet us pass on now to the recapitulation of the creation of man:--\u2018The\nLord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his\nnostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord\nGod said, it is not good that man should be alone, I will make him an\nhelp meet for him.\u2019 All creation swarmed with animated beings capable\nof natural affection, as we know they still are; it was not, therefore,\nmerely to give man a creature susceptible of loving, obeying, and\nlooking up to him, for all that the animals could do and did do. It\nwas to give him a companion, _in all respects_ his equal; one who was\nlike himself _a free agent_, gifted with intellect and endowed with\nimmortality; not a partaker merely of his animal gratifications, but\nable to enter into all his feelings as a moral and responsible being.\nIf this had not been the case, how could she have been an help meet for\nhim? I understand this as applying not only to the parties entering\ninto the marriage contract, but to all men and women, because I believe\nGod designed woman to be an help meet for man in every good and perfect\nwork. She was a part of himself, as if Jehovah designed to make the\noneness and identity of man and woman perfect and complete; and when\nthe glorious work of their creation was finished, \u2018the morning stars\nsang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.\u2019\n\nThis blissful condition was not long enjoyed by our first parents. Eve,\nit would seem from the history, was wandering alone amid the bowers\nof Paradise, when the serpent met with her. From her reply to Satan,\nit is evident that the command not to eat \u2018of the tree that is in the\nmidst of the garden,\u2019 was given to both, although the term man was\nused when the prohibition was issued by God. \u2018And the woman said unto\nthe serpent, WE may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but\nof the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath\nsaid, YE shall not eat of it, neither shall YE touch it, lest YE die.\u2019\nHere the woman was exposed to temptation from a being with whom she was\nunacquainted. She had been accustomed to associate with her beloved\npartner, and to hold communion with God and with angels; but of satanic\nintelligence, she was in all probability entirely ignorant. Through the\nsubtlety of the serpent, she was beguiled. And \u2018when she saw that the\ntree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a\ntree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and\ndid eat.\u2019\n\nWe next find Adam involved in the same sin, not through the\ninstrumentality of a supernatural agent, but through that of his equal,\na being whom he must have known was liable to transgress the divine\ncommand, because he must have felt that he was himself a free agent,\nand that he was restrained from disobedience only by the exercise of\nfaith and love towards his Creator. Had Adam tenderly reproved his\nwife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing\nin her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that\nsuperiority which he claims; but as the facts stand disclosed by the\nsacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was\nas much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from\ninnocence, and consequently from happiness, _but not from equality_.\n\nLet us next examine the conduct of this fallen pair, when Jehovah\ninterrogated them respecting their fault. They both frankly confessed\ntheir guilt. \u2018The man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with\nme, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the woman said, the\nserpent beguiled me and I did eat.\u2019 And the Lord God said unto the\nwoman, \u2018Thou wilt be subject unto thy husband, and he will rule over\nthee.\u2019 That this did not allude to the subjection of woman to man is\nmanifest, because the same mode of expression is used in speaking to\nCain of Abel. The truth is that the curse, as it is termed, which was\npronounced by Jehovah upon woman, is a simple prophecy. The Hebrew,\nlike the French language, uses the same word to express shall and will.\nOur translators having been accustomed to exercise lordship over their\nwives, and seeing only through the medium of a perverted judgment, very\nnaturally, though I think not very learnedly or very kindly, translated\nit _shall_ instead of _will_, and thus converted a prediction to Eve\ninto a command to Adam; for observe, it is addressed to the woman and\nnot to the man. The consequence of the fall was an immediate struggle\nfor dominion, and Jehovah foretold which would gain the ascendency; but\nas he created them in his image, as that image manifestly was not lost\nby the fall, because it is urged in Gen. 9:6, as an argument why the\nlife of man should not be taken by his fellow man, there is no reason\nto suppose that sin produced any distinction between them as moral,\nintellectual and responsible beings. Man might just as well have\nendeavored by hard labor to fulfil the prophecy, thorns and thistles\nwill the earth bring forth to thee, as to pretend to accomplish the\nother, \u2018he will rule over thee,\u2019 by asserting dominion over his wife.\n\n  \u2018Authority usurped from God, not given.\n  He gave him only over beast, flesh, fowl,\n  Dominion absolute: that right he holds\n  By God\u2019s donation: but man o\u2019er woman\n  He made not Lord, such title to himself\n  Reserving, human left from human free.\u2019\n\nHere then I plant myself. God created us equal;--he created us free\nagents;--he is our Lawgiver, our King and our Judge, and to him alone\nis woman bound to be in subjection, and to him alone is she accountable\nfor the use of those talents with which her Heavenly Father has\nentrusted her. One is her Master even Christ.\n\n                     Thine for the oppressed in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER II.\n\n                      WOMAN SUBJECT ONLY TO GOD.\n\n\n                                       _Newburyport, 7th mo. 17, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--In my last, I traced the creation and the fall of\nman and woman from that state of purity and happiness which their\nbeneficent Creator designed them to enjoy. As they were one in\ntransgression, their chastisement was the same. \u2018So God drove out\n_the man_, and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden a cherubim\nand a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the\ntree of life.\u2019 We now behold them expelled from Paradise, fallen from\ntheir original loveliness, but still bearing on their foreheads the\nimage and superscription of Jehovah; still invested with high moral\nresponsibilities, intellectual powers, and immortal souls. They had\nincurred the penalty of sin, they were shorn of their innocence,\nbut they stood on the same platform side by side, acknowledging _no\nsuperior_ but their God. Notwithstanding what has been urged, woman\nI am aware stands charged to the present day with having brought sin\ninto the world. I shall not repel the charge by any counter assertions,\nalthough, as was before hinted, Adam\u2019s ready acquiescence with his\nwife\u2019s proposal, does not savor much of that superiority _in strength\nof mind_, which is arrogated by man. Even admitting that Eve was the\ngreater sinner, it seems to me man might be satisfied with the dominion\nhe has claimed and exercised for nearly six thousand years, and that\nmore true nobility would be manifested by endeavoring to raise the\nfallen and invigorate the weak, than by keeping woman in subjection.\nBut I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality.\nAll I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off\nour necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God\ndesigned us to occupy. If he has not given us the rights which have, as\nI conceive, been wrested from us, we shall soon give evidence of our\ninferiority, and shrink back into that obscurity, which the high souled\nmagnanimity of man has assigned us as our appropriate sphere.\n\nAs I am unable to learn from sacred writ when woman was deprived by\nGod of her equality with man, I shall touch upon a few points in the\nScriptures, which demonstrate that no supremacy was granted to man.\nWhen God had destroyed the world, except Noah and his family, by the\ndeluge, he renewed the grant formerly made to man, and again gave him\ndominion over every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, over all\nthat moveth upon the earth, and over all the fishes of the sea; into\nhis hands they were delivered. But was woman, bearing the image of her\nGod, placed under the dominion of her fellow man? Never! Jehovah could\nnot surrender his authority to govern his own immortal creatures into\nthe hands of a being, whom he knew, and whom his whole history proved,\nto be unworthy of a trust so sacred and important. God could not do it,\nbecause it is a direct contravention of his law, \u2018Thou shalt worship\nthe Lord thy God, and _him only_ shalt thou serve.\u2019 If Jehovah had\nappointed man as the guardian, or teacher of woman, he would certainly\nhave given some intimation of this surrender of his own prerogative.\nBut so far from it, we find the commands of God invariably the same to\nman and woman; and not the slightest intimation is given in a single\npassage of the Bible, that God designed to point woman to man as her\ninstructor. The tenor of his language always is, \u2018Look unto ME, and be\nye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none\nelse.\u2019\n\nThe lust of dominion was probably the first effect of the fall; and as\nthere was no other intelligent being over whom to exercise it, woman\nwas the first victim of this unhallowed passion. We afterwards see\nit exhibited by Cain in the murder of his brother, by Nimrod in his\nbecoming a mighty hunter of men, and setting up a kingdom over which to\nreign. Here we see the origin of that Upas of slavery, which sprang up\nimmediately after the fall, and has spread its pestilential branches\nover the whole face of the known world. All history attests that man\nhas subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his\nselfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be\ninstrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to\nelevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he\ncould to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on\nthe ruin he has wrought, and says, the being he has thus deeply injured\nis his inferior.\n\nWoman has been placed by John Quincy Adams, side by side with the\nslave, whilst he was contending for the right side of petition. I\nthank him for ranking us with the oppressed; for I shall not find it\ndifficult to show, that in all ages and countries, not even excepting\nenlightened republican America, woman has more or less been made a\n_means_ to promote the welfare of man, without due regard to her own\nhappiness, and the glory of God as the end of her creation.\n\nDuring the _patriarchal_ ages, we find men and women engaged in the\nsame employments. Abraham and Sarah both assisted in preparing the\nfood which was to be set before the three men, who visited them in the\nplains of Mamre; but although their occupations were similar, Sarah\nwas not permitted to enjoy the society of the holy visitant; and as\nwe learn from Peter, that she \u2018obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord,\u2019 we\nmay presume he exercised dominion over her. We shall pass on now to\nRebecca. In her history, we find another striking illustration of the\nlow estimation in which woman was held. Eleazur is sent to seek a wife\nfor Isaac. He finds Rebecca going down to the well to fill her pitcher.\nHe accosts her; and she replies with all humility, \u2018Drink, my lord.\u2019\nHow does he endeavor to gain her favor and confidence? Does he approach\nher as a dignified creature, whom he was about to invite to fill an\nimportant station in his master\u2019s family, as the wife of his only son?\nNo. He offered incense to her vanity, and \u2018he took a golden ear-ring of\nhalf a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels\nweight of gold,\u2019 and gave them to Rebecca.\n\nThe cupidity of man soon led him to regard woman as property, and\nhence we find them sold to those, who wished to marry them, as far as\nappears, without any regard to those sacred rights which belong to\nwoman, as well as to man in the choice of a companion. That women were\na profitable kind of property, we may gather from the description of\na virtuous woman in the last chapter of Proverbs. To work willingly\nwith her hands, to open her hands to the poor, to clothe herself with\nsilk and purple, to look well to her household, to make fine linen\nand sell it, to deliver girdles to the merchant, and not to eat the\nbread of idleness, seems to have constituted in the view of Solomon,\nthe perfection of a woman\u2019s character and achievements. \u2018The spirit of\nthat age was not favorable to intellectual improvement; but as there\nwere wise men who formed exceptions to the general ignorance, and were\ndestined to guide the world into more advanced states, so there was a\ncorresponding proportion of wise women; and among the Jews, as well as\nother nations, we find a strong tendency to believe that women were in\nmore immediate connection with heaven than men.\u2019--L. M. Child\u2019s Con.\nof Woman. If there be any truth in this tradition, I am at a loss to\nimagine in what the superiority of man consists.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER III.\n\n   THE PASTORAL LETTER OF THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONAL\n                      MINISTERS OF MASSACHUSETTS.\n\n\n                                             _Haverhill, 7th Mo. 1837._\n\nDEAR FRIEND,--When I last addressed thee, I had not seen the Pastoral\nLetter of the General Association. It has since fallen into my hands,\nand I must digress from my intention of exhibiting the condition of\nwomen in different parts of the world, in order to make some remarks\non this extraordinary document. I am persuaded that when the minds of\nmen and women become emancipated from the thraldom of superstition and\n\u2018traditions of men,\u2019 the sentiments contained in the Pastoral Letter\nwill be recurred to with as much astonishment as the opinions of\nCotton Mather and other distinguished men of his day, on the subject\nof witchcraft; nor will it be deemed less wonderful, that a body of\ndivines should gravely assemble and endeavor to prove that woman has\nno right to \u2018open her mouth for the dumb,\u2019 than it now is that judges\nshould have sat on the trials of witches, and solemnly condemned\nnineteen persons and one dog to death for witchcraft.\n\nBut to the letter. It says, \u2018We invite your attention to the dangers\nwhich at present seem to threaten the FEMALE CHARACTER with wide-spread\nand permanent injury.\u2019 I rejoice that they have called the attention\nof my sex to this subject, because I believe if woman investigates it,\nshe will soon discover that danger is impending, though from a totally\ndifferent source from that which the Association apprehends,--danger\nfrom those who, having long held the reins of _usurped_ authority, are\nunwilling to permit us to fill that sphere which God created us to\nmove in, and who have entered into league to crush the immortal mind\nof woman. I rejoice, because I am persuaded that the rights of woman,\nlike the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and\nasserted, even by some of those, who are now endeavoring to smother the\nirrepressible desire for mental and spiritual freedom which glows in\nthe breast of many, who hardly dare to speak their sentiments.\n\n\u2018The appropriate duties and influence of women are clearly stated\nin the New Testament. Those duties are unobtrusive and private, but\nthe sources of _mighty power_. When the mild, _dependent_, softening\ninfluence of woman upon the sternness of man\u2019s opinions is fully\nexercised, society feels the effects of it in a thousand ways.\u2019 No one\ncan desire more earnestly than I do, that woman may move exactly in the\nsphere which her Creator has assigned her; and I believe her having\nbeen displaced from that sphere has introduced confusion into the\nworld. It is, therefore, of vast importance to herself and to all the\nrational creation, that she should ascertain what are her duties and\nher privileges as a responsible and immortal being. The New Testament\nhas been referred to, and I am willing to abide by its decisions, but\nmust enter my protest against the false translation of some passages by\nthe MEN who did that work, and against the perverted interpretation by\nthe MEN who undertook to write commentaries thereon. I am inclined to\nthink, when we are admitted to the honor of studying Greek and Hebrew,\nwe shall produce some various readings of the Bible a little different\nfrom those we now have.\n\nThe Lord Jesus defines the duties of his followers in his Sermon on the\nMount. He lays down grand principles by which they should be governed,\nwithout any reference to sex or condition:--\u2018Ye are the light of the\nworld. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light\na candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth\nlight unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before\nmen, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which\nis in Heaven.\u2019 I follow him through all his precepts, and find him\ngiving the same directions to women as to men, never even referring to\nthe distinction now so strenuously insisted upon between masculine and\nfeminine virtues: this is one of the anti-christian \u2018traditions of men\u2019\nwhich are taught instead of the \u2018commandments of God.\u2019 Men and women\nwere CREATED EQUAL; they are both moral and accountable beings, and\nwhatever is _right_ for man to do, is _right_ for woman.\n\nBut the influence of woman, says the Association, is to be private\nand unobtrusive; her light is not to shine before man like that of\nher brethren; but she is passively to let the lords of the creation,\nas they call themselves, put the bushel over it, lest peradventure it\nmight appear that the world has been benefitted by the rays of _her_\ncandle. So that her quenched light, according to their judgment, will\nbe of more use than if it were set on the candlestick. \u2018Her influence\nis the source of mighty power.\u2019 This has ever been the flattering\nlanguage of man since he laid aside the whip as a means to keep woman\nin subjection. He spares her body; but the war he has waged against her\nmind, her heart, and her soul, has been no less destructive to her as\na moral being. How monstrous, how anti-christian, is the doctrine that\nwoman is to be dependent on man! Where, in all the sacred Scriptures,\nis this taught? Alas! she has too well learned the lesson which MAN has\nlabored to teach her. She has surrendered her dearest RIGHTS, and been\nsatisfied with the privileges which man has assumed to grant her; she\nhas been amused with the show of power, whilst man has absorbed all the\nreality into himself. He has adorned the creature whom God gave him as\na companion, with baubles and gewgaws, turned her attention to personal\nattractions, offered incense to her vanity, and made her the instrument\nof his selfish gratification, a play-thing to please his eye and amuse\nhis hours of leisure. \u2018Rule by obedience and by submission sway,\u2019 or\nin other words, study to be a hypocrite, pretend to submit, but gain\nyour point, has been the code of household morality which woman has\nbeen taught. The poet has sung, in sickly strains, the loveliness of\nwoman\u2019s dependence upon man, and now we find it re-echoed by those who\nprofess to teach the religion of the Bible. God says, \u2018Cease ye from\nman whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted\nof?\u2019 Man says, depend upon me. God says, \u2018HE will teach us of his\nways.\u2019 Man says, believe it not, I am to be your teacher. This doctrine\nof dependence upon man is utterly at variance with the doctrine of the\nBible. In that book I find nothing like the softness of woman, nor the\nsternness of man: both are equally commanded to bring forth the fruits\nof the Spirit, love, meekness, gentleness, &c.\n\nBut we are told, \u2018the power of woman is in her dependence, flowing\nfrom a consciousness of that weakness which God has given her for her\nprotection.\u2019 If physical weakness is alluded to, I cheerfully concede\nthe superiority; if brute force is what my brethren are claiming, I am\nwilling to let them have all the honor they desire; but if they mean\nto intimate, that mental or moral weakness belongs to woman, more than\nto man, I utterly disclaim the charge. Our powers of mind have been\ncrushed, as far as man could do it, our sense of morality has been\nimpaired by his interpretation of our duties; but no where does God\nsay that he made any distinction between us, as moral and intelligent\nbeings.\n\n\u2018We appreciate,\u2019 say the Association, \u2018the _unostentatious_ prayers\nand efforts of woman in advancing the cause of religion at home and\nabroad, in leading religious inquirers TO THE PASTOR for instruction.\u2019\nSeveral points here demand attention. If public prayers and public\nefforts are necessarily ostentatious, then \u2018Anna the prophetess, (or\npreacher,) who departed not from the temple, but served God with\nfastings and prayers night and day,\u2019 \u2018and spake of Christ to all them\nthat looked for redemption in Israel,\u2019 was ostentatious in her efforts.\nThen, the apostle Paul encourages women to be ostentatious in their\nefforts to spread the gospel, when he gives them directions how they\nshould appear, when engaged in praying, or preaching in the public\nassemblies. Then, the whole association of Congregational ministers are\nostentatious, in the efforts they are making in preaching and praying\nto convert souls.\n\nBut woman may be permitted to lead religious inquirers to the PASTORS\nfor instruction. Now this is assuming that all pastors are better\nqualified to give instruction than woman. This I utterly deny. I have\nsuffered too keenly from the teaching of man, to lead any one to him\nfor instruction. The Lord Jesus says,--\u2018Come unto me and learn of me.\u2019\nHe points his followers to no man; and when woman is made the favored\ninstrument of rousing a sinner to his lost and helpless condition,\nshe has no right to substitute any teacher for Christ; all she has to\ndo is, to turn the contrite inquirer to the \u2018Lamb of God which taketh\naway the sins of the world.\u2019 More souls have probably been lost by\ngoing down to Egypt for help, and by trusting in man in the early\nstages of religious experience, than by any other error. Instead of\nthe petition being offered to God,--\u2018Lead me in thy truth, and TEACH\nme, for thou art the God of my salvation,\u2019--instead of relying on the\nprecious promises--\u2018What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall\nHE TEACH in the way that he shall choose\u2019--\u2018I will instruct thee and\nTEACH thee in the way which thou shalt go--I will guide thee with mine\neye\u2019--the young convert is directed to go to man, as if he were in\nthe place of God, and his instructions essential to an advancement in\nthe path of righteousness. That woman can have but a poor conception\nof the privilege of being taught of God, what he alone can teach, who\nwould turn the \u2018religious inquirer aside\u2019 from the fountain of living\nwaters, where he might slake his thirst for spiritual instruction, to\nthose broken cisterns which can hold no water, and therefore cannot\nsatisfy the panting spirit. The business of men and women, who are\nORDAINED OF GOD to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to a lost\nand perishing world, is to lead souls to Christ, and not to Pastors for\ninstruction.\n\nThe General Association say, that \u2018when woman assumes the place and\ntone of man as a public reformer, our care and protection of her seem\nunnecessary; we put ourselves in self-defence against her, and her\ncharacter becomes unnatural.\u2019 Here again the unscriptural notion is\nheld up, that there is a distinction between the duties of men and\nwomen as moral beings; that what is virtue in man, is vice in woman;\nand women who dare to obey the command of Jehovah, \u2018Cry aloud, spare\nnot, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their\ntransgression,\u2019 are threatened with having the protection of the\nbrethren withdrawn. If this is all they do, we shall not even know\nthe time when our chastisement is inflicted; our trust is in the Lord\nJehovah, and in him is ever-lasting strength. The motto of woman, when\nshe is engaged in the great work of public reformation should be,--\u2018The\nLord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the\nstrength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?