Angelina Grimke (1805-1879) and her sister Sarah (1792-1873) were the first women in the United States to publicly argue for the abolition of slavery. Cultured and well educated, Angelina had moved from her father’s large plantation in South Carolina to join her sister in Philadelphia in 1829. The sisters were touring the northeast in 1837, which is when Angelina spoke in Greenfield, Massachusetts, to a packed house at the Methodist Church. In 1838, she became the first woman to address a legislative body when she spoke to the Massachusetts State Legislature on women’s rights and abolition.
The Gazette & Mercury was the newspaper in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from June 27, 1837, to July 13, 1841, when it changed its name to the Gazette & Courier.
