Episode 23: The Groundbreaking Grimké Sisters

In March 1870, forty-two women marched into their polling place in Hyde Park and illegally cast ballots in the local election.  They were led by local residents and radical activists Sarah and Angelina Grimké.  The Grimké sisters were born into a slave owning family in South Carolina, but then spent their lives fighting for abolition, suffrage, and equal rights.  Listen to their remarkable story!

The Grimké Sisters

• Angelina’s letter that William Lloyd Garrison published without her consent.
• Lift Up Thy Voice: The Sarah and Angelina Grimké Family’s Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders
• The Public Years of Sarah and Angelina Grimke
• Weld-Grimké Family Papers, 1740-1930
• Follow the rivalry between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton on Twitter.

This Week in Boston History

• Read John Warren’s deposition about poisoned medicine left behind in Boston by the evacuating British.
• The petition of the residents of western Roxbury to be granted a “separate agricultural town.”
• George Snelling’s testimony in favor of a plan that would have replaced Commonwealth Avenue with a saltwater lagoon.

• 19 year old John Adams’ notes on simple machines.
• For more on the fugitive trial of Thomas Sims, listen to our Episode 16.
• The funeral oration at Joseph Warren’s second burial.

• The first game ever played at Fenway Park, a 1912 exhibition between the Red Sox and the Harvard Crimson.