\u2019 She must feel, if she\nfeels rightly, that she is fulfilling one of the important duties\nlaid upon her as an accountable being, and that her character, instead\nof being \u2018unnatural,\u2019 is in exact accordance with the will of Him to\nwhom, and to no other, she is responsible for the talents and the gifts\nconfided to her. As to the pretty simile, introduced into the \u2018Pastoral\nLetter,\u2019 \u2018If the vine whose strength and beauty is to lean upon the\ntrellis work, and half conceal its clusters, thinks to assume the\nindependence and the overshadowing nature of the elm,\u2019 &c. I shall only\nremark that it might well suit the poet\u2019s fancy, who sings of sparkling\neyes and coral lips, and knights in armor clad; but it seems to me\nutterly inconsistent with the dignity of a Christian body, to endeavor\nto draw such an anti-scriptural distinction between men and women. Ah!\nhow many of my sex feel in the dominion, thus unrighteously exercised\nover them, under the gentle appellation of _protection_, that what they\nhave leaned upon has proved a broken reed at best, and oft a spear.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER IV.\n\n                   SOCIAL INTERCOURSE OF THE SEXES.\n\n\n                                         _Andover, 7th Mo. 27th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR FRIEND,--Before I proceed with the account of that oppression\nwhich woman has suffered in every age and country from her _protector_,\nman, permit me to offer for your consideration, some views relative\nto the social intercourse of the sexes. Nearly the whole of this\nintercourse is, in my apprehension, derogatory to man and woman, as\nmoral and intellectual beings. We approach each other, and mingle\nwith each other, under the constant pressure of a feeling that we are\nof different sexes; and, instead of regarding each other only in the\nlight of immortal creatures, the mind is fettered by the idea which is\nearly and industriously infused into it, that we must never forget the\ndistinction between male and female. Hence our intercourse, instead\nof being elevated and refined, is generally calculated to excite and\nkeep alive the lowest propensities of our nature. Nothing, I believe,\nhas tended more to destroy the true dignity of woman, than the fact\nthat she is approached by man in the character of a female. The idea\nthat she is sought as an intelligent and heaven-born creature, whose\nsociety will cheer, refine and elevate her companion, and that she\nwill receive the same blessings she confers, is rarely held up to her\nview. On the contrary, man almost always addresses himself to the\nweakness of woman. By flattery, by an appeal to her passions, he seeks\naccess to her heart; and when he has gained her affections, he uses\nher as the instrument of his pleasure--the minister of his temporal\ncomfort. He furnishes himself with a housekeeper, whose chief business\nis in the kitchen, or the nursery. And whilst he goes abroad and\nenjoys the means of improvement afforded by collision of intellect\nwith cultivated minds, his wife is condemned to draw nearly all her\ninstruction from books, if she has time to peruse them; and if not,\nfrom her meditations, whilst engaged in those domestic duties, which\nare necessary for the comfort of her lord and master.\n\nSurely no one who contemplates, with the eye of a Christian\nphilosopher, the design of God in the creation of woman, can believe\nthat she is now fulfilling that design. The literal translation of the\nword \u2018help-meet\u2019 is a helper like unto himself; it is so rendered in\nthe Septuagint, and manifestly signifies a companion. Now I believe\nit will be impossible for woman to fill the station assigned her by\nGod, until her brethren mingle with her as an equal, as a moral being;\nand lose, in the dignity of her immortal nature, and in the fact of\nher bearing like himself the image and superscription of her God, the\nidea of her being a female. The apostle beautifully remarks, \u2018As many\nof you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There\nis neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is\nneither _male_ nor _female_; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.\u2019 Until\nour intercourse is purified by the forgetfulness of sex,--until we rise\nabove the present low and sordid views which entwine themselves around\nour social and domestic interchange of sentiment and feelings, we never\ncan derive that benefit from each other\u2019s society which it is the\ndesign of our Creator that we should. Man has inflicted an unspeakable\ninjury upon woman, by holding up to her view her animal nature, and\nplacing in the back ground her moral and intellectual being. Woman has\ninflicted an injury upon herself by submitting to be thus regarded; and\nshe is now called upon to rise from the station where _man_, not God,\nhas placed her, and claim those sacred and inalienable rights, as a\nmoral and responsible being, with which her Creator has invested her.\n\nWhat but these views, so derogatory to the character of woman, could\nhave called forth the remark contained in the Pastoral Letter?\n\u2018We especially deplore the intimate acquaintance and promiscuous\nconversation of _females_ with regard to things \u201cwhich ought not to\nbe named,\u201d by which that modesty and delicacy, which is the charm of\ndomestic life, and which constitutes the true influence of woman,\nis consumed.\u2019 How wonderful that the conceptions of man relative to\nwoman are so low, that he cannot perceive that she may converse on any\nsubject connected with the improvement of her species, without swerving\nin the least from that modesty which is one of her greatest virtues!\nIs it designed to insinuate that woman should possess a greater degree\nof modesty than man? This idea I utterly reprobate. Or is it supposed\nthat woman cannot go into scenes of misery, the necessary result of\nthose very things, which the Pastoral Letter says ought not to be\nnamed, for the purpose of moral reform, without becoming contaminated\nby those with whom she thus mingles?\n\nThis is a false position; and I presume has grown out of the\nnever-forgotten distinction of male and female. The woman who goes\nforth, clad in the panoply of God, to stem the tide of iniquity and\nmisery, which she beholds rolling through our land, goes not forth to\nher labor of love as a female. She goes as the dignified messenger of\nJehovah, and all she does and says must be done and said irrespective\nof sex. She is in duty bound to communicate with all, who are able and\nwilling to aid her in saving her fellow creatures, both men and women,\nfrom that destruction which awaits them.\n\nSo far from woman losing any thing of the purity of her mind, by\nvisiting the wretched victims of vice in their miserable abodes, by\ntalking with them, or of them, she becomes more and more elevated and\nrefined in her feelings and views. While laboring to cleanse the minds\nof others from the malaria of moral pollution, her own heart becomes\npurified, and her soul rises to nearer communion with her God. Such a\nwoman is infinitely better qualified to fulfil the duties of a wife and\na mother, than the woman whose _false delicacy_ leads her to shun her\nfallen sister and brother, and shrink from _naming those sins_ which\nshe knows exist, but which she is too fastidious to labor by deed and\nby word to exterminate. Such a woman feels when she enters upon the\nmarriage relation, that God designed that relation not to debase her\nto a level with the animal creation, but to increase the happiness and\ndignity of his creatures. Such a woman comes to the important task of\ntraining her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, with a\nsoul filled with the greatness of the beings committed to her charge.\nShe sees in her children, creatures bearing the image of God; and she\napproaches them with reverence, and treats them at all times as moral\nand accountable beings. Her own mind being purified and elevated, she\ninstils into her children that genuine religion which induces them to\nkeep the commandments of God. Instead of ministering with ceaseless\ncare to their sensual appetites, she teaches them to be temperate in\nall things. She can converse with her children on any subject relating\nto their duty to God, can point their attention to those vices which\ndegrade and brutify human nature, without in the least defiling her\nown mind or theirs. She views herself, and teaches her children to\nregard themselves as moral beings; and in all their intercourse with\ntheir fellow men, to lose the animal nature of man and woman, in the\nrecognition of that immortal mind wherewith Jehovah has blessed and\n                            enriched them.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                               LETTER V.\n\n                     CONDITION IN ASIA AND AFRICA.\n\n\n                                           _Groton, 8th Mo. 4th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--I design to devote this letter to a brief examination\nof the condition of women in Asia and Africa. I believe it will be\nfound that men, in the exercise of their usurped dominion over woman,\nhave almost invariably done one of two things. They have either made\nslaves of the creatures whom God designed to be their companions and\ntheir coadjutors in every moral and intellectual improvement, or they\nhave dressed them like dolls, and used them as toys to amuse their\nhours of recreation.\n\nI shall commence by stating the degrading practice of SELLING WOMEN,\nwhich we find prevalent in almost all the Eastern nations.\n\nAmong the Jews,--\n\n \u2018Whoever wished for a wife must pay the parents for her, or perform\n a stipulated period of service; sometimes the parties were solemnly\n betrothed in childhood, and the price of the bride stipulated.\u2019\n\nIn Babylon, they had a yearly custom of a peculiar kind.\n\n \u2018In every district, three men, respectable for their virtue, were\n chosen to conduct all the marriageable girls to the public assembly.\n Here they were put up at auction by the public crier, while the\n magistrate presided over the sales. The most beautiful were sold\n first, and the rich contended eagerly for a choice. The most ugly,\n or deformed girl was sold next in succession to the handsomest, and\n assigned to any person who would take her with the least sum of money.\n The price given for the beautiful was divided into dowries for the\n homely.\u2019\n\nTwo things may here be noticed; first, the value set upon personal\ncharms, just as a handsome horse commands a high price; and second, the\nutter disregard which is manifested towards the feelings of woman.\n\n \u2018In no part of the world does the condition of women appear more\n dreary than in Hindostan. The arbitrary power of a father disposes\n of them in childhood. When they are married, their husbands have\n despotic control over them; if unable to support them, they can lend\n or sell them to a neighbor, and in the Hindoo rage for gambling, wives\n and children are frequently staked and lost. If they survive their\n husbands, they must pay implicit obedience to the oldest son; if they\n have no sons, the nearest male relation holds them in subjection; and\n if there happen to be no kinsmen, they must be dependent on the chief\n of the tribe.\u2019\n\nEven the English, who are numerous in Hindostan, have traded in women.\n\n \u2018India has been a great marriage market, on account of the emigration\n of young enterprising Englishmen, without a corresponding number\n of women. Some persons actually imported women to the British\n settlements, in order to sell them to rich Europeans, or nabobs, who\n would give a good price for them. How the importers acquired a right\n thus to dispose of them is not mentioned; it is probable that the\n women themselves, from extreme poverty, or some other cause, consented\n to become articles of speculation, upon consideration of receiving a\n certain remuneration. In September, 1818, the following advertisement\n appeared in the Calcutta Advertiser:\n\n FEMALES RAFFLED FOR.\n\n Be it known, that six fair pretty young ladies, with two sweet\n engaging children, lately imported from Europe, having the roses of\n health blooming on their cheeks, and joy sparkling in their eyes,\n possessing amiable tempers and highly accomplished, whom the most\n indifferent cannot behold without rapture, are to be raffled for next\n door to the British gallery.\u2019\n\nThe enemy of all good could not have devised a better means of debasing\nan immortal creature, than by turning her into a saleable commodity;\nand hence we find that wherever this custom prevails, woman is regarded\nas a mere machine to answer the purposes of domestic combat or sensual\nindulgence, or to gratify the taste of her oppressor by a display of\npersonal attractions.\n\n  \u2018Weighed in the balance with a tyrant\u2019s gold,\n  Though nature cast her in a heavenly mould.\u2019\n\nI shall now take a brief survey of the EMPLOYMENTS of women in Asia\nand Africa. In doing this, I have two objects in view; first to show,\nthat women are capable of acquiring as great physical power as men,\nand secondly to show, that they have been more or less the victims of\noppression and contempt.\n\n \u2018The occupations of the ancient Jewish women were laborious. They\n spent their time in spinning and weaving cloth for garments, and for\n the covering of the tents, in cooking the food, tending the flocks,\n grinding the corn, and drawing water from the wells.\u2019\n\nOf Trojan women we know little, but we find that--\n\n \u2018Andromache, though a princess and well beloved by her husband, fed\n and took care of the horses of Hector.\u2019\n\nSo in Persia, women of the middling class see that proper care is taken\nof the horses. They likewise do all the laborious part of the house\nwork.\n\n \u2018The Hindoo women are engaged in every variety of occupation,\n according to the caste of their husbands. They cultivate the land,\n make baskets and mats, bring water in jars, carry manure and various\n other articles to market in baskets on their heads, cook food, tend\n children, weave cloth, reel thread and wind cocoons.\u2019\n\n \u2018The Thibetian women of the laboring classes are inured to a great\n deal of toil. They plant, weed, reap, and thresh grain, and are\n exposed to the roughest weather, while their indolent husbands are\n perhaps living at their ease.\u2019\n\n \u2018Females of the lower classes among the Chinese endure as much labor\n and fatigue as the men. A wife sometimes drags the plough in rice\n fields with an infant tied upon her back, while her husband performs\n the less arduous task of holding the plough.\u2019\n\n \u2018The Tartar women in general perform a greater share of labor than the\n men; for it is a prevalent opinion that they were sent into the world\n for no other purpose, but to be useful and convenient SLAVES to the\n stronger sex.\u2019 \u2018Among some of the Tartar tribes of the present day,\n females manage a horse, hurl a javelin, hunt wild animals, and fight\n an enemy as well as the men.\u2019\n\n \u2018In the island of Sumatra, the women do all the work, while their\n husbands lounge in idleness, playing on the flute, with wreaths of\n globe amaranth on their heads, or racing with each other, without\n saddle or stirrup, or hunting deer, or gambling away their wives,\n their children, or themselves. The Battas consider their wives and\n children as slaves, and sell them whenever they choose.\u2019\n\n \u2018The Moors are indolent to excess. They lie whole days upon their\n mats, sleeping and smoking, while the women and slaves perform all the\n labor. Owing to their uncleanly habits, they are much infested with\n vermin; and as they consider it beneath their dignity to remove this\n annoyance, the task is imposed on the women. They are very impatient\n and tyrannical, and for the slightest offence beat their wives most\n cruelly.\u2019\n\nIn looking over the condition of woman as delineated in this letter,\nhow amply do we find the prophecy of Jehovah to Eve fulfilled, \u2018Thy\nhusband will rule over thee.\u2019 And yet we perceive that where the\nphysical strength of woman is called into exercise, there is no\ninferiority even in this respect; she performs the labor, while man\nenjoys what are termed the pleasures of life.\n\nI have thought it necessary to adduce various proofs of my assertion,\nthat men have always in some way regarded women as mere instruments of\nselfish gratification; and hope this sorrowful detail of the wrongs of\nwoman will not be tedious to thee.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER VI.\n\n                       WOMEN IN ASIA AND AFRICA.\n\n\n                                          _Groton, 8th Mo. 15th, 1837._\n\nDEAR FRIEND,--In pursuing the history of woman in different ages and\ncountries, it will be necessary to exhibit her in all the various\nsituations in which she has been placed.\n\nWe find her sometimes _filling the throne_, and exercising the\nfunctions of royalty. The name of Semiramis is familiar to every\nreader of ancient history. She succeeded Ninus in the government of\nthe Assyrian empire; and to render her name immortal, built the city\nof Babylon. Two millions of men were constantly employed upon it.\nCertain dykes built by order of this queen, to defend the city from\ninundations, are spoken of as admirable.\n\nNicotris, wife of Nabonadius, the Evil-Merodach of Scripture, was a\nwoman of great endowments. While her husband indulged in a life of ease\nand pleasure, she managed the affairs of state with wisdom and prudence.\n\n \u2018Zenobia queen of Palmyra and the East, is the most remarkable\n among Asiatic women. Her genius struggled with and overcame all the\n obstacles presented by oriental laws and customs. She knew the Latin,\n Greek, Syriac, and Egyptian languages; and had drawn up for her own\n use an abridgement of oriental history. She was the companion and\n friend of her husband, and accompanied him on his hunting excursions\n with eagerness and courage equal to his own. She despised the\n effeminacy of a covered carriage, and often appeared on horseback in\n military costume. Sometimes she marched several miles on foot, at the\n head of the troops. Having revenged the murder of her husband, she\n ascended the throne, and for five years governed Palmyra, Syria, and\n the East, with wonderful steadiness and wisdom.\u2019\n\n \u2018Previous to the introduction of Mohammedism into Java, women often\n held the highest offices of government; and when the chief of a\n district dies, it is even now not uncommon for the widow to retain the\n authority that belonged to her deceased husband.\u2019\n\nOther instances might be adduced to prove that there is no natural\ninferiority in woman. Not that I approve of woman\u2019s holding the reins\nof government over man. I maintain that they are equal, and that God\nnever invested fallen man with unlimited power over his fellow man;\nand I rejoice that circumstances have prevented woman from being more\ndeeply involved in the guilt which appears to be inseparable from\npolitical affairs. The few instances which I have mentioned prove\nthat intellect is not sexed; and doubtless if woman had not almost\nuniversally been depressed and degraded, the page of history would have\nexhibited as many eminent statesmen and politicians among women as\nmen. We are much in the situation of the slave. Man has asserted and\nassumed authority over us. He has, by virtue of his power, deprived\nus of the advantages of improvement which he has lavishly bestowed\nupon himself, and then, after having done all he can to take from\nus the means of proving our equality, and our capability of mental\ncultivation, he throws upon us the burden of proof that God created man\nand woman equal, and endowed them, without any reference to sex, with\nintelligence and responsibilities, as rational and accountable beings.\nHence in Hindostan, even women of the higher classes are forbidden to\nread or write; because the Hindoos think it would inevitably spoil them\nfor domestic life, and assuredly bring some great misfortune upon them.\nMay we not trace to the same feeling, the disadvantages under which\nwomen labor even in this country, for want of an education, which would\ncall into exercise the powers of her mind, and fortify her soul with\nthose great moral principles by which she would be qualified to fill\n_every_ department in _social_, _domestic_ and _religious_ life with\ndignity?\n\nIn Hindostan, the evidence of women is not received in a court of\njustice.\n\nIn Burmah, their testimony is not deemed equal to that of a man, and\nthey are not allowed to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but are\nobliged to give their testimony outside of the building.\n\nIn Siberia, women are not allowed to step across the foot-prints of\nmen, or reindeer; they are not allowed to eat with men, or to partake\nof particular dainties. Among many tribes, they seem to be regarded as\nimpure, unholy beings.\n\n \u2018The Mohammedan law forbids pigs, dogs, women and other impure animals\n to enter a mosque; and the hour of prayers must not be proclaimed by a\n female, a madman, a drunkard, or a decrepit person.\u2019\n\nHere I am reminded of the resemblance between the situation of women in\nheathen and Mohammedan countries, and our brethren and sisters of color\nin this Christian land, where they are despised and cast out as though\nthey were unclean. And on precisely the same ground, because they are\nsaid to be inferior.\n\nThe treatment of women as wives is almost uniformly the same in all\nheathen countries.\n\nThe ancient Lydians are the only exception that I have met with, and\nthe origin of their peculiar customs is so much obscured by fable, that\nit is difficult to ascertain the truth. Probably they arose from some\ngreat benefit conferred on the state by women.\n\nAmong the Druses who reside in the mountains of the Anti Libanus,\na wife is often divorced on the slightest pretext. If she ask her\nhusband\u2019s permission to go out, and he says,--\u2018Go,\u2019 without adding \u2018but\ncome back again,\u2019 she is divorced.\n\nIn Siberia, it is considered a wife\u2019s duty to obey the most capricious\nand unreasonable demands of her husband, without one word of\nexpostulation or inquiry. If her master be dissatisfied with the most\ntrifling particular in her conduct, he tears the cap or veil from her\nhead, and this constitutes a divorce.\n\nA Persian woman, under the dominion of the kindest master, is treated\nmuch in the same manner as a favorite animal. To vary her personal\ngraces for his pleasure, is the sole end and aim of her existence.\nAs moral or intellectual beings, it would be better for them to be\namong the dead than the living. The mother instructs her daughter in\nall the voluptuous coquetry, by which she herself acquired precarious\nascendency over her absolute master; but all that is truly estimable in\nfemale character is utterly neglected.\n\nHence we find women extravagantly fond of adorning their persons.\nRegarded as instruments of pleasure, they have been degraded into mere\nanimals, and have found their own gratification principally in the\nindulgence of personal vanity, because their external charms procured\nfor them, at least a temporary ascendency over those, who held in their\nhands the reins of government. A few instances must suffice, or I shall\nexceed the limits I have prescribed to myself in this letter.\n\nDuring the magnificent prosperity of Israel, marriages were conducted\nwith great pomp; and with the progress of luxury and refinement, women\nbecame expensive, rather than profitable in a pecuniary point of view.\nHence probably arose the custom of wealthy parents giving a handsome\ndowry with their daughters. On the day of the nuptials, the bride was\nconducted by her female relations to the bath, where she was anointed\nwith the choicest perfumes, her hair perfumed and braided, her eyebrows\ndeepened with black powder, and the tips of her fingers tinged with\nrose color. She was then arrayed in a marriage robe of brilliant color;\nthe girdle and bracelets were more or less costly.\n\nNotwithstanding the Chinese women have no opportunity to rival each\nother in the conquest of hearts, they are nevertheless very fond of\nornaments. Bunches of silver or gilt flowers are always interspersed\namong their ringlets, and sometimes they wear the Chinese ph\u0153nix made\nof silver gilt. It moves with the slightest motion of the wearer,\nand the spreading tail forms a glittering aigrette on the middle of\nthe head, and the wings wave over the front. Yet a Chinese ballad\nsays,--The pearls and precious stones, the silk and gold with which\na coquette so studiously bedecks herself, are a transparent varnish\nwhich makes all her defects the more apparent.\n\nThe Moorish women have generally a great passion for ornament. They\ndecorate their persons with heavy gold ear-rings, necklaces of amber,\ncoral and gold; gold bracelets; gold chains and silver bells for the\nankles; rings on the fingers, &c. &c. The poorer class wear glass beads\naround the head, and curl the hair in large ringlets. Men are proud of\nhaving their wives handsomely dressed.