BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Charlotte Bridges Forten Grimké (August 17, 1837 – July 23, 1914) was an African-American anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator. She grew up in a prominent abolitionist family in Philadelphia. She taught school for years, including during the war to freedmen in South Carolina. Later in life she married Francis James Grimké, a Presbyterian minister who led a major church in Washington, DC for decades. He was a nephew of the abolitionist Grimké sisters and active in civil rights.
Her diaries written before the end of the Civil War have been published in numerous editions in the 20th century as The Journal of Charlotte Forten; the work is significant as a record of the life of a free black woman in the North in the antebellum years.
Early life and education
Forten was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Mary Woods and Robert Bridges Forten, members of the prominent black Forten-Purvis families of Philadelphia. Robert Forten and his brother-in-law Robert Purvis were abolitionists and members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, an anti-slavery network that rendered assistance to escaped slaves. Forten's paternal aunt Margaretta Forten worked in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society along with her sisters Harriet Forten Purvis and Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis. Forten's grandparents were Philadelphia abolitionists James Forten, Sr. and his wife Charlotte Vandine Forten, who were also active in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.
In 1854, Forten attended the Higginson Grammar School in Salem, Massachusetts. She was the only non-white student in a class of 200. Known for emphasis in critical thinking, the school had classes in history, geography, drawing and cartography. After Higginson, Forten studied literature and teaching at the Salem Normal School, which trained teachers. Forten cited William Shakespeare, John Milton, Margaret Fuller and William Wordsworth as some of her favorite authors.
Activism
Forten became a member of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, where she was involved in coalition building and fund-raising. She proved to be influential as an activist and leader on civil rights. She occasionally spoke to public groups on abolitionist issues. In addition, she arranged for lectures by prominent speakers and writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Senator Charles Sumner. Forten was acquainted with many other anti-slavery proponents, including William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator, and the orators and activists Wendell Phillips, Maria Weston Chapman and William Wells Brown.
Teaching career
In 1856, finances forced Forten to take a teaching position at Epes Grammar School in Salem. She was well received as a teacher but returned to Philadelphia after two years due to tuberculosis. At this point, Forten began writing poetry, much of which was activist in theme.[1] Her poetry was published in The Liberator and Anglo African magazines.
During the American Civil War, Forten was the first black teacher to join the mission to the South Carolina Sea Islands known as the Port Royal Experiment. The Union allowed Northerners to set up schools to begin teaching freedmen who remained on the islands, which had been devoted to large plantations for cotton and rice. The Union forces divided the land, giving freedmen families plots to work independently. Forten worked with many freedmen and their children on St. Helena Island. During this time, she resided at Seaside Plantation.[2] She chronicled this time in her essays, entitled "Life on the Sea Islands", which were published in Atlantic Monthly in the May and June issues of 1864.[3] Forten struck up a deep friendship with Robert Gould Shaw, the Commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Sea Islands Campaign. She was present when the 54th stormed Fort Wagner on the night of July 18, 1863. Shaw was killed in the battle, and Forten volunteered as a nurse to the surviving members of the 54th.
Following the war in the late 1860s, Forten worked for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, DC, recruiting teachers. In 1873 she became a clerk in the Department.
Marriage and family[
In December 1878, when Forten was 41, she married Presbyterian minister Francis J. Grimké, pastor of the prominent Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., a major African-American congregation. He was a mixed-race nephew of white abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimké of South Carolina. Francis and his brother Archibald Grimkéwere the sons of Theodore Grimke and a woman of color.
In 1880, Charlotte and Francis' daughter Theodora Cornelia was born, but she died as an infant. Charlotte Forten Grimké helped her husband in his ministry, helping create important networks in the community, including providing charity and education. Many church members were leaders in the African-American community in the capital. She organized a women's missionary group, and continued her "racial uplift" efforts.
When Francis' brother Archibald Grimke was appointed as U.S. consul in the Dominican Republic (1894-1898), Francis and Charlotte cared for his daughter Angelina Weld Grimké, who lived with them in the capital. Angelina Grimké later became an author in her own right.
The Charlotte Forten Grimke House in Washington D.C. is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4]
Writings
Charlotte Forten Grimké's last literary effort was in response to an Evangelist editorial, "Relations of Blacks and Whites: Is There a Color Line in New England?" It asserted that blacks were not discriminated against in New England society. Forten Grimké responded that black Americans achieved success over extraordinary social odds, and they simply wanted fair and respectful treatment.[5]
Charlotte Forten Grimké was a regular journal writer until she returned north after teaching in South Carolina. After her return, her entries were less frequent, although she wrote about her daughter's death and her busy life with her husband. Her diary, The Journals of Charlote Forten: A Free Negro in the Slave Era, was published in new scholarly editions in 1981 and 1988. is one of the few extant documents detailing the life of a free black female in the antebellum North.[6]
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