Grimke sisters house in charleston
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American Girls Art Club In Paris. . . and Beyond
Last summer my book club thoroughly enjoyed reading and discussing Sue Monk Kidd’s 2014 historical novel Invention of Wings. Ever since then, a trip to Charleston was high on my travel wish list. I wanted to walk in the footsteps of Sarah and Angelina Grimké, as well as their house slaves Hettie and Charlotte.
I’ve recently returned from a long weekend in Charleston and that’s exactly what inom did, thanks to Carol Ezell Gilson and Le Ann Bain’s “The Original Grimké Sisters Tour,” which I highly recommend.
Follow along on my photo tour until you can get the chance to go to Charleston yourself.
The Grimké Family Home at 321 East Bay Street in Charleston (1803-1819). The Grimkés moved here when Sarah was 11 years old. Angelina was born here in 1805. Most of the events from the Invention of Wings takes place here.
The front door of the Grimké family home at 321 East Bay St. The G
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THE NOVEL
Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling novel, “The Invention of Wings” (Jan. 2014), has brought the story of the Grimké Sisters to light and inspired this walking tour through downtown Charleston. Though known as unconventional abolitionists and feminists in their day, Angelina and Sarah Grimké have remained obscure in American history and (mostly) unrecognized in Charleston, city of their birth. Join us to learn more about them and their story.
LEARN THE HISTORY
Growing up in a slave owning family Angelina and Sarah Grimké turned their backs on their home and family to begin a crusade on fighting injustices to women of the day and those enslaved. Follow in the footsteps of these 2 courageous women and discover how life in Charleston was for both the privileged elite and the enslaved masses.The popularity of Kidd's novel led to the creation of this walking tour for the Pres
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About the header photo
By Sandra Hutchinson
It wasn’t until I had read a few chapters of The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd, that it dawned on me that the characters in the book might have some basis in fact. I think I flipped to the book’s prologue, where I was astonished to learn that indeed, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, the protagonists, fierce abolitionists and women’s rights advocates, were real. Not only that, but they were astonishing in their beliefs and bravery, given the antebellum society, and plantation-owning South Carolinian family, that they were born into.
While visiting Charleston recently (March 2022), we took a walking tour focused on the Grimké sisters, led by Lee Ann Bain. The tour took us through various neighborhoods of historic Charleston, where we saw places the sisters would have known in the early 19th century, and learned of some new research that a Grimké biographer has shared with Ms. Bain. Our tour lasted about 2 1/2 hour