\n\nThe Moors are not peculiar in this fancy. Christian men still admire\nwomen who adorn their persons to gratify the lust of the eye and the\npride of life. Women, says a Brahminical expositor, are characterized\nby an inordinate love of jewels, fine clothes, &c. &c. I cannot deny\nthis charge, but it is only one among many instances, wherein men\nhave reproached us with those very faults and vices which their own\ntreatment has engendered. Is it any matter of surprise that women,\nwhen unnaturally deprived of the means of cultivating their minds, of\nobjects which would elevate and refine their passions and affections,\nshould seek gratification in the toys and the trifles which now too\ngenerally engage their attention?\n\nI cannot close this, without acknowledging the assistance and\ninformation I have derived, and shall continue to derive on this part\nof my subject, from a valuable work entitled \u2018Condition of Women, by\nLydia M. Child.\u2019 It is worth the perusal of every one who is interested\nin the subject.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER VII.\n\n            CONDITION IN SOME PARTS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA.\n\n\n                                       _Brookline, 8th Mo., 22d, 1837._\n\nDEAR SISTER,--I now come to the consideration of the condition of woman\nin Europe.--In this portion of the world, she does not appear to have\nbeen as uniformly or as deeply debased, as in Eastern countries; yet we\nshall find little in her history which can yield us satisfaction, when\nwe regard the high station she was designed to occupy as a _moral and\nintellectual_ being.\n\nIn Greece, if we may judge from what Eustathius says, \u2018women should\nkeep within doors, and there talk,\u2019--we may conclude, that in general\ntheir occupations were chiefly domestic. Thucydides also declares, that\n\u2018she was the best woman, of whom the least was said, either of good\nor of harm.\u2019 The heathen philosophers doubtless wished to keep woman\nin her \u2018_appropriate sphere_;\u2019 and we find our clerical brethren of\nthe present day re-echoing these pagan sentiments, and endeavoring to\ndrive woman from the field of moral labor and intellectual culture,\nto occupy her talents in the pursuit of those employments which will\nenable her to regale the palate of her lord with the delicacies of the\ntable, and in every possible way minister to his animal comfort and\ngratification. In my humble opinion, woman has long enough subserved\nthe interests of man; and in the spirit of self-sacrifice, submitted\nalmost without remonstrance to his oppression; and now that her\nattention is solicited to the subject of her rights, her privileges\nand her duties, I would entreat her to double her diligence in the\nperformance of all her obligations as a _wife_, a _mother_, a _sister_,\nand a _daughter_. Let us remember that our claim to stand on perfect\nequality with our brethren, can only be substantiated by a scrupulous\nattention to our domestic duties, as well as by aiding in the great\nwork of moral reformation--a work which is now calling for the energies\nand consecrated powers of every man and woman who desires to see the\nRedeemer\u2019s kingdom established on earth. That man must indeed be narrow\nminded, and can have but a poor conception of the power of moral truth\non the female heart, who supposes that a correct view of her own rights\ncan make woman _less solicitous to fill up every department of duty_.\nIf it should have this effect, it must be because she has not taken a\ncomprehensive view of the whole subject.\n\nIn the history of Rome, we find a little spot of sunshine in the\nvalley where woman has been destined to live, unable from her lowly\nsituation to take an expansive view of that field of moral and mental\nimprovement, which she should have been busy in cultivating.\n\n \u2018In the earliest and best days of Rome, the first magistrates and\n generals of armies ploughed their own fields, and threshed their own\n grain. Integrity, industry and simplicity, were the prevailing virtues\n of the times; and the character of woman was, as it always must be,\n graduated in a degree by that of man. Columella says, Roman husbands,\n having completed the labors of the day, entered their houses free\n from all care, and there enjoyed perfect repose. There reigned union\n and concord and industry, supported by mutual affections. The most\n beautiful woman depended for distinction on her economy and endeavors\n to assist in crowning her husband\u2019s diligence with prosperity. All was\n in common between them; nothing was thought to belong more to one than\n another. The wife by her assiduity and activity within doors, equalled\n and seconded the industry and labor of her husband.\u2019\n\nIn the then state of the world, we may conclude from this description,\nthat woman enjoyed as much happiness as was consistent with that\ncomparatively unimproved condition of our species; but now a new and\nvast sphere of usefulness is opened to her, and she is pressed by\nsurrounding circumstances to come up to the help of the Lord against\nthe giant sins which desolate our beloved country. Shall woman shrink\nfrom duty in this exigency, and retiring within her own domestic\ncircle, delight herself in the abundance of her own selfish enjoyments?\nShall she rejoice in her home, her husband, her children, and forget\nher brethren and sisters in bondage, who know not what it is to call a\nspot of earth their own, whose husbands and wives are torn from them by\nrelentless tyrants, and whose children are snatched from their arms by\ntheir unfeeling task-masters, whenever interest, or convenience, tempts\nthem to this sacrilegious act? Shall woman disregard the situation of\nthousands of her fellow creatures, who are the victims of intemperance\nand licentiousness, and retreating to the privacy of her own\ncomfortable home, be satisfied that her whole duty is performed, when\nshe can exhibit \u2018her children well clad and smiling, and her table\nneatly spread with wholesome provisions?\u2019 Shall she, because \u2018her house\nis her _home_,\u2019 refuse her aid and her sympathy to the down trodden\nslave, to the poor unhappy outcasts who are deprived of those blessings\nwhich she so highly prizes? Did God give her those blessings to steel\nher heart to the sufferings of her fellow creatures? Did he grant\nher the possession of husband and children, to dry up the fountains\nof feeling for those who know not the consolations of tenderness and\nreciprocal affection? Ah no! for every such blessing, God demands a\ngrateful heart; and woman must be recreant to her duty, if she can\nquietly sit down in the enjoyments of her own domestic circle, and not\nexert herself to procure the same happiness for others.\n\nBut it is said woman has a mighty weapon in secret prayer. She has, I\nacknowledge, _in common with man_; but the woman who prays in sincerity\nfor the regeneration of this guilty world, will accompany her prayers\nby her labors. A friend of mine remarked--\u2018I was sitting in my chamber,\nweeping over the miseries of the slave, and putting up my petitions\nfor his deliverance from bondage; when in the midst of my meditations,\nit occurred to me that my tears, unaided by effort, could never melt\nthe chain of the slave. I must be up and doing.\u2019 She is now an active\nabolitionist--her prayers and her works go hand in hand.\n\nI am here reminded of what a slave once said to his master, a Methodist\nminister. The slaveholder inquired, \u2018How did you like my sermon\nto-day?\u2019 \u2018Very good, master, but it did not preach me free.\u2019\n\nOh, my sisters, suffer me to entreat you to assert your privileges, and\nto perform your duties as moral beings. Be not dismayed at the ridicule\nof man; it is a weapon worthy only of little minds, and is employed by\nthose who feel that they cannot convince our judgment. Be not alarmed\nat contumely, or scorn; we must expect this. I pray that we may meet\nit with forbearance and love; and that nothing may drive us from the\nperformance of our high and holy duties. Let us \u2018cease from man, whose\nbreath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?\u2019 and\npress forward in all the great moral enterprises of the age, leaning\n_only_ on the arm of our Beloved.\n\nBut I must return to the subject I commenced with, viz. the condition\nof woman in Europe.\n\n \u2018The northern nations bore a general resemblance to each other. War\n and hunting were considered the only honorable occupations for men,\n and all other employments were left to women and slaves. Even the\n Visigoths, on the coasts of Spain, left their fields and flocks to\n the care of women. The people who inhabit the vast extent of country\n between the Black sea and the North sea, are divided into various\n distinct races. The women are generally very industrious; even in\n their walks, they carry a portable distaff, and spin every step of the\n way. Both Croatian and Walachian women perform all the agricultural\n operations in addition to their own domestic concerns.\u2019\n\nSpeaking of the Morlachian women, M. Fortis says, \u2018Being treated like\nbeasts of burden, and expected to endure submissively every species\nof hardship, they naturally become very dirty and careless in their\nhabits.\u2019\n\nThe Cossack women afford a contrast to this disgusting picture.\nThey are very cleanly and industrious, and in the absence of their\nhusbands, supply their places by taking charge of all their usual\noccupations, in addition to their own. It is rare for a Cossack woman\nnot to know some trade, such as dyeing cloth, tanning leather, &c.\n\nThe condition of Polish and Russian serfs in modern times is about\nthe same. The Polish women have scarcely clothing enough for decency,\nand they are subjected to great hardships and privations. \u2018In Russia,\nwomen have been seen paving the streets, and performing other similar\ndrudgery. In Finland, they work like beasts of burden, and may be\nseen for hours in snow water, up to the middle, tugging at boats and\nsledges.\u2019\n\nIn Flanders and in France, women are engaged in performing laborious\ntasks; and even in England, it is not unusual to see them scraping up\nmanure from the streets with their hands, and gathering it into baskets.\n\nIn Greece, even now the women plough and carry heavy burdens, while the\nlordly master of the family may be seen walking before them without any\nincumbrance.[1]\n\nGenerally speaking, however, there is much more comparative equality of\nlabor between the sexes in Europe than among the Orientals.\n\nI shall close this letter with a brief survey of the condition of women\namong the Aborigines of America.\n\n \u2018Before America was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by Indian\n tribes, which greatly resembled each other in the treatment of their\n women. Every thing, except war and hunting, was considered beneath the\n dignity of man.--During long and wearisome marches, women were obliged\n to carry children, provisions and hammocks on their shoulders; they\n had the sole care of the horses and dogs, cut wood, pitched the tents,\n raised the corn, and made the clothing. When the husband killed game,\n he left it by a tree in the forest, returned home, and sent his wife\n several miles in search of it. In most of the tribes, women were not\n allowed to eat and drink with men, but stood and served them, and then\n ate what they left.\u2019\n\nThe following affecting anecdote may give some idea of the sufferings\nof these women:\n\n \u2018Father Joseph reproved a female savage for destroying her infant\n daughter. She replied, \u201cI wish my mother had thus prevented the\n manifold sufferings I have endured. Consider, father, our deplorable\n situation. Our husbands go out to hunt; we are dragged along with one\n infant at our breast, and another in a basket. Though tired with long\n walking, we are not allowed to sleep when we return, but must labor\n all night in grinding maize and making chica for them.--They get drunk\n and beat us, draw us by the hair of the head, and tread us under foot.\n Would to God my mother had put me under ground the moment I was born.\u201d\u2019\n\nIn Greenland, the situation of woman is equally deplorable. The men\nhunt bears and catch seals; but when they have towed their booty to\nland, they would consider it a disgrace to help the women drag it home,\nor skin and dress it. They often stand and look idly on, while their\nwives are staggering beneath the load that almost bends them to the\nearth. The women are cooks, butchers, masons, curriers, shoemakers and\ntailors. They will manage a boat in the roughest seas, and will often\npush off from the shore in the midst of a storm, that would make the\nhardiest European sailor tremble.\n\nThe page of history teems with woman\u2019s wrongs, and it is wet with\nwoman\u2019s tears.--For the sake of my degraded sex every where, and for\nthe sake of my brethren, who suffer just in proportion as they place\nwoman lower in the scale of creation than man, lower than her Creator\nplaced her, I entreat my sisters to arise in all the majesty of moral\npower, in all the dignity of immortal beings, and plant themselves,\nside by side, on the platform of human rights, with man, to whom they\nwere designed to be companions, equals and helpers in every good word\n                                                              and work.\n\n                                        Thine in the bonds of womanhood\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Since the preceding letters were in type, I have met with the\nfollowing account in a French work entitled \u2018De l\u2019education des meres\nde famille ou de la civilization du Genre Humain par les femmes,\u2019\nprinted at Brussels in 1837. \u2018The periodicals have lately published\nthe following circumstance from the journal of an English physician,\nwho travelled in the East. He visited a slave market, where he saw\nabout twenty Greek women half naked, lying on the ground waiting for\na purchaser. One of them attracted the attention of an old Turk. The\nbarbarian examined her shoulders, her legs, her ears, her mouth, her\nneck, with the minutest care, just as a horse is examined, and during\nthe inspection, the merchant praised the beauty of her eyes, the\nelegance of her shape, and other perfections; he protested that the\npoor girl was but thirteen years of age, &c. After a severe scrutiny\nand some dispute about the price, she was sold body and soul for 1375\nfrancs. The soul, it is true, was accounted of little value in the\nbargain. The unfortunate creature, half fainting in the arms of her\nmother, implored help in the most touching accents, but it availed\nnothing.--This infernal scene passed in Europe in 1829, only 600\nleagues from Paris and London, the two capitals of the human species,\nand at the time in which I write, it is the living history of two\nthirds of the inhabitants of the earth.\u2019\n\n\n\n\n                             LETTER VIII.\n\n            ON THE CONDITION OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.\n\n\n                                                     _Brookline, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--I have now taken a brief survey of the condition of\nwoman in various parts of the world. I regret that my time has been so\nmuch occupied by other things, that I have been unable to bestow that\nattention upon the subject which it merits, and that my constant change\nof place has prevented me from having access to books, which might\nprobably have assisted me in this part of my work. I hope that the\nprinciples I have asserted will claim the attention of some of my sex,\nwho may be able to bring into view, more thoroughly than I have done,\nthe situation and degradation of woman. I shall now proceed to make a\nfew remarks on the condition of women in my own country.\n\nDuring the early part of my life, my lot was cast among the\nbutterflies of the _fashionable_ world; and of this class of women,\nI am constrained to say, both from experience and observation, that\ntheir education is miserably deficient; that they are taught to regard\nmarriage as the one thing needful, the only avenue to distinction;\nhence to attract the notice and win the attentions of men, by their\nexternal charms, is the chief business of fashionable girls. They\nseldom think that men will be allured by intellectual acquirements,\nbecause they find, that where any mental superiority exists, a woman\nis generally shunned and regarded as stepping out of her \u2018appropriate\nsphere,\u2019 which, in their view, is to dress, to dance, to set out to the\nbest possible advantage her person, to read the novels which inundate\nthe press, and which do more to destroy her character as a rational\ncreature, than any thing else. Fashionable women regard themselves,\nand are regarded by men, as pretty toys or as mere instruments of\npleasure; and the vacuity of mind, the heartlessness, the frivolity\nwhich is the necessary result of this false and debasing estimate of\nwomen, can only be fully understood by those who have mingled in the\nfolly and wickedness of fashionable life; and who have been called from\nsuch pursuits by the voice of the Lord Jesus, inviting their weary and\nheavy laden souls to come unto Him and learn of Him, that they may\nfind something worthy of their immortal spirit, and their intellectual\npowers; that they may learn the high and holy purposes of their\ncreation, and consecrate themselves unto the service of God; and not,\nas is now the case, to the pleasure of man.\n\nThere is another and much more numerous class in this country, who are\nwithdrawn by education or circumstances from the circle of fashionable\namusements, but who are brought up with the dangerous and absurd\nidea, that _marriage_ is a kind of preferment; and that to be able to\nkeep their husband\u2019s house, and render his situation comfortable, is\nthe end of her being. Much that she does and says and thinks is done\nin reference to this situation; and to be married is too often held\nup to the view of girls as the sine qua non of human happiness and\nhuman existence. For this purpose more than for any other, I verily\nbelieve the majority of girls are trained. This is demonstrated by\nthe imperfect education which is bestowed upon them, and the little\npains taken to cultivate their minds, after they leave school, by the\nlittle time allowed them for reading, and by the idea being constantly\ninculcated, that although all household concerns should be attended\nto with scrupulous punctuality at particular seasons, the improvement\nof their intellectual capacities is only a secondary consideration,\nand may serve as an occupation to fill up the odds and ends of time.\nIn most families, it is considered a matter of far more consequence\nto call a girl off from making a pie, or a pudding, than to interrupt\nher whilst engaged in her studies. This mode of training necessarily\nexalts, in their view, the animal above the intellectual and spiritual\nnature, and teaches women to regard themselves as a kind of machinery,\nnecessary to keep the domestic engine in order, but of little value as\nthe _intelligent_ companions of men.\n\nLet no one think, from these remarks, that I regard a knowledge\nof housewifery as beneath the acquisition of women. Far from it:\nI believe that a complete knowledge of household affairs is an\nindispensable requisite in a woman\u2019s education,--that by the mistress\nof a family, whether married or single, doing her duty thoroughly\nand _understandingly_, the happiness of the family is increased to\nan incalculable degree, as well as a vast amount of time and money\nsaved. All I complain of is, that our education consists so almost\nexclusively in culinary and other manual operations. I do long to see\nthe time, when it will no longer be necessary for women to expend so\nmany precious hours in furnishing \u2018a well spread table,\u2019 but that their\nhusbands will forego some of their accustomed indulgences in this way,\nand encourage their wives to devote some portion of their time to\nmental cultivation, even at the expense of having to dine sometimes on\nbaked potatoes, or bread and butter.\n\nI believe the sentiment expressed by the author of \u2018Live and let Live,\u2019\nis true:\n\n \u2018Other things being equal, a woman of the highest mental endowments\n will always be the best housekeeper, for domestic economy, is a\n science that brings into action the qualities of the mind, as well as\n the graces of the heart. A quick perception, judgment, discrimination,\n decision and order are high attributes of mind, and are all in daily\n exercise in the well ordering of a family. If a sensible woman, an\n intellectual woman, a woman of genius, is not a good housewife, it\n is not because she is either, or all of those, but because there is\n some deficiency in her character, or some omission of duty which\n should make her very humble, instead of her indulging in any secret\n self-complacency on account of a certain superiority, which only\n aggravates her fault.\u2019\n\nThe influence of women over the minds and character of _children_ of\nboth sexes, is allowed to be far greater than that of men. This being\nthe case by the very ordering of nature, women should be prepared by\neducation for the performance of their sacred duties as mothers and as\nsisters. A late American writer,[2] speaking on this subject, says in\nreference to an article in the Westminster Review:\n\n \u2018I agree entirely with the writer in the high estimate which he\n places on female education, and have long since been satisfied,\n that the subject not only merits, but _imperiously demands_ a\n thorough reconsideration. The whole scheme must, in my opinion,\n be reconstructed. The great elements of usefulness and duty are\n too little attended to. Women ought, in my view of the subject,\n to approach to the best education now given to men, (I except\n mathematics and the classics,) far more I believe than has ever yet\n been attempted. Give me a host of educated, pious mothers and sisters,\n and I will do more to revolutionize a country, in moral and religious\n taste, in manners and in social virtues and intellectual cultivation,\n than I can possibly do in double or treble the time, with a similar\n host of educated men. I cannot but think that the miserable condition\n of the great body of the people in all ancient communities, is to be\n ascribed in a very great degree to the degradation of women.\u2019\n\nThere is another way in which the general opinion, that women are\ninferior to men, is manifested, that bears with tremendous effect on\nthe laboring class, and indeed on almost all who are obliged to earn\na subsistence, whether it be by mental or physical exertion--I allude\nto the disproportionate value set on the time and labor of men and\nof women. A man who is engaged in teaching, can always, I believe,\ncommand a higher price for tuition than a woman--even when he teaches\nthe same branches, and is not in any respect superior to the woman.\nThis I know is the case in boarding and other schools with which I\nhave been acquainted, and it is so in every occupation in which the\nsexes engage indiscriminately. As for example, in tailoring, a man has\ntwice, or three times as much for making a waistcoat or pantaloons as\na woman, although the work done by each may be equally good. In those\nemployments which are peculiar to women, their time is estimated at\nonly half the value of that of men. A woman who goes out to wash, works\nas hard in proportion as a wood sawyer, or a coal heaver, but she is\nnot generally able to make more than half as much by a day\u2019s work. The\nlow remuneration which women receive for their work, has claimed the\nattention of a few philanthropists, and I hope it will continue to do\nso until some remedy is applied for this enormous evil. I have known\na widow, left with four or five children, to provide for, unable to\nleave home because her helpless babes demand her attention, compelled\nto earn a scanty subsistence, by making coarse shirts at 12\u00b9\u2044\u2082 cents\na piece, or by taking in washing, for which she was paid by some\nwealthy persons 12\u00b9\u2044\u2082 cents per dozen. All these things evince the\nlow estimation in which woman is held. There is yet another and more\ndisastrous consequence arising from this unscriptural notion--women\nbeing educated, from earliest childhood, to regard themselves as\ninferior creatures, have not that self-respect which conscious equality\nwould engender, and hence when their virtue is assailed, they yield to\ntemptation with facility, under the idea that it rather exalts than\ndebases them, to be connected with a superior being.\n\nThere is another class of women in this country, to whom I cannot\nrefer, without feelings of the deepest shame and sorrow. I allude to\nour female slaves. Our southern cities are whelmed beneath a tide\nof pollution; the virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of\nirresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave\nmarkets, to gratify the brutal lust of those who bear the name of\nChristians. In our slave States, if amid all her degradation and\nignorance, a woman desires to preserve her virtue unsullied, she is\neither bribed or whipped into compliance, or if she dares resist her\nseducer, her life by the laws of some of the slave States may be,\nand has actually been sacrificed to the fury of disappointed passion.\nWhere such laws do not exist, the power which is necessarily vested in\nthe master over his property, leaves the defenceless slave entirely\nat his mercy, and the sufferings of some females on this account,\nboth physical and mental, are intense. Mr. Gholson, in the House of\nDelegates of Virginia, in 1832, said, \u2018He really had been under the\nimpression that he owned his slaves. He had lately purchased four\nwomen and ten children, in whom he thought he had obtained a great\nbargain; for he supposed they were his own property, _as were his\nbrood mares_.\u2019 But even if any laws existed in the United States, as\nin Athens formerly, for the protection of female slaves, they would be\nnull and void, because the evidence of a colored person is not admitted\nagainst a white, in any of our Courts of Justice in the slave States.\n\u2018In Athens, if a female slave had cause to complain of any want of\nrespect to the laws of modesty, she could seek the protection of the\ntemple, and demand a change of owners; and such appeals were never\ndiscountenanced, or neglected by the magistrate.\u2019 In Christian America,\nthe slave has no refuge from unbridled cruelty and lust.\n\nS. A. Forrall, speaking of the state of morals at the South, says,\n\u2018Negresses when young and likely, are often employed by the planter, or\nhis friends, to administer to their sensual desires. This frequently is\na matter of speculation, for if the offspring, a mulatto, be a handsome\nfemale, 800 or 1000 dollars may be obtained for her in the New Orleans\nmarket. It is an occurrence of no uncommon nature to see a Christian\nfather sell his own daughter, and the brother his own sister.\u2019 The\nfollowing is copied by the N. Y. Evening Star from the Picayune, a\npaper published in New Orleans. \u2018A very beautiful girl, belonging to\nthe estate of John French, a deceased gambler at New Orleans, was sold\na few days since for the round sum of $7,000. An ugly-looking bachelor\nnamed Gouch, a member of the Council of one of the Principalities, was\nthe purchaser. The girl is a brunette; remarkable for her beauty and\nintelligence, and there was considerable contention, who should be\nthe purchaser. She was, however, persuaded to accept Gouch, he having\nmade her princely promises.\u2019 I will add but one more from the numerous\ntestimonies respecting the degradation of female slaves, and the\nlicentiousness of the South. It is from the Circular of the Kentucky\nUnion, for the moral and religious improvement of the colored race.\n\u2018To the female character among our black population, we cannot allude\nbut with feelings of the bitterest shame. A similar condition of moral\npollution and utter disregard of a pure and virtuous reputation, is\nto be found _only without the pale of Christendom_. That such a state\nof society should exist in a Christian nation, claiming to be the\nmost enlightened upon earth, without calling forth any _particular\nattention_ to its existence, though ever before our eyes and _in our_\nfamilies, is a moral phenomenon at once unaccountable and disgraceful.\u2019\nNor does the colored woman suffer alone: the moral purity of the white\nwoman is deeply contaminated. In the daily habit of seeing the virtue\nof her enslaved sister sacrificed without hesitancy or remorse, she\nlooks upon the crimes of seduction and illicit intercourse without\nhorror, and although not personally involved in the guilt, she loses\nthat value for innocence in her own, as well as the other sex, which\nis one of the strongest safeguards to virtue. She lives in habitual\nintercourse with men, whom she knows to be polluted by licentiousness,\nand often is she compelled to witness in her own domestic circle, those\ndisgusting and heart-sickening jealousies and strifes which disgraced\nand distracted the family of Abraham. In addition to all this, the\nfemale slaves suffer every species of degradation and cruelty, which\nthe most wanton barbarity can inflict; they are indecently divested\nof their clothing, sometimes tied up and severely whipped, sometimes\nprostrated on the earth, while their naked bodies are torn by the\nscorpion lash.\n\n  \u2018The whip on WOMAN\u2019S shrinking flesh!\n    Our soil yet reddening with the stains\n  Caught from her scourging warm and fresh.\u2019\n\nCan any American woman look at these scenes of shocking licentiousness\nand cruelty, and fold her hands in apathy, and say, \u2018I have nothing to\ndo with slavery\u2019? _She cannot and be guiltless._\n\nI cannot close this letter, without saying a few words on the benefits\nto be derived by men, as well as women, from the opinions I advocate\nrelative to the equality of the sexes. Many women are now supported, in\nidleness and extravagance, by the industry of their husbands, fathers,\nor brothers, who are compelled to toil out their existence, at the\ncounting house, or in the printing office, or some other laborious\noccupation, while the wife and daughters and sisters take no part in\nthe support of the family, and appear to think that their sole business\nis to spend the hard bought earnings of their male friends. I deeply\nregret such a state of things, because I believe that if women felt\ntheir responsibility, for the support of themselves, or their families\nit would add strength and dignity to their characters, and teach\nthem more true sympathy for their husbands, than is now generally\nmanifested,--a sympathy which would be exhibited by actions as well as\nwords. Our brethren may reject my doctrine, because it runs counter\nto common opinions, and because it wounds their pride; but I believe\nthey would be \u2018partakers of the benefit\u2019 resulting from the Equality of\nthe Sexes, and would find that woman, as their equal, was unspeakably\nmore valuable than woman as their inferior, both as a moral and an\nintellectual being.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] Thomas S. Grimke.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER IX.\n\n                 HEROISM OF WOMEN--WOMEN IN AUTHORITY.\n\n\n                                       _Brookline, 8th Mo. 25th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--It seems necessary to glance at the conduct of women\nunder circumstances which place them in juxtaposition with men,\nalthough I regard it as entirely unimportant in proving the moral\nequality of the sexes; because I condemn, in both, the exercise of that\nbrute force which is as contrary to the law of God in men as in women;\nstill, as a part of our history, I shall notice some instances of\ncourage exhibited by females.\n\n\u2018Philippa, wife of Edward III., was the principal cause of the victory\ngained over the Scots at Neville Cross. In the absence of her husband,\nshe rode among the troops, and exhorted them to \u201cbe of good courage.\u201d\u2019\nJane, Countess of Mountfort, and a contemporary of Philippa, likewise\npossessed a great share of physical courage. The history of Joan of\nArc is too familiar to need repetition. During the reign of James II.\na singular instance of female intrepidity occurred in Scotland. Sir\nJohn Cochrane being condemned to be hung, his daughter twice disguised\nherself, and robbed the mail that brought his death warrant. In the\nmean time, his pardon was obtained from the King. Instances might be\nmultiplied, but it is unnecessary. I shall therefore close these proofs\nof female courage with one more fact. \u2018During the revolutionary war,\nthe women shared in the patriotism and bravery of the men. Several\nindividuals carried their enthusiasm so far as to enter the army, where\nthey faced all the perils and fatigues of the camp, until the close of\nthe war.\u2019\n\nWhen I view my countrywomen in the character of soldiers, or even\nbehold them loading fire arms and moulding bullets for their brethren\nto destroy men\u2019s lives, I cannot refrain a sigh. I cannot but contrast\ntheir conduct at that solemn crisis with the conduct of those women\nwho followed their Lord and Master with unresisting submission, to\nCalvary\u2019s Mount. With the precepts and example of a crucified Redeemer,\nwho, in that sublime precept, \u2018Resist not evil,\u2019 has interdicted to his\ndisciples all war and all violence, and taught us that the spirit of\nretaliation for injuries, whether in the camp, or at the fire-side, is\nwholly at variance with the peaceful religion he came to promulgate.\nHow little do we comprehend that simple truth, \u2018By this shall all men\nknow that ye are my disciples, if ye have _love one to another_.\u2019\n\nWomen have sometimes distinguished themselves in a way more consistent\nwith their duties as moral beings. During the war between the Romans\nand the Sabines, the Sabine women who had been carried off by the\nRomans, repaired to the Sabine camp, dressed in deep mourning, with\ntheir little ones in their arms, to soften, if possible, the feelings\nof their parents. They knelt at the feet of their relatives; and\nwhen Hersilia, the wife of Romulus, described the kindness of their\nhusbands, and their unwillingness to be separated from them, their\nfathers yielded to their entreaties, and an alliance was soon agreed\nupon. In consequence of this important service, peculiar privileges\nwere conferred on women by the Romans. Brutus said of his wife, \u2018I\nmust not answer Portia in the words of Hector, \u201cMind your wheel, and\nto your maids give law,\u201d for in courage, activity and concern for her\ncountry\u2019s freedom, she is inferior to none of us.\u2019 After the fatal\nbattle of Cann\u00e6, the Roman women consecrated all their ornaments to the\nservice of the state. But when the triumvirs attempted to tax them for\nthe expenses of carrying on a civil war, they resisted the innovation.\nThey chose Hortensia for their speaker, and went in a body to the\nmarket-place to expostulate with the magistrates. The triumvirs wished\nto drive them away, but they were compelled to yield to the wishes of\nthe people, and give the women a hearing. Hortensia pleaded so well the\ncause of her sisters, who resolved that they would not voluntarily aid\nin a _civil war_, that the number of women taxed was reduced from 1400\nto 400.\n\nIn the wars of the Guelphs and the Ghibbelines, the emperor Conrad\nrefused all terms of capitulation to the garrison of Winnisberg, but\nhe granted the request of the women to pass out in safety with such of\ntheir effects as they could carry themselves. Accordingly, they issued\nfrom the besieged city, each bearing on her shoulders a husband, son,\nfather, or brother. They passed unmolested through the enemy\u2019s camp,\nwhich rung with acclamations of applause.\n\nDuring our struggle for independence, the women were as exemplary as\nthe men in various instances of self-denial: they refused every article\nof decoration for their persons; foreign elegances were laid aside, and\nthey cheerfully abstained from luxuries for their tables.\n\nEnglish history presents many instances of women exercising\nprerogatives now denied them. In an action at law, it has been\ndetermined that an unmarried woman, having a freehold, might vote for\nmembers of Parliament; and it is recorded that lady Packington returned\ntwo. Lady Broughton was keeper of the gatehouse prison. And in a much\nlater period, a woman was appointed governor of the house of correction\nat Chelmsford, by order of the court. In the reign of George II. the\nminister of Clerkenwell was chosen by a majority of women. The office\nof grand chamberlain in 1822 was filled by two women; and that of clerk\nof the crown, in the court of king\u2019s bench, has been granted to a\nfemale. The celebrated Anne, countess of Pembroke, held the hereditary\noffice of sheriff of Westmoreland, and exercised it in person, sitting\non the bench with the judges.\n\nI need hardly advert to the names of Elizabeth of England, Maria\nTheresa of Germany, Catharine of Russia, and Isabella of Spain, to\nprove that women are capable of swaying the sceptre of royalty. The\npage of history proves incontestibly, not only that they are as well\nqualified to do so as men, but that there has been a comparatively\ngreater proportion of good queens, than of good kings; women who have\npurchased their celebrity by individual strength of character.\n\nI mention these women only to prove that intellect is not sexed; that\nstrength of mind is not sexed; and that our views about the duties of\nmen and the duties of women, the sphere of man and the sphere of woman,\nare mere arbitrary opinions, differing in different ages and countries,\nand dependant solely on the will and judgment of erring mortals.\n\nAs moral and responsible beings, men and women have the same sphere of\naction, and the same duties devolve upon both; but no one can doubt\nthat the duties of each vary according to circumstances; that a father\nand a mother, a husband and a wife, have sacred obligations resting on\nthem, which cannot possibly belong to those who do not sustain these\nrelations. But these duties and responsibilities do not attach to them\nas men and as women, but as parents, husbands, and wives.\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                               LETTER X.\n\n                          INTELLECT OF WOMAN.\n\n\n                                             _Brookline, 8th Mo. 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--It will scarcely be denied, I presume, that, as a\ngeneral rule, men do not desire the improvement of women. There are few\ninstances of men who are magnanimous enough to be entirely willing that\nwomen should know more than themselves, on any subjects except dress\nand cookery; and, indeed, this necessarily flows from their assumption\nof superiority. As _they_ have determined that Jehovah has placed\nwoman on a lower platform than man, they of course wish to keep her\nthere; and hence the noble faculties of our minds are crushed, and our\nreasoning powers are almost wholly uncultivated.\n\nA writer in the time of Charles I. says--\u2018She that knoweth how to\ncompound a pudding, is more desirable than she who skilfully compounded\na poem. A female poet I mislike at all times.\u2019 Within the last century,\nit has been gravely asserted that, \u2018chemistry enough to keep the pot\nboiling, and geography enough to know the location of the different\nrooms in her house, is learning sufficient for a woman.\u2019 Byron, who\nwas too sensual to conceive of a pure and perfect companionship\nbetween the sexes, would limit a woman\u2019s library to a Bible and cookery\nbook. I have myself heard men, who knew for themselves the value of\nintellectual culture, say they cared very little for a wife who could\nnot make a pudding, and smile with contempt at the ardent thirst for\nknowledge exhibited by some women.\n\nBut all this is miserable wit and worse philosophy. It exhibits that\npassion for the gratification of a pampered appetite, which is beneath\nthose who claim to be so far above us, and may justly be placed on\na par with the policy of the slaveholder, who says that men will be\nbetter slaves, if they are not permitted to learn to read.\n\nIn spite, however, of the obstacles which impede the progress of women\ntowards that state of high mental cultivation for which her Creator\nprepared her, the tendency towards the universal dissemination of\nknowledge has had its influence on their destinies; and in all ages, a\nfew have surmounted every hindrance, and proved, beyond dispute, that\nthey have talents equal to their brethren.\n\nCornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, was distinguished for\nvirtue, learning and good sense. She wrote and spoke with uncommon\nelegance and purity. Cicero and Quinctilian bestow high praise upon\nher letters, and the eloquence of her children was attributed to\nher careful superintendence. This reminds me of a remark made by my\nbrother, Thomas S. Grimke, when speaking of the importance of women\nbeing well educated, that \u2018educated men would never make educated\nwomen, but educated women would make educated men.\u2019 I believe the\nsentiment is correct, because if the wealth of latent intellect among\nwomen was fully evolved and improved, they would rejoice to communicate\nto their sons all their own knowledge, and inspire them with desires to\ndrink from the fountain of literature.\n\nI pass over many interesting proofs of the intellectual powers of\nwomen; but I must not omit glancing at the age of chivalry, which\nhas been compared to a golden thread running through the dark ages.\nDuring this remarkable era, women who, before this period, had been\nsubject to every species of oppression and neglect, were suddenly\nelevated into deities, and worshipped with a mad fanaticism. It is\nnot improbable, however, that even the absurdities of chivalry were\nbeneficial to women, as it raised them from that extreme degradation\nto which they had been condemned, and prepared the way for them to\nbe permitted to enjoy some scattered rays from the sun of science\nand literature. As the age of knight-errantry declined, men began to\ntake pride in learning, and women shared the advantages which this\nchange produced. \u2018Women preached in public, supported controversies,\npublished and defended theses, filled the chairs of philosophy and\nlaw, harangued the popes in Latin, wrote Greek and read Hebrew. Nuns\nwrote poetry, women of rank became divines, and young girls publicly\nexhorted Christian princes to take up arms for the recovery of the\nholy sepulchre. Hypatia, daughter of Theon of Alexandria, succeeded\nher father in the government of the Platonic school, and filled with\nreputation a seat, where many celebrated philosophers had taught. The\npeople regarded her as an oracle, and magistrates consulted her in\nall important cases. No reproach was ever uttered against the perfect\npurity of her manners. She was unembarrassed in large assemblies of\nmen, because their admiration was tempered with the most scrupulous\nrespect. In the 13th century, a young lady of Bologna pronounced a\nLatin oration at the age of twenty-three. At twenty-six, she took the\ndegree of doctor of laws, and began publicly to expound Justinian. At\nthirty, she was elevated to a professor\u2019s chair, and taught the law\nto a crowd of scholars from all nations. Italy produced many learned\nand gifted women, among whom, perhaps none was more celebrated than\nVictoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara. In Spain, Isabella of Rosera\nconverted Jews by her eloquent preaching;\u2019 and in England the names\nof many women, from Lady Jane Gray down to Harriet Martineau, are\nfamiliar to every reader of history. Of the last mentioned authoress,\nLord Brougham said that her writings on political economy were doing\nmore good than those of any man in England. There is a contemporary\nof Harriet Martineau, who has recently rendered valuable services\nto her country. She presented a memorial to Parliament, stating the\ndangerous parts of the coast, where light-houses were needed, and at\nher suggestion, several were erected. She keeps a life-boat and sailors\nin her pay, and has been the means of saving many lives. Although she\nhas been deprived of the use of her limbs since early childhood, yet\neven when the storm is unusually severe, she goes herself on the beach\nin her carriage, that she may be sure her men perform their duty. She\nunderstands several languages, and is now engaged in writing a work on\nthe Northern languages of Europe. \u2018In Germany, the influence of women\non literature is considerable, though less obvious than in some other\ncountries. Literary families frequently meet at each others\u2019 houses,\nand learned and intelligent women are often the brightest ornaments of\nthese social circles.\u2019 France has produced many distinguished women,\nwhose names are familiar to every lover of literature. And I believe it\nis conceded universally, that Madame de Stael was intellectually the\ngreatest woman that ever lived. The United States have produced several\nfemale writers, some of whom have talents of the highest order. But\nwomen, even in this free republic, do not enjoy _all_ the intellectual\nadvantages of men, although there is a perceptible improvement within\nthe last ten or twenty years; and I trust there is a desire awakened\nin my sisters for solid acquirements, which will elevate them to their\n\u2018appropriate sphere,\u2019 and enable them to \u2018adorn the doctrine of God our\nSaviour in all things.\u2019\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER XI.\n\n                            DRESS OF WOMEN.\n\n\n                                            _Brookline, 9th Mo., 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--When I view woman as an immortal being, travelling\nthrough this world to that city whose builder and maker is God,--when\nI contemplate her in all the sublimity of her spiritual existence,\nbearing the image and superscription of Jehovah, emanating from Him\nand partaking of his nature, and destined, if she fulfils her duty,\nto dwell with him through the endless ages of eternity,--I mourn that\nshe has lived so far below her privileges and her obligations, as a\nrational and accountable creature; and I ardently long to behold her\noccupying that sphere in which I believe her Creator designed her to\nmove.\n\nWoman, in all ages and countries, has been the scoff and the jest of\nher lordly master. If she attempted, like him, to improve her mind, she\nwas ridiculed as pedantic, and driven from the temple of science and\nliterature by coarse attacks and vulgar sarcasms. If she yielded to\nthe pressure of circumstances, and sought relief from the monotony of\nexistence by resorting to the theatre and the ball-room, by ornamenting\nher person with flowers and with jewels, while her mind was empty and\nher heart desolate; she was still the mark at which wit and satire and\ncruelty levelled their arrows.\n\n\u2018Woman,\u2019 says Adam Clarke, \u2018has been invidiously defined, _an animal\nof dress_. How long will they permit themselves to be thus degraded?\u2019\nI have been an attentive observer of my sex, and I am constrained to\nbelieve that the passion for dress, which so generally characterizes\nthem, is one cause why there so is little of that solid improvement\nand weight of character which might be acquired under almost any\ncircumstances, if the mind were not occupied by the love of admiration,\nand the desire to gratify personal vanity. I have already adduced some\ninstances to prove the inordinate love of dress, which is exhibited\nby women in a state of heathenism; I shall, therefore, confine myself\nnow to what are called Christian countries; only remarking that\nprevious to the introduction of Christianity into the Roman empire, the\nextravagance of apparel had arisen to an unprecedented height. \u2018Jewels,\nexpensive embroidery, and delicious perfumes, were used in great\nprofusion by those who could afford them.\u2019 The holy religion of Jesus\nChrist came in at this period, and stript luxury and wealth of all\ntheir false attractions. \u2018Women of the noblest and wealthiest families,\nsurrounded by the seductive allurements of worldly pleasure, renounced\nthem all. Undismayed by severe edicts against the new religion, they\nappeared before the magistrates, and by pronouncing the simple words,\n\u201cI am a Christian,\u201d calmly resigned themselves to imprisonment,\nignominy and death.\u2019 Could such women have had their minds occupied\nby the foolish vanity of ornamental apparel? No! Christianity struck\nat the root of all sin, and consequently we find the early Christians\ncould not fight, or swear, or wear costly clothing. Cave, in his work\nentitled \u2018Primitive Christianity,\u2019 has some interesting remarks on this\nsubject, showing that simplicity of dress was not then esteemed an\nunimportant part of Christianity.\n\nVery soon, however, when the fire of persecution was no longer blazing,\npagan customs became interwoven with Christianity. The professors of\nthe religion of a self-denying Lord, whose kingdom was not of this\nworld, began to use the sword, to return railing for railing, to take\noaths, to mingle heathen forms and ceremonies with Christian worship,\nto engraft on the beautiful simplicity of piety, the feasts and\nobservances which were usual at heathen festivals in honor of the gods,\nand to adorn their persons with rich and ornamental apparel. And now if\nwe look at Christendom, there is scarcely a vestige of that religion,\nwhich the Redeemer of men came to promulgate. The Christian world is\nmuch in the situation of the Jewish nation, when the babe of Bethlehem\nwas born, full of outside observances, which they substitute for mercy\nand love, for self-denial and good works, rigid in the performance\nof religious duties, but ready, if the Lord Jesus came amongst them\nand judged them by their fruits, as he did the Pharisees formerly, to\ncrucify him as a slanderer. Indeed, I believe the remark of a late\nauthor is perfectly correct:\n\n \u2018Strange as it may seem, yet I do not hesitate to declare my belief\n that it is easier to make Pagan nations Christians, than to reform\n Christian communities and fashion them anew, after the pure and\n simple standard of the gospel. Cast your eye over Christian countries,\n and see what a multitude of causes combine to resist and impair\n the influence of Christian institutions. Behold the conformity of\n Christians to the world, in its prodigal pleasures and frivolous\n amusements, in its corrupt opinions and sentiments, of false honor.\n Behold the wide spread ignorance and degrading superstition; the power\n of prejudice and the authority of custom; the unchristian character of\n our systems of education; and the dread of the frowns and ridicule of\n the world, and we discover at once a host of more formidable enemies\n to the progress of _true religion_ in Christian, than in heathen\n lands.\u2019\n\nBut I must proceed to examine what is the state of professing\nChristendom, as regards the subject of this letter. A few words will\nsuffice. The habits and employments of fashionable circles are nearly\nthe same throughout Christian communities. The fashion of dress, which\nvaries more rapidly than the changing seasons, is still, as it has\nbeen from time immemorial, an all-absorbing object of interest. The\nsimple cobbler of Agawam, who wrote in Massachusetts as early as 1647,\nspeaking of women, says,\n\n \u201cIt is no marvel they wear drailes on the hinder part of their heads,\n having nothing, as it seems, in the fore part, but a few squirrels\u2019\n brains to help them frisk from one fashion to another.\u2019\n\nIt must, however, be conceded, that although there are too many women\nwho merit this severe reprehension, there is a numerous class whose\nimprovement of mind and devotion to the cause of humanity justly\nentitle them to our respect and admiration. One of the most striking\ncharacteristics of modern times, is the tendency toward a universal\ndissemination of knowledge in all Protestant communities. But the\ncharacter of woman has been elevated more by participating in the\ngreat moral enterprises of the day, than by anything else. It would\nastonish us if we could see at a glance all the labor, the patience,\nthe industry, the fortitude which woman has exhibited, in carrying on\nthe causes of Moral Reform, Anti-Slavery, &c. Still, even these noble\nand ennobling pursuits have not destroyed personal vanity. Many of\nthose who are engaged in these great and glorious reformations, watch\nwith eager interest, the ever varying freaks of the goddess of fashion,\nand are not exceeded by the butterflies of the ball-room in their love\nof curls, artificial flowers, embroidery and gay apparel. Many a woman\nwill ply her needle with ceaseless industry, to obtain money to forward\na favorite benevolent scheme, while at the same time she will expend on\nuseless articles of dress, more than treble the sum which she procures\nby the employment of her needle, and which she might throw into the\nLord\u2019s treasury, and leave herself leisure to cultivate her mind, and\nto mingle among the poor and the afflicted more than she can possibly\ndo now.\n\nI feel exceedingly solicitous to draw the attention of my sisters to\nthis subject. I know that it is called trifling, and much is said about\ndressing fashionably, and elegantly, and becomingly, without thinking\nabout it. This I do not believe can be done. If we indulge our fancy\nin the chameleon caprices of fashion, or in wearing ornamental and\nextravagant apparel, the mind must be in no small degree engaged in the\ngratification of personal vanity.\n\nLest any one may suppose from my being a Quaker, that I should like to\nsee a uniform dress adopted, I will say, that I have no partiality\nfor their peculiar costume, except so far as I find it simple and\nconvenient; and I have not the remotest desire to see it worn, where\none more commodious can be substituted. But I do believe one of the\nchief obstacles in the way of woman\u2019s elevation to the same platform\nof human rights, and moral dignity, and intellectual improvement, with\nher brother, on which God placed her, and where he designed her to\nact her part as an immortal creature, is her love of dress. \u2018It has\nbeen observed,\u2019 says Scott, \u2018that foppery and extravagance as to dress\n_in men_ are most emphatically condemned by the apostle\u2019s silence on\nthe subject, for this intimated that surely _they_ could be under no\ntemptation to such a childish vanity.\u2019 But even those men who are\nsuperior to such a childish vanity in themselves, are, nevertheless,\never ready to encourage it in women. They know that so long as we\nsubmit to be dressed like dolls, we never can rise to the stations of\nduty and usefulness from which they desire to exclude us; and they are\nwilling to grant us paltry indulgences, which forward their own design\nof keeping us out of our appropriate sphere, while they deprive us of\nessential rights.\n\nTo me it appears beneath the dignity of woman to bedeck herself in\ngewgaws and trinkets, in ribbons and laces, to gratify the eye of man.\nI believe, furthermore, that we owe a solemn duty to the poor. Many a\nwoman, in what is called humble life, spends nearly all her earnings in\ndress, because she wants to be as well attired as her employer. It is\noften argued that, as the birds and the flowers are gaily adorned by\nnature\u2019s hand, there can be no sin in woman\u2019s ornamenting her person.\nMy reply is, God created me neither a bird nor a flower; and I aspire\nto something more than a resemblance to them. Besides, the gaudy colors\nin which birds and flowers are arrayed, create in them no feelings of\nvanity; but as human beings, we are susceptible of these passions,\nwhich are nurtured and strengthened by such adornments. \u2018Well,\u2019 I am\noften asked, \u2018where is the limitation?\u2019 This it is not my business to\ndecide. Every woman, as Judson remarks, can best settle this on her\nknees before God. He has commanded her not to be conformed to this\nworld, but to be transformed by the renewing of her mind, that she may\nknow what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. He made\nthe dress of the Jewish women the subject of special denunciation by\nhis prophet--Is. 3: 16-26; yet the chains and the bracelets, the rings\nand the ear-rings, and the changeable suits of apparel, are still worn\nby Christian women. He has commanded them, through his apostles, not\nto adorn themselves with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly\narray. Not to let their adorning be the \u2018outward adorning of plaiting\nthe hair, or of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let\nit be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible,\neven the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight\nof God of great price;\u2019 yet we disregard these solemn admonitions.\nMay we not form some correct estimate of dress, by asking ourselves\nhow we should feel, if we saw ministers of the gospel rise to address\nan audience with ear-rings dangling from their ears, glittering rings\non their fingers, and a wreath of artificial flowers on their brow,\nand the rest of their apparel in keeping? If it would be wrong for\na minister, it is wrong for every professing Christian. God makes no\ndistinction between the moral and religious duties of ministers and\npeople. We are bound to be \u2018a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a\npeculiar people, a holy nation; that we should show forth the praises\nof him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.\u2019\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER XII.\n\n                     LEGAL DISABILITIES OF WOMEN.\n\n\n                                         _Concord, 9th Mo., 6th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--There are few things which present greater obstacles\nto the improvement and elevation of woman to her appropriate sphere\nof usefulness and duty, than the laws which have been enacted to\ndestroy her independence, and crush her individuality; laws which,\nalthough they are framed for her government, she has had no voice in\nestablishing, and which rob her of some of her _essential rights_.\nWoman has no political existence. With the single exception of\npresenting a petition to the legislative body, she is a cipher in the\nnation; or, if not actually so in representative governments, she is\nonly counted, like the slaves of the South, to swell the number of\nlaw-makers who form decrees for her government, with little reference\nto her benefit, except so far as her good may promote their own. I\nam not sufficiently acquainted with the laws respecting women on the\ncontinent of Europe, to say anything about them. But Prof. Follen,\nin his essay on \u2018The Cause of Freedom in our Country,\u2019 says, \u2018Woman,\nthough fully possessed of that rational and moral nature which is the\nfoundation of all rights, enjoys amongst us fewer legal rights than\nunder the civil law of continental Europe.\u2019 I shall confine myself to\nthe laws of our country. These laws bear with peculiar rigor on married\nwomen. Blackstone, in the chapter entitled \u2018Of husband and wife,\u2019\nsays:--\n\n \u2018By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is,\n _the very being, or legal existence of the woman_ is suspended during\n the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that\n of the husband under whose wing, protection and cover she performs\n everything.\u2019 \u2018For this reason, a man cannot grant anything to his\n wife, or enter into covenant with her; for the grant would be to\n suppose her separate existence, and to covenant with her would be to\n covenant with himself; and therefore it is also generally true, that\n all compacts made between husband and wife when single, are voided by\n the intermarriage. A woman indeed may be attorney for her husband; but\n that implies no separation from, but is rather a representation of,\n her love.\u2019\n\nHere now, the very being of a woman, like that of a slave, is absorbed\nin her master. All contracts made with her, like those made with slaves\nby their owners, are a mere nullity. Our kind defenders have legislated\naway almost all our legal rights, and in the true spirit of such\ninjustice and oppression, have kept us in ignorance of those very laws\nby which we are governed. They have persuaded us, that we have no right\nto investigate the laws, and that, if we did, we could not comprehend\nthem; they alone are capable of understanding the mysteries of\nBlackstone, &c. But they are not backward to make us feel the practical\noperation of their power over our actions.\n\n \u2018The husband is bound to provide his wife with necessaries by law, as\n much as himself; and if she contracts debts for them, he is obliged\n to pay for them; but for anything besides necessaries, he is not\n chargeable.\u2019\n\nYet a man may spend the property he has acquired by marriage at the\nale-house, the gambling table, or in any other way that he pleases.\nMany instances of this kind have come to my knowledge; and women, who\nhave brought their husbands handsome fortunes, have been left, in\nconsequence of the wasteful and dissolute habits of their husbands,\nin straitened circumstances, and compelled to toil for the support of\ntheir families.\n\n \u2018If the wife be indebted before marriage, the husband is bound\n afterwards to pay the debt; for he has adopted her and her\n circumstances together.\u2019\n\nThe wife\u2019s property is, I believe, equally liable for her husband\u2019s\ndebts contracted before marriage.\n\n \u2018If the wife be injured in her person or property, she can bring no\n action for redress without her husband\u2019s concurrence, and his name as\n well as her own: neither can she be sued, without making her husband a\n defendant.\u2019\n\nThis law that \u2018a wife can bring no action,\u2019 &c., is similar to the law\nrespecting slaves, \u2018A slave cannot bring a suit against his master, or\nany other person, for an injury--his master, must bring it.\u2019 So if any\ndamages are recovered for an injury committed on a wife, the husband\npockets it; in the case of the slave, the master does the same.\n\n \u2018In criminal prosecutions, the wife may be indicted and punished\n separately, unless there be evidence of coercion from the fact that\n the offence was committed in the presence, or by the command of her\n husband. A wife is excused from punishment for theft committed in the\n presence, or by the command of her husband.\u2019\n\nIt would be difficult to frame a law better calculated to destroy the\nresponsibility of woman as a moral being, or a free agent. Her husband\nis supposed to possess unlimited control over her; and if she can offer\nthe flimsy excuse that he bade her steal, she may break the eighth\ncommandment with impunity, as far as human laws are concerned.\n\n \u2018Our law, in general, considers man and wife as one person; yet there\n are some instances in which she is separately considered, as inferior\n to him and acting by his compulsion. Therefore, all deeds executed,\n and acts done by her during her coverture (i. e. marriage,) are void,\n except it be a fine, or like matter of record, in which case she must\n be solely and secretly examined, to learn if her act be voluntary.\u2019\n\nSuch a law speaks volumes of the abuse of that power which men have\nvested in their own hands. Still the private examination of a wife, to\nknow whether she accedes to the disposition of property made by her\nhusband is, in most cases, a mere form; a wife dares not do what will\nbe disagreeable to one who is, in his own estimation, her superior,\nand who makes her feel, in the privacy of domestic life, that she has\nthwarted him. With respect to the nullity of deeds or acts done by a\nwife, I will mention one circumstance. A respectable woman borrowed of\na female friend a sum of money to relieve her son from some distressing\npecuniary embarrassment. Her husband was from home, and she assured the\nlender, that as soon as he returned, he would gratefully discharge the\ndebt. She gave her note, and the lender, entirely ignorant of the law\nthat a man is not obliged to discharge such a debt, actually borrowed\nthe money, and lent it to the distressed and weeping mother. The father\nreturned home, refused to pay the debt, and the person who had loaned\nthe money was obliged to pay both principal and interest to the friend\nwho lent it to her. Women should certainly know the laws by which they\nare governed, and from which they frequently suffer; yet they are kept\nin ignorance, nearly as profound, of their legal rights, and of the\nlegislative enactments which are to regulate their actions, as slaves.\n\n \u2018The husband, by the old law, might give his wife moderate correction,\n as he is to answer for her misbehavior. The law thought it reasonable\n to entrust him with this power of restraining her by domestic\n chastisement. The courts of law will still permit a husband to\n restrain a wife of her liberty, in case of any gross misbehavior.\u2019\n\nWhat a mortifying proof this law affords, of the estimation in which\nwoman is held! She is placed completely in the hands of a being subject\nlike herself to the outbursts of passion, and therefore unworthy to be\ntrusted with power. Perhaps I may be told respecting this law, that\nit is a dead letter, as I am sometimes told about the slave laws; but\nthis is not true in either case. The slaveholder does kill his slave\nby moderate correction, as the law allows; and many a husband, among\nthe poor, exercises the right given him by the law, of degrading\nwoman by personal chastisement. And among the higher ranks, if actual\nimprisonment is not resorted to, women are not unfrequently restrained\nof the liberty of going to places of worship by irreligious husbands,\nand of doing many other things about which, as moral and responsible\nbeings, _they_ should be the _sole_ judges. Such laws remind me of\nthe reply of some little girls at a children\u2019s meeting held recently\nat Ipswich. The lecturer told them that God had created four orders\nof beings with which he had made us acquainted through the Bible. The\nfirst was angels, the second was man, the third beasts; and now,\nchildren, what is the fourth? After a pause, several girls replied,\n\u2018WOMEN.\u2019\n\n \u2018A woman\u2019s personal property by marriage becomes absolutely her\n husband\u2019s, which, at his death, he may leave entirely away from her.\u2019\n\nAnd farther, all the avails of her labor are absolutely in the power\nof her husband. All that she acquires by her industry is his; so that\nshe cannot, with her own honest earnings, become the legal purchaser\nof any property. If she expends her money for articles of furniture,\nto contribute to the comfort of her family, they are liable to be\nseized for her husband\u2019s debts: and I know an instance of a woman, who\nby labor and economy had scraped together a little maintenance for\nherself and a do-little husband, who was left, at his death, by virtue\nof his last will and testament, to be supported by charity. I knew\nanother woman, who by great industry had acquired a little money which\nshe deposited in a bank for safe keeping. She had saved this pittance\nwhilst able to work, in hopes that when age or sickness disqualified\nher for exertion, she might have something to render life comfortable,\nwithout being a burden to her friends. Her husband, a worthless, idle\nman, discovered this hid treasure, drew her little stock from the\nbank, and expended it all in extravagance and vicious indulgence. I\nknow of another woman, who married without the least idea that she was\nsurrendering her rights to all her personal property. Accordingly, she\nwent to the bank as usual to draw her dividends, and the person who\npaid her the money, and to whom she was personally known as an owner\nof shares in that bank, remarking the change in her signature, withdrew\nthe money, informing her that if she were married, she had no longer\na right to draw her dividends without an order from her husband. It\nappeared that she intended having a little fund for private use, and\nhad not even told her husband that she owned this stock, and she was\nnot a little chagrined, when she found that it was not at her disposal.\nI think she was wrong to conceal the circumstance. The relation of\nhusband and wife is too near and sacred to admit of secrecy about money\nmatters, unless positive necessity demands it; and I can see no excuse\nfor any woman entering into a marriage engagement with a design to keep\nher husband ignorant that she was possessed of property. If she was\nunwilling to give up her property to his disposal, she had infinitely\nbetter have remained single. The laws above cited are not very unlike\nthe slave laws of Louisiana.\n\n \u2018All that a slave possesses belongs to his master; he possesses\n nothing of his own, except what his master chooses he should possess.\u2019\n\n \u2018By the marriage, the husband is absolutely master of the profits of\n the wife\u2019s lands during the coverture, and if he has had a living\n child, and survives the wife, he retains the whole of those lands,\n if they are estates of inheritance, during his life; but the wife\n is entitled only to one third if she survives, out of the husband\u2019s\n estates of inheritance. But this she has, whether she has had a child\n or not.\u2019 \u2018With regard to the property of women, there is taxation\n without representation; for they pay taxes without having the liberty\n of voting for representatives.\u2019\n\nAnd this taxation, without representation, be it remembered, was the\ncause of our Revolutionary war, a grievance so heavy, that it was\nthought necessary to purchase exemption from it at an immense expense\nof blood and treasure, yet the daughters of New England, as well as of\nall the other States of this free Republic, are suffering a similar\ninjustice--but for one, I had rather we should suffer any injustice or\noppression, than that my sex should have any voice in the political\naffairs of the nation.\n\nThe laws I have quoted, are, I believe, the laws of Massachusetts, and,\nwith few exceptions, of all the States in this Union. \u2018In Louisiana\nand Missouri, and possibly, in some other southern States, a woman not\nonly has half her husband\u2019s property by right at his death, but may\nalways be considered as possessed of half his gains during his life;\nhaving at all times power to bequeath that amount.\u2019 That the laws which\nhave generally been adopted in the United States, for the government\nof women, have been framed almost entirely for the exclusive benefit\nof men, and with a design to oppress women, by depriving them of all\ncontrol over their property, is too manifest to be denied. Some liberal\nand enlightened men, I know, regret the existence of these laws; and\nI quote with pleasure an extract from Harriet Martineau\u2019s Society in\nAmerica, as a proof of the assertion. \u2018A liberal minded lawyer of\nBoston, told me that his advice to testators always is to leave the\nlargest possible amount to the widow, subject to the condition of her\nleaving it to the children; but that it is with shame that he reflects\nthat any woman should owe that to his professional advice, which\nthe law should have secured to her as a right.\u2019 I have known a few\ninstances where men have left their whole property to their wives, when\nthey have died, leaving only minor children; but I have known more\ninstances of \u2018the friend and helper of many years, being portioned off\nlike a salaried domestic,\u2019 instead of having a comfortable independence\nsecured to her, while the children were amply provided for.\n\nAs these abuses do exist, and women suffer intensely from them, our\nbrethren are called upon in this enlightened age, by every sentiment of\nhonor, religion and justice, to repeal these unjust and unequal laws,\nand restore to woman those rights which they have wrested from her.\nSuch laws approximate too nearly to the laws enacted by slaveholders\nfor the government of their slaves, and must tend to debase and\ndepress the mind of that being, whom God created as a help meet for\nman, or \u2018helper like unto himself,\u2019 and designed to be his equal and\nhis companion. Until such laws are annulled, woman never can occupy\nthat exalted station for which she was intended by her Maker. And just\nin proportion as they are practically disregarded, which is the case\nto some extent, just so far is woman assuming that independence and\nnobility of character which she ought to exhibit.\n\nThe various laws which I have transcribed, leave women very little more\nliberty, or power, in some respects, than the slave. \u2018A slave,\u2019 says\nthe civil code of Louisiana, \u2018is one who is in the power of a master,\nto whom he belongs. He can possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but\nwhat must belong to his master.\u2019 I do not wish by any means to intimate\nthat the condition of free women can be compared to that of slaves in\nsuffering, or in degradation; still, I believe the laws which deprive\nmarried women of their rights and privileges, have a tendency to\nlessen them in their own estimation as moral and responsible beings,\nand that their being made by civil law inferior to their husbands, has\na debasing and mischievous effect upon them, teaching them practically\nthe fatal lesson to look unto man for protection and indulgence.\n\nEcclesiastical bodies, I believe, without exception, follow the example\nof legislative assemblies, in excluding woman from any participation\nin forming the discipline by which she is governed. The men frame the\nlaws, and, with few exceptions, claim to execute them on both sexes. In\necclesiastical, as well as civil courts, woman is tried and condemned,\nnot by a jury of her peers, but by beings, who regard themselves as\nher superiors in the scale of creation. Although looked upon as an\ninferior, when considered as an intellectual being, woman is punished\nwith the same severity as man, when she is guilty of moral offences.\nHer condition resembles, in some measure, that of the slave, who,\nwhile he is denied the advantages of his more enlightened master, is\ntreated with even greater rigor of the law. Hoping that in the various\nreformations of the day, women may be relieved from some of their legal\ndisabilities, I remain,\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                             LETTER XIII.\n\n                     RELATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE.\n\n\n                                            _Brookline, 9th Mo., 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--Perhaps some persons may wonder that I should attempt\nto throw out my views on the important subject of marriage, and may\nconclude that I am altogether disqualified for the task, because I\nlack experience. However, I shall not undertake to settle the specific\nduties of husbands and wives, but only to exhibit opinions based on\nthe word of God, and formed from a little knowledge of human nature,\nand close observation of the working of generally received notions\nrespecting the dominion of man over woman.\n\nWhen Jehovah ushered into existence man, created in his own image,\nhe instituted marriage as a part of paradisaical happiness: it was a\n_divine ordination_, not a civil contract. God established it, and man,\nexcept by special permission, has no right to annul it. There can be no\ndoubt that the creation of Eve perfected the happiness of Adam; hence,\nour all-wise and merciful Father made her as he made Adam, in his own\nimage after his likeness, crowned her with glory and honor, and placed\nin her hand, as well as in his, the sceptre of dominion over the whole\nlower creation. Where there was perfect equality, and the same ability\nto receive and comprehend divine truth, and to obey divine injunctions,\nthere could be no superiority. If God had placed Eve under the\nguardianship of Adam, after having endowed her, as richly as him, with\nmoral perceptions, intellectual faculties, and spiritual apprehensions,\nhe would at once have interposed a fallible being between her and her\nMaker. He could not, in simple consistency with himself, have done\nthis; for the Bible teems with instructions not to put any confidence\nin man.\n\nThe passage on which the generally received opinion, that husbands are\ninvested by divine command with authority over their wives, as I have\nremarked in a previous letter, is a prediction; and I am confirmed in\nthis belief, because the same language is used to Cain respecting Abel.\nThe text is obscure; but on a comparison of it with subsequent events,\nit appears to me that it was a prophecy of the dominion which Cain\nwould usurp over his brother, and which issued in the murder of Abel.\nIt could not allude to any thing but physical dominion, because Cain\nhad already exhibited those evil passions which subsequently led him to\nbecome an assassin.\n\nI have already shown, that man has exercised the most unlimited and\nbrutal power over woman, in the peculiar character of husband,--a word\nin most countries synonymous with tyrant. I shall not, therefore,\nadduce any further proofs of the fulfilment of that prophecy, \u2018He\nwill rule over thee,\u2019 from the history of heathen nations, but just\nglance at the condition of woman in the relation of wife in Christian\ncountries.\n\n\u2018Previous to the introduction of the religion of Jesus Christ, the\nstate of society was wretchedly diseased. The relation of the sexes to\neach other had become so gross in its manifested forms, that it was\ndifficult to perceive the pure conservative principle in its inward\nessence.\u2019 Christianity came in, at this juncture, with its hallowed\ninfluence, and has without doubt tended to lighten the yoke of bondage,\nto purify the manners, and give the spiritual in some degree an empire\nover the animal nature. Still, that state which was designed by God to\nincrease the happiness of woman as well as man, often proves the means\nof lessening her comfort, and degrading her into the mere machine of\nanother\u2019s convenience and pleasure. Woman, instead of being elevated\nby her union with man, which might be expected from an alliance with\na superior being, is in reality lowered. She generally loses her\nindividuality, her independent character, her moral being. She becomes\nabsorbed into him, and henceforth is looked at, and acts through the\nmedium of her husband.\n\nIn the wealthy classes of society, and those who are in comfortable\ncircumstances, women are exempt from great corporeal exertion, and\nare protected by public opinion, and by the genial influence of\nChristianity, from much physical ill treatment. Still, there is a vast\namount of secret suffering endured, from the forced submission of women\nto the opinions and whims of their husbands. Hence they are frequently\ndriven to use deception, to compass their ends. They are early taught\nthat to appear to yield, is the only way to govern. Miserable sophism!\nI deprecate such sentiments, as being peculiarly hostile to the dignity\nof woman. If she submits, let her do it openly, honorably, not to gain\nher point, but as a matter of Christian duty. But let her beware how\nshe permits her husband to be her conscience-keeper. On all moral and\nreligious subjects, she is bound to think and to act for herself. Where\nconfidence and love exist, a wife will naturally converse with her\nhusband as with her dearest friend, on all that interests her heart,\nand there will be a perfectly free interchange of sentiment; but _she\nis no more bound to be governed by his judgment_, than he is by hers.\nThey are standing on the same platform of human rights, are equally\nunder the government of God, and accountable to him, and him alone.\n\nI have sometimes been astonished and grieved at the servitude of\nwomen, and at the little idea many of them seem to have of their own\nmoral existence and responsibilities. A woman who is asked to sign a\npetition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or\nto join a society for the purpose of carrying forward the annihilation\nof American slavery, or any other great reformation, not unfrequently\nreplies, \u2018My husband does not approve of it.\u2019 She merges her rights and\nher duties in her husband, and thus virtually chooses him for a savior\nand a king, and rejects Christ as her Ruler and Redeemer. I know some\nwomen are very glad of so convenient a pretext to shield themselves\nfrom the performance of duty; but there are others, who, under a\nmistaken view of their obligations as wives, submit conscientiously to\nthis species of oppression, and go mourning on their way, for want of\nthat holy fortitude, which would enable them to fulfil their duties as\nmoral and responsible beings, without reference to poor fallen man. O\nthat woman may arise in her dignity as an immortal creature, and speak,\nthink and act as unto God, and not unto man!\n\nThere is, perhaps, less bondage of mind among the poorer classes,\nbecause their sphere of duty is more contracted, and they are deprived\nof the means of intellectual culture, and of the opportunity of\nexercising their judgment, on many moral subjects of deep interest and\nof vital importance. Authority is called into exercise by resistance,\nand hence there will be mental bondage only in proportion as the\nfaculties of mind are evolved, and woman feels herself as a rational\nand intelligent being, on a footing with man. But women, among the\nlowest classes of society, so far as my observation has extended,\nsuffer intensely from the brutality of their husbands. Duty as well as\ninclination has led me, for many years, into the abodes of poverty and\nsorrow, and I have been amazed at the treatment which women receive\nat the hands of those, who arrogate to themselves the epithet of\n_protectors_. Brute force, the law of violence, rules to a great extent\nin the poor man\u2019s domicil; and woman is little more than his drudge.\nThey are less under the supervision of public opinion, less under the\nrestraints of education, and unaided or unbiased by the refinements of\npolished society. Religion, wherever it exists, supplies the place of\nall these; but the real cause of woman\u2019s degradation and suffering in\nmarried life is to be found in the erroneous notion of her inferiority\nto man; and never will she be rightly regarded by herself, or others,\nuntil this opinion, so derogatory to the wisdom and mercy of God, is\nexploded, and woman arises in all the majesty of her womanhood, to\nclaim those rights which are inseparable from her existence as an\nimmortal, intelligent and responsible being.\n\nIndependent of the fact, that Jehovah could not, consistently with his\ncharacter as the King, the Lawgiver, and the Judge of his people, give\nthe reins of government over woman into the hands of man, I find that\nall his commands, all his moral laws, are addressed to women as well as\nto men. When he assembled Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, to issue\nhis commandments, we may reasonably suppose he gave all the precepts,\nwhich he considered necessary for the government of moral beings. Hence\nwe find that God says,--\u2018Honor thy father and thy mother,\u2019 and he\nenforces this command, by severe penalties upon those who transgress\nit: \u2018He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to\ndeath\u2019--\u2018He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put\nto death\u2019--Ex. 21: 15, 17. But in the decalogue, there is no direction\ngiven to women to obey their husbands: both are commanded to have no\nother God but Jehovah, and not to bow down, or serve any other. When\nthe Lord Jesus delivered his sermon on the Mount, full of the practical\nprecepts of religion, he did not issue any command to wives to obey\ntheir husbands. When he is speaking on the subject of divorce, Mark 16:\n11, 12, he places men and women on the same ground. And the Apostle,\n1st Cor. 7: 12, 13, speaking of the duties of the Corinthian wives and\nhusbands, who had embraced Christianity, to their unconverted partners,\npoints out the same path to both, although our translators have made a\ndistinction. \u2018Let him not put her away,\u2019 12--\u2018Let her not leave him,\u2019\n13--is precisely the same in the original. If man is constituted the\ngovernor of woman, he must be her God; and the sentiment expressed to\nme lately, by a married man, is perfectly correct: \u2018In my opinion,\u2019\nsaid he, \u2018the greatest excellence to which a married woman can attain,\nis to worship her husband.\u2019 He was a professor of religion--his wife a\nlovely and intelligent woman. He only spoke out what thousands think\nand act. Women are indebted to Milton for giving to this false notion,\n\u2018confirmation strong as proof of holy writ.\u2019 His Eve is embellished\nwith every personal grace, to gratify the eye of her admiring husband;\nbut he seems to have furnished the mother of mankind with just\nintelligence enough to comprehend her supposed inferiority to Adam, and\nto yield unresisting submission to her lord and master. Milton puts\ninto Eve\u2019s mouth the following address to Adam:\n\n  \u2018My author and disposer, what thou bidst,\n  Unargued I obey; so God ordains--\n  God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more,\n  Is woman\u2019s happiest knowledge and her praise.\u2019\n\nThis much admired sentimental nonsense is fraught with absurdity and\nwickedness. If it were true, the commandment of Jehovah should have run\nthus: Man shall have no other gods before ME, and woman shall have no\nother gods before MAN.\n\nThe principal support of the dogma of woman\u2019s inferiority, and\nconsequent submission to her husband, is found in some passages\nof Paul\u2019s epistles. I shall proceed to examine those passages,\npremising 1st, that the antiquity of the opinions based on the false\nconstruction of those passages, has no weight with me: they are the\nopinions of interested judges, and I have no particular reverence\nfor them, _merely_ because they have been regarded with veneration\nfrom generation to generation. So far from this being the case, I\nexamine any opinions of centuries standing, with as much freedom, and\ninvestigate them with as much care, as if they were of yesterday.\nI was educated to think for myself, and it is a privilege I shall\nalways claim to exercise. 2d. Notwithstanding my full belief that the\napostle Paul\u2019s testimony, respecting himself, is true, \u2018I was not a\nwhit behind the chiefest of the apostles,\u2019 yet I believe his mind was\nunder the influence of Jewish prejudices respecting women, just as\nPeter\u2019s and the apostles were about the uncleanness of the Gentiles.\n\u2018The Jews,\u2019 says Clarke, \u2018would not suffer a woman to read in the\nsynagogue, although a servant, or even a child, had this permission.\u2019\nWhen I see Paul shaving his head for a vow, and offering sacrifices,\nand circumcising Timothy, to accommodate himself to the prepossessions\nof his countrymen, I do not conceive that I derogate in the least from\nhis character as an inspired apostle, to suppose that he may have been\nimbued with the prevalent prejudices against women.\n\nIn 1st Cor. 11: 3, after praising the Corinthian converts, because\nthey kept the \u2018ordinances,\u2019 or \u2018traditions,\u2019 as the margin reads,\nthe apostle says, \u2018I would have you know, that the head of every\nman is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of\nChrist is God.\u2019 Eph. 5: 23, is a parallel passage. \u2018For the husband\nis the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church.\u2019\nThe apostle closes his remarks on this subject, by observing, \u2018This\nis a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.\u2019 I\nshall pass over this with simply remarking, that God and Christ are\none. \u2018I and my Father are one,\u2019 and there can be no inferiority where\nthere is no divisibility. The commentaries on this and similar texts,\nafford a striking illustration of the ideas which men entertain of\ntheir own superiority, I shall subjoin Henry\u2019s remarks on 1st Cor. 11:\n5, as a specimen: \u2018To understand this text, it must be observed, that\nit was a signification either of shame, or subjection, for persons to\nbe veiled, or covered in Eastern countries; contrary to the custom\nof ours, where the being bare-headed betokens subjection, and being\ncovered superiority and dominion; and this will help us the better to\nunderstand the reason on which he grounds his reprehension, \u2018Every\nman praying, &c. dishonoreth his head,\u2019 i. e. Christ, the head of\nevery man, by appearing in a habit unsuitable to the rank in which\nGod had placed him. The woman, on the other hand, that prays, &c.\ndishonoreth her head, i. e. the man. She appears in the dress of her\n_superior_, and throws off the token of her subjection; she might with\nequal decency cut her hair short, or cut it off, the common dress of\nthe man in that age. Another reason against this conduct was, that\nthe man is the image and glory of God, the representative of that\nglorious dominion and headship which God has over the world. It is the\nman who is set at the head of this lower creation, and therein bears\nthe resemblance of God. The woman, on the other hand, is the glory\nof the man: she is his representative. Not but she has dominion over\nthe inferior creatures, and she is a partaker of human nature, and so\nfar is God\u2019s representative too, but it is at second hand. She is the\nimage of God, inasmuch as she is the image of the man. The man was\nfirst made, and made head of the creation here below, and therein the\nimage of the divine dominion; and the woman was made out of the man,\nand shone with a _reflection of his glory_, being made superior to\nthe other creatures here below, but in subjection to her husband, and\nderiving that _honor from him_, out of whom she was made. The woman was\nmade for the man to be his help meet, and not the man for the woman.\nShe was, naturally, therefore, made subject to him, because made for\nhim, for HIS USE AND HELP AND COMFORT.\u2019\n\nWe see in the above quotation, what degrading views even good men\nentertain of women. Pity the Psalmist had not thrown a little light on\nthis subject, when he was paraphrasing the account of man\u2019s creation.\n\u2018Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned\nhim with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the\nworks of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.\u2019 Surely\nif woman had been placed below man, and was to shine only by a lustre\nborrowed from him, we should have some clear evidence of it in the\nsacred volume. Henry puts her exactly on a level with the beasts;\nthey were made for the use, help and comfort of man; and according to\nthis commentator, this was the whole end and design of the creation\nof woman. The idea that man, as man is superior to woman, involves an\nabsurdity so gross, that I really wonder how any man of reflection can\nreceive it as of divine origin; and I can only account for it, by that\npassion for supremacy, which characterizes man as a corrupt and fallen\ncreature. If it be true that he is more excellent than she, as man,\nindependent of his moral and intellectual powers, then every man is\nsuperior by virtue of his manship, to every woman. The man who sinks\nhis moral capacities and spiritual powers in his sensual appetites,\nis still, as a man, simply by the conformation of his body, a more\ndignified being, than the woman whose intellectual powers are highly\ncultivated, and whose approximation to the character of Jesus Christ is\nexhibited in a blameless life and conversation.\n\nBut it is strenuously urged by those, who are anxious to maintain their\nusurped authority, that wives are, in various passages of the New\nTestament, commanded to obey their husbands. Let us examine these texts.\n\n Eph. 5: 22. \u2018Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto\n the Lord.\u2019 \u2018As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be\n to their own husbands in every thing.\u2019\n\n Col. 3: 18. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is\n fit in the Lord.\u2019\n\n 1st Pet. 3: 2. \u2018Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own\n husbands; that if any obey not the word, they may also without the\n word be won by the conversation of the wives.\u2019\n\nAccompanying all these directions to wives, are commands to husbands.\n\n Eph. 5: 25. \u2018Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the\n Church, and gave himself for it.\u2019 \u2018So ought men to love their wives as\n their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself.\u2019\n\n Col. 3: 19. \u2018Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against\n them.\u2019\n\n 1st Pet. 3: 7. \u2018Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to\n knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and\n as being heirs together of the grace of life.\u2019\n\nI may just remark, in relation to the expression \u2018weaker vessel,\u2019 that\nthe word in the original has no reference to intellect: it refers to\nphysical weakness merely.\n\nThe apostles were writing to Christian converts, and laying down\nrules for their conduct towards their unconverted consorts. It no\ndoubt frequently happened, that a husband or a wife would embrace\nChristianity, while their companions clung to heathenism, and husbands\nmight be tempted to dislike and despise those, who pertinaciously\nadhered to their pagan superstitions. And wives who, when they were\npagans, submitted as a matter of course to their heathen husbands,\nmight be tempted knowing that they were superior as moral and religious\ncharacters, to assert that superiority, by paying less deference to\nthem than heretofore. Let us examine the context of these passages,\nand see what are the grounds of the directions here given to husbands\nand wives. The whole epistle to the Ephesians breathes a spirit of\nlove. The apostle beseeches the converts to walk worthy of the vocation\nwherewith they are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with\nlong suffering, forbearing one another in love. The verse preceding\n5, 22, is \u2018SUBMITTING YOURSELVES ONE TO ANOTHER IN THE FEAR OF GOD.\u2019\nColossians 3, from 11 to 17, contains similar injunctions. The 17th\nverse says, \u2018Whatsoever ye do in word, or in deed, do all in the name\nof the Lord Jesus.\u2019 Peter, after drawing a most touching picture of\nChrist\u2019s sufferings for us, and reminding the Christians, that he\nhad left us an example that we should follow his steps, \u2018who did no\nsin, neither was guile found in his mouth,\u2019 exhorts wives to be in\nsubjection, &c.\n\nFrom an attentive consideration of these passages, and of those in\nwhich the same words \u2018submit,\u2019 \u2018subjection,\u2019 are used, I cannot but\nbelieve that the apostles designed to recommend to wives, as they\ndid to subjects and to servants, to carry out the holy principle\nlaid down by Jesus Christ, \u2018Resist not evil.\u2019 And this without in\nthe least acknowledging the right of the governors, masters, or\nhusbands, to exercise the authority they claimed. The recognition of\nthe existence of evils does not involve approbation of them. God tells\nthe Israelites, he gave them a king in his wrath, but nevertheless as\nthey chose to have a king, he laid down directions for the conduct of\nthat king, and had him anointed to reign over them. According to the\ngenerally received meaning of the passages I have quoted, they directly\ncontravene the laws of God, as given in various parts of the Bible. Now\nI must understand the sacred Scriptures as harmonizing with themselves,\nor I cannot receive them as the word of God. The commentators on these\npassages exalt man to the station of a Deity in relation to woman.\nClarke says, \u2018As the Lord Christ is the head, or governor of the\nchurch, and the head of the man, so is the man the head, or governor of\nthe woman. This is God\u2019s ordinance, and should not be transgressed.\n\u2018As unto the Lord.\u2019 The word church seems necessarily to be understood\nhere: that is, act under the authority of your husbands, as the church\nacts under the authority of Christ. As the church submits to the Lord,\nso let wives submit to their husbands.\u2019 Henry goes even further--\u2018For\nthe husband is the head of the wife. The metaphor is taken from the\nhead in the natural body, which being the seat of reason, of wisdom and\nof knowledge, and the fountain of sense and motion, is more excellent\nthan the rest of the body.\u2019 Now if God ordained man the governor of\nwoman, he must be able to save her, and to answer in her stead for all\nthose sins which she commits by his direction. Awful responsibility.\nDo husbands feel able and willing to bear it? And what becomes of the\nsolemn affirmation of Jehovah? \u2018Hear this, all ye people, give ear all\nye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor.\u2019 \u2018None\ncan by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him,\nfor the redemption of the soul is precious, and man cannot accomplish\nit.\u2019--_French Bible._\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER XIV.\n\n                          MINISTRY OF WOMEN.\n\n\n                                             _Brookline, 9th Mo. 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--According to the principle which I have laid\ndown, that man and woman were created equal, and endowed by their\nbeneficent Creator with the same intellectual powers and the same moral\nresponsibilities, and that consequently whatever is _morally_ right\nfor a man to do, is _morally_ right for a woman to do, it follows as\na necessary corollary, that if it is the duty of man to preach the\nunsearchable riches of Christ, it is the duty also of woman.\n\nI am aware, that I have the prejudices of education and custom to\ncombat, both in my own and the other sex, as well as \u2018the traditions\nof men,\u2019 which are taught for the commandments of God. I feel that I\nhave no sectarian views to advance; for although among the Quakers,\nMethodists, and Christians, women are permitted to preach the glad\ntidings of peace and salvation, yet I know of no religious body, who\nentertain the Scripture doctrine of the perfect equality of man and\nwoman, which is the fundamental principle of my argument in favor of\nthe ministry of women. I wish simply to throw my views before thee.\nIf they are based on the immutable foundation of truth, they cannot\nbe overthrown by unkind insinuations, bitter sarcasms, unchristian\nimputations, or contemptuous ridicule. These are weapons which are\nunworthy of a good cause. If I am mistaken, as truth only can prevail,\nmy supposed errors will soon vanish before her beams; but I am\npersuaded that woman is not filling the high and holy station which God\nallotted to her, and that in consequence of her having been driven from\nher \u2018appropriate sphere,\u2019 both herself and her brethren have suffered\nan infinity of evils.\n\nBefore I proceed to prove, that woman is bound to preach the gospel,\nI will examine the ministry under the Old Testament dispensation.\nThose who were called to this office were known under various names.\nEnoch, who prophesied, is designated as walking with God. Noah is\ncalled a preacher of righteousness. They were denominated men of God,\nseers, prophets, but they all had the same great work to perform, viz.\nto turn sinners from the error of their ways. This ministry existed\nprevious to the institution of the Jewish priesthood, and continued\nafter its abolition. _It has nothing to do with the priesthood._ It\nwas rarely, as far as the Bible informs us, exercised by those of the\ntribe of Levi, and was common to all the people, women as well as\nmen. It differed essentially from the priesthood, because there was\nno compensation received for calling the people to repentance. Such a\nthing as paying a prophet for preaching the truth of God is not even\nmentioned. They were called of Jehovah to go forth in his name, one\nfrom his plough, another from gathering of sycamore fruit, &c. &c. Let\nus for a moment imagine Jeremiah, when God says to him, \u2018Gird up thy\nloins, and arise and speak unto the people all that I command thee,\u2019\nreplying to Jehovah, \u2018I will preach repentance to the people, if they\nwill give me gold, but if they will not pay me for the truth, then let\nthem perish in their sins.\u2019 Now, this is virtually the language of the\nministers of the present day; and I believe the secret of the exclusion\nof women from the ministerial office is, that that office has been\nconverted into one of emolument, of honor, and of power. Any attentive\nobserver cannot fail to perceive, that as far as possible, all such\noffices are reserved by men for themselves.\n\nThe common error that Christian ministers are the successors of the\npriests, is founded in mistake. In the particular directions given\nto Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the office of the\npriesthood, their duties are clearly defined: see Ex. 28th, 29th and\n30th chap. There is no commission to Aaron to preach to the people; his\nbusiness was to offer sacrifice. Now why were sacrifices instituted?\nThey were types of that one great sacrifice, which in the fulness of\ntime was offered up through the eternal Spirit without spot to God.\nChrist assumed the office of priest; he \u2018offered himself,\u2019 and by so\ndoing, abolished forever the order of the priesthood, as well as the\nsacrifices which the priests were ordained to offer.[3]\n\nBut it may be inquired, whether the priests were not to teach the\npeople. As far as I can discover from the Bible, they were simply\ncommanded to read the law to the people. There was no other copy that\nwe know of, until the time of the kings, who were to write out a copy\nfor their own use. As it was deposited in the ark, the priests were\nrequired, \u2018When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in\nthe place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all\nIsrael in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, women, and\nchildren, that they may hear,\u2019 Deut. 31: 9-33. See also Lev. 10: 11,\nDeut. 33: 10, 2d Chr. 17: 7-9, and numerous other passages. When God is\nenumerating the means he has used to call his people to repentance, he\nnever, as far as I can discover, speaks of sending his priests to warn\nthem; but in various passages we find language similar to this: \u2018Since\nthe day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this\nday, I have even sent unto you all my servants, the PROPHETS, daily\nrising up early and sending them. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor\ninclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their\nfathers.\u2019 Jer. 7: 25, 26. See also, 25: 4. 2 Chr. 36: 15. and parallel\npassages. God says, Is. 9: 15, 16. \u2018The prophet that teacheth lies,\nhe is the tail; for the leaders of this people cause them to err.\u2019\nThe distinction between priests and prophets is evident from their\nbeing mentioned as two classes. \u2018The prophets prophesy falsely, and\nthe priests bear rule by their means,\u2019 Jer. 5: 31. See also, Ch. 2: 8.\n8:1-10. and many others.\n\nThat women were called to the prophetic office, I believe is\nuniversally admitted. Miriam, Deborah and Huldah were prophetesses. The\njudgments of the Lord are denounced by Ezekiel on false prophetesses,\nas well as false prophets. And if Christian ministers are, as I\napprehend, successors of the prophets, and not of the priests, then of\ncourse, women are now called to that office as well as men, because God\nhas no where withdrawn from them the privilege of doing what is the\ngreat business of preachers, viz. to point the penitent sinner to the\nRedeemer. \u2018Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the\nworld.\u2019\n\nIt is often triumphantly inquired, why, if men and women are on an\nequality, are not women as conspicuous in the Bible as men? I do not\nintend to assign a reason, but I think one may readily be found in\nthe fact, that from the days of Eve to the present time, the aim of\nman has been to crush her. He has accomplished this work in various\nways; sometimes by brute force, sometimes by making her subservient to\nhis worst passions, sometimes by treating her as a doll, and while he\nexcluded from her mind the light of knowledge, decked her person with\ngewgaws and frippery which he scorned for himself, thus endeavoring to\nrender her like unto a painted sepulchre.\n\nIt is truly marvellous that any woman can rise above the pressure of\ncircumstances which combine to crush her. Nothing can strengthen her\nto do this in the character of a preacher of righteousness, but a\ncall from Jehovah himself. And when the voice of God penetrates the\ndeep recesses of her heart, and commands her to go and cry in the\nears of the people, she is ready to exclaim, \u2018Ah, Lord God, behold\nI cannot speak, for I am a woman.\u2019 I have known women in different\nreligious societies, who have felt like the prophet. \u2018His word was in\nmy heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with\nforbearing.\u2019 But they have not dared to open their lips, and have\nendured all the intensity of suffering, produced by disobedience to\nGod, rather than encounter heartless ridicule and injurious suspicions.\nI rejoice that we have been the oppressed, rather than the oppressors.\nGod thus prepared his people for deliverance from outward bondage;\nand I hope our sorrows have prepared us to fulfil our high and holy\nduties, whether public or private, with humility and meekness; and that\nsuffering has imparted fortitude to endure trials, which assuredly\nawait us in the attempt to sunder those chains with which man has bound\nus, galling to the spirit, though unseen by the eye.\n\nSurely there is nothing either astonishing or novel in the gifts of\nthe Spirit being bestowed on woman: nothing astonishing, because there\nis no respect of persons with God; the soul of the woman in his sight\nis as the soul of the man, and both are alike capable of the influence\nof the Holy Spirit. Nothing novel, because, as has been already shown,\nin the sacred records there are found examples of women, as well as of\nmen, exercising the gift of prophecy.\n\nWe attach to the word prophecy, the exclusive meaning of foretelling\nfuture events, but this is certainly a mistake; for the apostle Paul\ndefines it to be \u2018speaking to edification, exhortation and comfort.\u2019\nAnd there appears no possible reason, why women should not do this as\nwell as men. At the time that the Bible was translated into English,\nthe meaning of the word prophecy, was delivering a message from God,\nwhether it was to predict future events, or to warn the people of the\nconsequences of sin. Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, mentions in a\nletter, that the minister being absent, he went to, ---- to prophecy to\nthe people.\n\nBefore I proceed to prove that women, under the Christian dispensation,\nwere anointed of the Holy Ghost to preach, or prophecy, I will mention\nAnna, the (last) prophetess under the Jewish dispensation. \u2018She\ndeparted not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers\nnight and day.\u2019 And coming into the temple, while Simeon was yet\nspeaking to Mary, with the infant Savior in his arms, \u2018spake of Christ\nto all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.\u2019 Blackwall, a\nlearned English critic, in his work entitled, \u2018Sacred Classics,\u2019 says,\nin reference to this passage, Luke 2: 37--\u2018According to the _original_\nreading, the sense will be, that the devout Anna, who attended in the\ntemple, both night and day, spoke of the Messiah to all the inhabitants\nof that city, who constantly worshipped there, and who prepared\nthemselves for the worthy reception of that divine person, whom they\nexpected at this time. And \u2019tis certain, that other devout Jews, not\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, frequently repaired to the temple-worship,\nand might, at this remarkable time, and several others, hear this\nadmirable woman discourse upon the blessed advent of the Redeemer.\nA various reading has Israel instead of Jerusalem, which expresses\nthat religious Jews, from distant places, came thither to divine\noffices, and would with high pleasure hear the discourses of this great\nprophetess, so famed for her extraordinary piety and valuable talents,\nupon the most important and desirable subject.\u2019\n\nI shall now examine the testimony of the Bible on this point, after\nthe ascension of our Lord, beginning with the glorious effusion of the\nHoly Spirit on the day of Pentecost. I presume it will not be denied,\nthat women, as well as men, were at that time filled with the Holy\nGhost, because it is expressly stated, that women were among those who\ncontinued in prayer and supplication, waiting for the fulfilment of\nthe promise, that they should be endued with power from on high. \u2018When\nthe day of Pentecost was fully come, they were ALL with one accord\nin one place. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of\nfire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the\nHoly Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave\nthem utterance.\u2019 Peter says, in reference to this miracle, \u2018This is\nthat which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass\nin the last days, said God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh;\nand your sons and your daughters shall prophesy--and on my servants\nand on my hand-maidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit,\nand they shall prophesy.\u2019 There is not the least intimation that this\nwas a spasmodic influence which was soon to cease. The men and women\nare classed together; and if the power to preach the gospel was a\nsupernatural and short-lived impulse in women, then it was equally\nso in men. But we are told, those were the days of miracles. I grant\nit; but the men, equally with the women, were the subjects of this\nmarvellous fulfilment of prophecy, and of course, if women have lost\nthe gift of prophesying, so have men. We are also gravely told, that\nif a woman pretends to inspiration, and thereupon grounds the right\nto plead the cause of a crucified Redeemer in public, she will be\nbelieved when she shows credentials from heaven, i. e. when she works\na miracle. I reply, if this be necessary to prove her right to preach\nthe gospel, then I demand of my brethren to show me their credentials;\nelse I cannot receive their ministry, by their own showing. John Newton\nhas justly said, that no power but that which created a world, can\nmake a minister of the gospel; and man may task his ingenuity to the\nutmost, to prove that this power is not exercised on women as well as\nmen. He cannot do it until he has first disclaimed that simple, but all\ncomprehensive truth, \u2018in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.\u2019\n\nWomen then, according to the Bible, were, under the New Testament\ndispensation, as well as the Old, the recipients of the gift of\nprophecy. That this is no sectarian view may be proved by the following\nextracts. The first I shall offer is from Stratton\u2019s \u2018Book of the\nPriesthood.\u2019\n\n \u2018While they were assembled in the upper room to wait for the blessing,\n in number about one hundred and twenty, they received the miraculous\n gifts of the Holy Spirit\u2019s grace; they became the channels through\n which its more ordinary, but not less saving streams flowed to three\n thousand persons in one day. The whole company of the assembled\n disciples, male and female, young and old, were all filled with the\n Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave\n them utterance. They all contributed in producing that impression upon\n the assembled multitude, which Peter was instrumental in advancing to\n its decisive results.\u2019\n\nScott, in his commentary on this passage, says--\n\n \u2018At the same time, there appeared the form of tongues divided at the\n tip and resembling fire; one of which rested on each of the whole\n company.\u2019 \u2018They sat on every one present, as the original determines.\n At the time of these extraordinary appearances, the whole company were\n abundantly replenished with the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit,\n so that they began to speak with other tongues.\u2019\n\nHenry in his notes confirms this:\n\n \u2018It seems evident to me that not the twelve apostles only, but all the\n one hundred and twenty disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost alike\n at this time,--all the seventy disciples, who were apostolical men and\n employed in the same work, and all the rest too that were to preach\n the gospel, for it is said expressly, Eph. 4: 8-12: \u2018When Christ\n ascended up on high, (which refers to this) he gave gifts unto men.\u2019\n The all here must refer to the all that were together.\u2019\n\nI need hardly remark that man is a generic term, including both sexes.\n\nLet us now examine whether women actually exercised the office of\nminister, under the gospel dispensation. Philip had four daughters, who\nprophesied or preached. Paul calls Priscilla, as well as Aquila, his\nhelpers; or, as in the Greek, his fellow laborers[4] in Christ Jesus.\nDivers other passages might be adduced to prove that women continued to\nbe preachers, and that _many_ of them filled this dignified station.\n\nWe learn also from ecclesiastical history, that female ministers\nsuffered martyrdom in the early ages of the Christian church. In\nancient councils, mention is made of deaconesses; and in an edition of\nthe New Testament, printed in 1574, a woman is spoken of as minister\nof a church. The same word, which, in our common translation, is now\nrendered a servant of the church, in speaking of Phebe, Rom. 16: 1, is\nrendered minister, Eph. 6: 21, when applied to Tychicus. A minister,\nwith whom I had lately the pleasure of conversing, remarked, \u2018My rule\nis to expound scripture by scripture, and I cannot deny the ministry of\nwomen, because the apostle says, \u2018help those women who labored with me\nIN THE GOSPEL.\u2019 He certainly meant something more than pouring out tea\nfor him.\u2019\n\nIn the 11th Ch. of 1 Cor., Paul gives directions to women and men how\nthey should appear when they prophesy, or pray in public assemblies.\nIt is evident that the design of the apostle, in this and the three\nsucceeding chapters, is to rectify certain abuses which had crept into\nthe Christian church. He therefore admonishes women to pray with their\nheads covered, because, according to the fashion of that day, it was\nconsidered immodest and immoral to do otherwise. He says, \u2018that were\nall one as if she were shaven;\u2019 and shaving the head was a disgraceful\npunishment that was inflicted on women of bad character.\n\n \u2018These things,\u2019 says Scott, \u2018the apostle stated as decent and proper,\n but if any of the Corinthian teachers inclined to excite contention\n about them, he would only add, v. 16, that he and his brethren knew of\n no such custom as prevailed among them, nor was there any such in the\n churches of God which had been planted by the other apostles.\u2019\n\nJohn Locke, whilst engaged in writing his notes on the Epistles of St.\nPaul, was at a meeting where two women preached. After hearing them,\nhe became convinced of their commission to publish the gospel, and\nthereupon altered his notes on the 11th Ch. 1 Cor. in favor of women\u2019s\npreaching. He says,--\n\n \u2018This about women seeming as difficult a passage as most in St.\n Paul\u2019s Epistles, I crave leave to premise some few considerations.\n It is plain that this covering the head in women is restrained to\n some peculiar actions which they performed in the assembly, expressed\n by the words praying, prophesying, which, whatever they signify,\n must have the same meaning applied to women in the 5th verse, that\n they have when applied to men in the 4th, &c. The next thing to\n be considered is, what is here to be understood by praying and\n prophesying. And that seems to me the performing of some public action\n in the assembly, by some one person which was for that time peculiar\n to that person, and whilst it lasted, the rest of the assembly\n silently assisted. As to prophesying, the apostle in express words\n tells us, Ch. 14: 3, 12, that it was speaking in the assembly. The\n same is evident as to praying, that the apostle means by it publicly\n with an audible voice, ch. 14: 19.\u2019\n\nIn a letter to these two women, Rebecca Collier and Rachel Bracken,\nwhich accompanied a little testimony of his regard, he says,\n\n \u2018I admire no converse like that of Christian freedom; and I fear no\n bondage like that of pride and prejudice. I now see that acquaintance\n by sight cannot reach the height of enjoyment, which acquaintance\n by knowledge arrives unto. Outward hearing may misguide us, but\n internal knowledge cannot err.\u2019 \u2018Women, indeed, had the honor of\n first publishing the resurrection of the God of love--why not again\n the resurrection of the spirit of love? And let all the disciples of\n Christ rejoice therein, as doth your partner, John Locke.\u2019\n\nSee \u2018The Friend,\u2019 a periodical published in Philadelphia.\n\nAdam Clarke\u2019s comment on 1 Cor. 11: 5, is similar to Locke\u2019s:\n\n \u2018Whatever be the meaning of praying and prophesying in respect to the\n man, they have precisely the same meaning in respect to the woman.\n So that some women at least, as well as some men, might speak to\n others to edification and exhortation and comfort. And this kind of\n prophesying, or teaching, was predicted by Joel 2: 28, and referred\n to by Peter; and had there not been such gifts bestowed on women, the\n prophesy could not have had its fulfilment.\u2019\n\nIn the autobiography of Adam Clarke, there is an interesting account\nof his hearing Mary Sewall and another female minister preach, and he\nacknowledges that such was the power accompanying their ministry, that\nthough he had been prejudiced against women\u2019s preaching, he could not\nbut confess that these women were anointed for the office.\n\nBut there are certain passages in the Epistles of St. Paul, which seem\nto be of doubtful interpretation; at which we cannot much marvel,\nseeing that his brother Peter says, there are some things in them hard\nto be understood. Most commentators, having their minds preoccupied\nwith the prejudices of education, afford little aid; they rather tend\nto darken the text by the multitude of words. One of these passages\noccurs in 1 Cor. 14. I have already remarked, that this chapter, with\nseveral of the preceding, was evidently designed to correct abuses\nwhich had crept into the assemblies of Christians in Corinth. Hence\nwe find that the men were commanded to be silent, as well as the\nwomen, when they were guilty of any thing which deserved reprehension.\nThe apostle says, \u2018If there be no interpreter, let him keep silence\nin the church.\u2019 The men were doubtless in the practice of speaking\nin unknown tongues, when there was no interpreter present; and Paul\nreproves them, because this kind of preaching conveyed no instruction\nto the people. Again he says, \u2018If any thing be revealed to another that\nsitteth by, let the first hold his peace.\u2019 We may infer from this,\nthat two men sometimes attempted to speak at the same time, and the\napostle rebukes them, and adds, \u2018Ye may ALL prophesy one by one, for\nGod is not the author of confusion, but of peace.\u2019 He then proceeds to\nnotice the disorderly conduct of the women, who were guilty of other\nimproprieties. They were probably in the habit of asking questions, on\nany points of doctrine which they wished more thoroughly explained.\nThis custom was common among the men in the Jewish synagogues, after\nthe pattern of which, the meetings of the early Christians were in\nall probability conducted. And the Christian women, presuming on the\nliberty which they enjoyed under the new religion, interrupted the\nassembly, by asking questions. The apostle disapproved of this, because\nit disturbed the solemnity of the meeting: he therefore admonishes the\nwomen to keep silence in the churches. That the apostle did not allude\nto preaching is manifest, because he tells them, \u2018If they will _learn_\nany thing, let them ask their husbands at home.\u2019 Now a person endowed\nwith a gift in the ministry, does not ask questions in the public\nexercise of that gift, for the purpose of gaining information: she is\ninstructing others. Moreover, the apostle, in closing his remarks on\nthis subject, says, \u2018Wherefore, brethren, (a generic term, applying\nequally to men and women,) covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak\nwith tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.\u2019\n\nClarke, on the passage, \u2018Let women keep silence in the churches,\u2019 says:\n\n \u2018This was a Jewish ordinance. Women were not permitted to teach in the\n assemblies, or even to ask questions. The rabbins taught that a woman\n should know nothing but the use of her distaff; and the saying of\n Rabbi Eliezer is worthy of remark and execration: \u2018Let the words of\n the law be burned, rather than that they should be delivered by women.\u2019\n\nAre there not many of our Christian brethren, whose hostility to the\nministry of women is as bitter as was that of Rabbi Eliezer, and who\nwould rather let souls perish, than that the truths of the gospel\nshould be delivered by women?\n\n \u2018This,\u2019 says Clarke, \u2018was their condition till the time of the gospel,\n when, according to the prediction of Joel, the Spirit of God was to be\n poured out on the women as well as the men, that they might prophesy,\n that is, teach. And that they did prophesy, or teach, is evident from\n what the apostle says, ch. 11: 5, where he lays down rules to regulate\n this part of their conduct while ministering in the church. But does\n not what the apostle says here, let your women keep silence in the\n churches, contradict that statement, and show that the words in ch.\n 11, should be understood in another sense? for here it is expressly\n said, that they should keep silence in the churches, for it was not\n permitted to a woman to speak. Both places seem perfectly consistent.\n It is evident from the context, that the apostle refers here to asking\n questions, and what we call dictating in the assemblies.\u2019\n\nThe other passage on which the opinion, that women are not called to\nthe ministry, is founded, is 1 Tim. 2d ch. The apostle speaks of the\nduty of prayer and supplication, mentions his own ordination as a\npreacher, and then adds, \u2018I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere,\nlifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner\nalso, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,\u2019 &c. I shall here\npremise, that as the punctuation and division into chapters and verses\nis no part of the original arrangement, they cannot determine the sense\nof a passage. Indeed, every attentive reader of the Bible must observe,\nthat the injudicious separation of sentences often destroys their\nmeaning and their beauty. Joseph John Gurney, whose skill as a biblical\ncritic is well known in England, commenting on this passage, says,\n\n \u2018It is worded in a manner somewhat obscure; but appears to be best\n construed according to the opinion of various commentators (See Pool\u2019s\n Synopsis) as conveying an injunction, that women as well as men should\n pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.\n 1 Tim. 2: 8, 9. \u2018I will therefore that men pray everywhere, &c.;\n likewise also the women in a modest dress.\u2019 (Compare 1 Cor. 11: 5.) \u2018I\n would have them adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety.\u2019\u2019\n\nI have no doubt this is the true meaning of the text, and that the\ntranslators would never have thought of altering it had they not been\nunder the influence of educational prejudice. The apostle proceeds\nto exhort the women, who thus publicly made intercession to God, not\nto adorn themselves with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly\narray, but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good\nworks.\u2019 The word in this verse translated \u2018professing,\u2019 would be more\nproperly rendered preaching godliness, or enjoining piety to the gods,\nor conducting public worship. After describing the duty of female\nministers about their apparel, the apostle proceeds to correct some\nimproprieties which probably prevailed in the Ephesian church, similar\nto those which he had reproved among the Corinthian converts. He says,\n\u2018Let the women LEARN in silence with all subjection; but I suffer not\na woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in\nsilence,\u2019 or quietness. Here again it is evident that the women, of\nwhom he was speaking, were admonished to learn in silence, which could\nnot refer to their public ministrations to others. The verb to teach,\nverse 12, is one of very general import, and may in this place more\nproperly be rendered dictate. It is highly probable that women who had\nlong been in bondage, when set free by Christianity from the restraints\nimposed upon them by Jewish traditions and heathen customs, run into\nan extreme in their public assemblies, and interrupted the religious\nservices by frequent interrogations, which they could have had answered\nas satisfactorily at home.\n\nOn a candid examination and comparison of the passages which I have\nendeavored to explain, viz., 1 Cor. chaps. 11 and 14, and 1 Tim. 2,\n8-12. I think we must be compelled to adopt one of two conclusions;\neither that the apostle grossly contradicts himself on a subject of\ngreat practical importance, and that the fulfilment of the prophecy\nof Joel was a shameful infringement of decency and order; or that\nthe directions given to women, not to speak, or to teach in the\ncongregations, had reference to some local and peculiar customs, which\nwere then common in religious assemblies, and which the apostle thought\ninconsistent with the purpose for which they were met together. No\none, I suppose, will hesitate which of these two conclusions to adopt.\nThe subject is one of vital importance. That it may claim the calm and\nprayerful attention of Christians, is the desire of\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] I cannot enter fully into this part of my subject. It is, however,\none of great importance, and I recommend those who wish to examine it,\nto read \u2018The Book of the Priesthood,\u2019 by an English Dissenter, and\nBeverly\u2019s \u2018View of the Present State of the Visible Church of Christ.\u2019\nThey are both masterly productions.\n\n[4] Rom. 16: 3, compare Gr. text of v. 21, 2. Cor. 8: 23; Phil. 2: 25;\n1 Thes. 3: 2.\n\n\n\n\n                              LETTER XV.\n\n              MAN EQUALLY GUILTY WITH WOMAN IN THE FALL.\n\n\n                                       _Uxbridge, 10th Mo. 20th, 1837._\n\nMY DEAR SISTER,--It is said that \u2018modern Jewish women light a lamp\nevery Friday evening, half an hour before sunset, which is the\nbeginning of their Sabbath, in remembrance of their original mother,\nwho first extinguished the lamp of righteousness,--to remind them of\ntheir obligation to rekindle it.\u2019 I am one of those who always admit,\nto its fullest extent, the popular charge, that woman brought sin into\nthe world. I accept it as a powerful reason, why woman is bound to\nlabor with double diligence, for the regeneration of that world she has\nbeen instrumental in ruining.\n\nBut, although I do not repel the imputation, I shall notice some\npassages in the sacred Scriptures, where this transaction is mentioned,\nwhich prove, I think, the identity and equality of man and woman, and\nthat there is no difference in their guilt in the view of that God who\nsearcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men. In Is.\n43: 27, we find the following passage--\u2018Thy first father hath sinned,\nand thy teachers have transgressed against me\u2019--which is synonymous\nwith Rom. 5: 12. \u2018Wherefore, as by ONE MAN sin entered into the world,\nand death by sin, &c.\u2019 Here man and woman are included under one term,\nand no distinction is made in their criminality. The circumstances of\nthe fall are again referred to in 2 Cor. 11: 3--\u2018But I fear lest, by\nany means, as the serpent _beguiled_ Eve through his subtility, so\nyour mind should be beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ.\u2019\nAgain, 1st Tim. 2: 14--\u2018Adam _was not deceived_; but the woman being\n_deceived_, was in the transgression.\u2019 Now, whether the fact, that Eve\nwas beguiled and deceived, is a proof that her crime was of deeper\ndye than Adam\u2019s, who was not deceived, but was fully aware of the\nconsequences of sharing in her transgression, I shall leave the candid\nreader to determine.\n\nMy present object is to show, that, as woman is charged with all the\nsin that exists in the world, it is her solemn duty to labor for its\nextinction; and that this she can never do effectually and extensively,\nuntil her mind is disenthralled of those shackles which have been\nriveted upon her by a \u2018_corrupt public opinion, and a perverted\ninterpretation of the holy Scriptures_.\u2019 Woman must feel that she is\nthe equal, and is designed to be the fellow laborer of her brother, or\nshe will be studying to find out the _imaginary_ line which separates\nthe sexes, and divides the duties of men and women into two distinct\nclasses, a separation not even hinted at in the Bible, where we are\nexpressly told, \u2018there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one\nin Christ Jesus.\u2019\n\nMy views on this subject are so much better embodied in the language\nof a living author than I can express them, that I quote the passage\nentire: \u2018Woman\u2019s rights and man\u2019s rights are _both_ contained in\nthe _same_ charter, and held by the _same_ tenure. _All rights_\nspring out of the _moral_ nature: they are both the root and the\noffspring of _responsibilities_. The physical constitution is the mere\n_instrument_ of the _moral_ nature; sex is a mere _incident_ of this\nconstitution, a provision necessary to this _form_ of existence; its\n_only_ design, not to give, nor to take away, nor in any respect to\nmodify or even _touch_ rights or responsibilities in any sense, except\nso far as the peculiar offices of each sex may afford less or more\n_opportunity_ and ability for the exercise of rights, and the discharge\nof responsibilities; but merely to continue and enlarge the human\ndepartment of God\u2019s government. Consequently, I know nothing of _man\u2019s_\nrights, or _woman\u2019s_ rights; _human_ rights are all that I recognise.\nThe doctrine, that the _sex of the body_ presides over and administers\nupon the rights and responsibilities of the moral, immortal nature, is\nto my mind a doctrine kindred to blasphemy, _when seen in its intrinsic\nnature_. It breaks up utterly the _relations_ of the two natures, and\nreverses their functions; exalting the animal nature into a monarch,\nand humbling the moral into a slave; making the former a proprietor,\nand the latter its property.\u2019\n\nTo perform our duties, we must comprehend our rights and\nresponsibilities; and it is because we do not understand, that we now\nfall so far short in the discharge of our obligations. Unaccustomed to\nthink for ourselves, and to search the sacred volume, to see how far we\nare living up to the design of Jehovah in our creation, we have rested\nsatisfied with the sphere marked out for us by man, never detecting\nthe fallacy of that reasoning which forbids woman to exercise some\nof her noblest faculties, and stamps with the reproach of indelicacy\nthose actions by which women were formerly dignified and exalted in the\nchurch.\n\nI should not mention this subject again, if it were not to point out to\nmy sisters what seems to me an irresistible conclusion from the literal\ninterpretation of St. Paul, without reference to the context, and the\npeculiar circumstances and abuses which drew forth the expressions,\n\u2018I suffer not a woman to teach\u2019--\u2018Let your women keep silence in the\nchurch,\u2019 i. e. congregation. It is manifest, that if the apostle meant\nwhat his words imply, when taken in the strictest sense, then women\nhave no right to _teach_ Sabbath or day schools, or to open their lips\nto sing in the assemblies of the people; yet young and delicate women\nare engaged in all these offices; they are expressly trained to exhibit\nthemselves, and raise their voices to a high pitch in the choirs of our\nplaces of worship. I do not intend to sit in judgment on my sisters for\ndoing these things; I only want them to see, that they are as really\ninfringing a _supposed_ divine command, by instructing their pupils in\nthe Sabbath or day schools, and by singing in the congregation, as if\nthey were engaged in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to a\nlost and perishing world. Why, then, are we permitted to break this\ninjunction in some points, and so sedulously warned not to overstep\nthe bounds set for us by our _brethren_ in another? Simply, as I\nbelieve, because in the one case we subserve _their_ views and _their_\ninterests, and act _in subordination to them_; whilst in the other, we\ncome in contact with their interests, and claim to be on an equality\nwith them in the highest and most important trust ever committed to\nman, namely, the ministry of the word. It is manifest, that if women\nwere permitted to be ministers of the gospel, as they unquestionably\nwere in the primitive ages of the Christian church, it would interfere\nmaterially with the present organized system of spiritual power and\necclesiastical authority, which is now vested solely in the hands of\nmen. It would either show that all the paraphernalia of theological\nseminaries, &c. &c. to prepare men to become evangelists, is wholly\nunnecessary, or it would create a necessity for similar institutions\nin order to prepare women for the same office; and this would be\nan encroachment on that learning, which our hind brethren have\nso ungenerously monopolized. I do not ask any one to believe my\nstatements, or adopt my conclusions, because they are mine; but I do\nearnestly entreat my sisters to lay aside their prejudices, and examine\nthese subjects _for themselves_, regardless of the \u2018traditions of\nmen,\u2019 because they are intimately connected with their duty and their\nusefulness in the present important crisis.\n\nAll who know any thing of the present system of benevolent and\nreligious operations, know that women are performing an important\npart in them, in _subserviency to men_, who guide our labors, and are\noften the recipients of those benefits of education we toil to confer,\nand which we rejoice they can enjoy, although it is their mandate\nwhich deprives us of the same advantages. Now, whether our brethren\nhave defrauded us intentionally, or unintentionally, the wrong we\nsuffer is equally the same. For years, they have been spurring us up\nto the performance of our duties. The immense usefulness and the vast\ninfluence of woman have been eulogized and called into exercise, and\nmany a blessing has been lavished upon us, and many a prayer put up\nfor us, because we have labored by day and by night to clothe and feed\nand educate young men, whilst our own bodies sometimes suffer for\nwant of comfortable garments, and our minds are left in almost utter\ndestitution of that improvement which we are toiling to bestow upon the\nbrethren.\n\n  \u2018Full many a gem of purest ray serene,\n    The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;\n  Full many a flower is born to blush unseen\n    And waste its sweetness on the desert air.\u2019\n\nIf the sewing societies, the avails of whose industry are now expended\nin supporting and educating young men for the ministry, were to\nwithdraw their contributions to these objects, and give them where they\nare _more needed_, to the advancement of their _own sex_ in useful\nlearning, the next generation might furnish sufficient proof, that\nin intelligence and ability to master the whole circle of sciences,\nwoman is not inferior to man; and instead of a sensible woman being\nregarded as she now is, is a lusus natur\u00e6, they would be quite as\ncommon as sensible men. I confess, considering the high claim men in\nthis country make to great politeness and deference to women, it does\nseem a little extraordinary that we should be urged to work for the\nbrethren. I should suppose it would be more in character with \u2018the\ngenerous promptings of chivalry, and the poetry of romantic gallantry,\u2019\nfor which Catherine E. Beecher gives them credit, for them to form\nsocieties to educate their sisters, seeing our inferior capacities\nrequire more cultivation to bring them into use, and qualify us to be\nhelps meet for them. However, though I think this would be but a just\nreturn for all our past kindnesses in this way, I should be willing\nto balance our accounts, and begin a new course. Henceforth, let the\nbenefit be reciprocated, or else let each sex provide for the education\nof their own poor, whose talents ought to be rescued from the oblivion\nof ignorance. Sure I am, the young men who are now benefitted by the\nhandy work of their sisters, will not be less honorable if they occupy\nhalf their time in earning enough to pay for their own education,\ninstead of depending on the industry of women, who not unfrequently\ndeprive themselves of the means of purchasing valuable books which\nmight enlarge their stock of useful knowledge, and perhaps prove a\nblessing to the family by furnishing them with instructive reading. If\nthe minds of women were enlightened and improved, the domestic circle\nwould be more frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a means\nof edification now deplorably neglected, for want of that cultivation\nwhich these intellectual advantages would confer.\n\n\n                           DUTIES OF WOMEN.\n\nOne of the duties which devolve upon women in the present interesting\ncrisis, is to prepare themselves for more extensive usefulness, by\nmaking use of those religious and literary privileges and advantages\nthat are within their reach, if they will only stretch out their hands\nand possess them. By doing this, they will become better acquainted\nwith their rights as moral beings, and with their responsibilities\ngrowing out of those rights: they will regard themselves, as they\nreally are, FREE AGENTS, immortal beings, amenable to no tribunal but\nthat of Jehovah, and bound not to submit to any restriction imposed\nfor selfish purposes, or to gratify that love of power which has\nreigned in the heart of man from Adam down to the present time. In\ncontemplating the great moral reformations of the day, and the part\nwhich they are bound to take in them, instead of puzzling themselves\nwith the harassing, because unnecessary inquiry, how far they may go\nwithout overstepping the bounds of propriety, which separate male and\nfemale duties, they will only inquire, \u2018Lord, what wilt thou have us to\ndo?\u2019 They will be enabled to see the simple truth, that God has made no\ndistinction between men and women as moral beings; that the distinction\nnow so much insisted upon between male and female virtues is as absurd\nas it is unscriptural, and has been the fruitful source of much\nmischief--granting to man a license for the exhibition of brute force\nand conflict on the battle field; for sternness, selfishness, and the\nexercise of irresponsible power in the circle of home--and to woman a\npermit to rest on an arm of flesh, and to regard modesty and delicacy,\nand all the kindred virtues, as peculiarly appropriate to her. Now to\nme it is perfectly clear, that WHATSOEVER IT IS MORALLY RIGHT FOR A\nMAN TO DO, IT IS MORALLY RIGHT FOR A WOMAN TO DO; and that confusion\nmust exist in the moral world, until women takes her stand on the same\nplatform with man, and feels that she is clothed by her Maker with the\n_same rights_, and, of course, that upon her devolve the _same duties_.\n\nIt is not my intention, nor indeed do I think it is in my power, to\npoint out the precise duties of women. To him who still teacheth by\nhis Holy Spirit as never man taught, I refer my beloved sisters. There\nis a vast field of usefulness before them. The signs of the times give\nportentous evidence, that a day of deep trial is approaching; and I\nurge them, by every consideration of a Savior\u2019s dying love, by the\nmillions of heathen in our midst, by the sufferings of woman in almost\nevery portion of the world, by the fearful ravages which slavery,\nintemperance, licentiousness and other iniquities are making of the\nhappiness of our fellow creatures, to come to the rescue of a ruined\nworld, and to be found co-workers with Jesus Christ.\n\n  \u2018Ho! to the rescue, ho!\n    Up every one that feels--\n  \u2019Tis a sad and fearful cry of woe\n    From a guilty world that steals.\n  Hark! hark! how the horror rolls,\n    Whence can this anguish be?\n  \u2019Tis the groan of a trammel\u2019d people\u2019s souls,\n    _Now bursting_ to be free.\u2019\n\nAnd here, with all due deference for the office of the ministry, which\nI believe was established by Jehovah himself, and designed by Him to\nbe the means of spreading light and salvation through a crucified\nSavior to the ends of the earth, I would entreat my sisters not to\n_compel_ the ministers of the present day to give their names to great\nmoral reformations. The practice of making ministers life members, or\nofficers of societies, when their hearts have not been touched with a\nlive coal from the altar, and animated with love for the work we are\nengaged in, is highly injurious to them, as well as to the cause. They\noften satisfy their consciences in this way, without doing anything to\npromote the anti-slavery, or temperance, or other reformations; and we\nplease ourselves with the idea, that we have done something to forward\nthe cause of Christ, when, in effect, we have been sewing pillows like\nthe false prophetesses of old under the arm-holes of our clerical\nbrethren. Let us treat the ministers with all tenderness and respect,\nbut let us be careful how we cherish in their hearts the idea that they\nare of more importance to a cause than other men. I rejoice when they\ntake hold heartily. I love and honor some ministers with whom I have\nbeen associated in the anti-slavery ranks, but I do deeply deplore, for\nthe sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be\nhad, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion\nor bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better\nwithout them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot\ncome on earth, without their co-operation. It is the Lord\u2019s work,\nand it must go forward with or without their aid. As well might the\nconverted Jews have despaired of the spread of Christianity, without\nthe co-operation of Scribes and Pharisees.\n\nLet us keep in mind, that no abolitionism is of any value, which is\nnot accompanied with deep, heartfelt repentance; and that, whenever\na minister sincerely repents of having, either by his apathy or his\nefforts, countenanced the fearful sin of slavery, he will need no\ninducement to come into our ranks; so far from it, he will abhor\nhimself in dust and ashes, for his past blindness and indifference\nto the cause of God\u2019s poor and oppressed: and he will regard it as a\nprivilege to be enabled to do something in the cause of human rights.\nI know the ministry exercise vast power; but I rejoice in the belief,\nthat the spell is broken which encircled them, and rendered it all but\nblasphemy to expose their errors and their sins. We are beginning to\nunderstand that they are but men, and that their station should not\nshield them from merited reproof.\n\nI have blushed for my sex when I have heard of their entreating\nministers to attend their associations, and open them with prayer. The\nidea is inconceivable to me, that Christian women can be engaged in\ndoing God\u2019s work, and yet cannot ask his blessing on their efforts,\nexcept through the lips of a man. I have known a whole town scoured to\nobtain a minister to open a female meeting, and their refusal to do so\nspoken of as quite a misfortune. Now, I am not glad that the ministers\ndo wrong; but I am glad that my sisters have been sometimes compelled\nto act for themselves: it is exactly what they need to strengthen them,\nand prepare them to act independently. And to say the truth, there is\nsomething really ludicrous in seeing a minister enter the meeting,\nopen it with prayer, and then take his departure. However, I only\nthrow out these hints for the consideration of women. I believe there\nare solemn responsibilities resting upon us, and that in this day of\nlight and knowledge, we cannot plead ignorance of duty. The great moral\nreformations now on the wheel are only practical Christianity; and\nif the ministry is not prepared to labor with us in these righteous\ncauses, let us press forward, and they will follow on to know the Lord.\n\n\n                              CONCLUSION.\n\nI have now, my dear sister, completed my series of letters. I am\naware, they contain some new views; but I believe they are based on\nthe immutable truths of the Bible. All I ask for them is, the candid\nand prayerful consideration of Christians. If they strike at some\nof our bosom sins, our deep-rooted prejudices, our long cherished\nopinions, let us not condemn them on that account, but investigate\nthem fearlessly and prayerfully, and not shrink from the examination;\nbecause, if they are true, they place heavy responsibilities upon\nwomen. In throwing them before the public, I have been actuated solely\nby the belief, that if they are acted upon, they will exalt the\ncharacter and enlarge the usefulness of my own sex, and contribute\ngreatly to the happiness and virtue of the other. That there is a root\nof bitterness continually springing up in families and troubling the\nrepose of both men and women, must be manifest to even a superficial\nobserver; and I believe it is the mistaken notion of the inequality of\nthe sexes. As there is an assumption of superiority on the one part,\nwhich is not sanctioned by Jehovah, there is an incessant struggle\non the other to rise to that degree of dignity, which God designed\nwomen to possess in common with men, and to maintain those rights and\nexercise those privileges which every woman\u2019s common sense, apart from\nthe prejudices of education, tells her are inalienable; they are a part\nof her moral nature, and can only cease when her immortal mind is\nextinguished.\n\nOne word more. I feel that I am calling upon my sex to sacrifice what\nhas been, what is still dear to their hearts, the adulation, the\nflattery, the attentions of trifling men. I am asking them to repel\nthese insidious enemies whenever they approach them; to manifest by\ntheir conduct, that, although they value highly the society of pious\nand intelligent men, they have no taste for idle conversation, and\nfor that silly preference which is manifested for their personal\naccommodation, often at the expense of great inconvenience to their\nmale companions. As an illustration of what I mean, I will state a fact.\n\nI was traveling lately in a stage coach. A gentleman, who was also\na passenger, was made sick by riding with his back to the horses. I\noffered to exchange seats, assuring him it did not affect me at all\nunpleasantly; but he was too polite to permit a lady to run the risk of\nbeing discommoded. I am sure he meant to be very civil, but I really\nthought it was a foolish piece of civility. This kind of attention\nencourages selfishness in woman, and is only accorded as a sort of\nquietus, in exchange for those _rights_ of which we are deprived. Men\nand women are equally bound to cultivate a spirit of accommodation;\nbut I exceedingly deprecate her being treated like a spoiled child,\nand sacrifices made to her selfishness and vanity. In lieu of these\nflattering but injurious attentions, yielded to her as an inferior, as\na mark of benevolence and courtesy, I want my sex to claim nothing from\ntheir brethren but what their brethren may justly claim from them,\nin their intercourse as Christians. I am persuaded woman can do much\nin this way to elevate her own character. And that we may become duly\nsensible of the dignity of our nature, only a little lower than the\nangels, and bring forth fruit to the glory and honor of Emanuel\u2019s name,\nis the fervent prayer of\n\n                                       Thine in the bonds of womanhood,\n\n                                                       SARAH M. GRIMKE.\n\n\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\nErrors in punctuation have been fixed.\n\nPage 7: \u201cThy both\u201d changed to \u201cThey both\u201d\n\nPage 8: \u201cflesh, flowl\u201d changed to \u201cflesh, fowl\u201d\n\nPage 9: \u201cmoral responsibilites\u201d changed to \u201cmoral responsibilities\u201d\n\nPage 21: \u201cPastoral Lerter\u201d changed to \u201cPastoral Letter\u201d\n\nPage 25: \u201cmessenger of Jehevah\u201d changed to \u201cmessenger of Jehovah\u201d\n\nPage 36: \u201cand someties\u201d changed to \u201cand sometimes\u201d\n\nPage 43: In the footnote, \u201cde famille on de\u201d changed to \u201cde famille ou\nde\u201d and \u201cParis and Loudon\u201d changed to \u201cParis and London\u201d\n\nPage 48: \u201cos well as\u201d changed to \u201cas well as\u201d\n\nPage 50: \u201cmaking a waistcoast\u201d changed to \u201cmaking a waistcoat\u201d\n\nPage 57: \u201che mean time\u201d changed to \u201cthe mean time\u201d\n\nPage 61: \u201cINTELLLECT OF WOMAN\u201d changed to \u201cINTELLECT OF WOMAN\u201d\n\nPage 67: \u201cChristian countres\u201d changed to \u201cChristian countries\u201d\n\nPage 70: \u201cglorions reformations\u201d changed to \u201cglorious reformations\u201d\n\nPage 79: \u201cder husband\u2019s\u201d changed to \u201cher husband\u2019s\u201d\n\nPage 89: \u201cthe same gound\u201d changed to \u201cthe same ground\u201d\n\nPage 101: \u201cbut hardende\u201d changed to \u201cbut hardened\u201d\n\nPage 118: \u201cso seduously\u201d changed to \u201cso sedulously\u201d\n\nPage 120: \u201clusses natur\u00e6\u201d changed to \u201clusus natur\u00e6\u201d\n\nPage 122: \u201cforst ernness\u201d changed to \u201cfor sternness\u201d\n\nPage 128: \u201cwoman can can do much\u201d changed to \u201cwoman can do much\u201d","title":"Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":34463}