user:Deisenbe/sandbox/wedding

Angelina Grimké was, in 1838, the most famous woman in the country; President John Quincy Adams was a widower, and there was no First Lady. She was in fact called the "most notorious" woman in the country.{{rp|170}} She was well known as a lecturer, telling of the horrors of slavery she had witnessed first-hand as a member of one of the most distinguished and well-to-do slave-owning families of South Carolina.{{cite book

|title=Pioneer women orators : rhetoric in the ante-bellum reform movement /

|first=Lillian

|last=O'Connor

|location=New York

|publisher=Vantage Press

|year=1954

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003366930&view=1up&seq=65&skin=2021&q1=Grimke

|access-date=2021-06-17

|archive-date=2021-06-19

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103136/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003366930&view=1up&seq=65&skin=2021&q1=Grimke

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|43}}

It was accepted for women to speak to female groups; some sewing circles invited visitors to this effect. But Angelina was the first female in the United States to appear as a lecturer before large mixed audiences of men and women, which provoked much commentary. When she addressed the Massachusetts Legislature in 1836, it was the first time a woman had addressed any legislative body in the United States.

Weld avoided the limelight and refused to hold any office or lead any organization. He is therefore relatively little known today. However, many historians regard Weld as the most important figure in the abolitionist movement, surpassing even Garrison.

Weld and Grimké met in a an Ohio training class for abolitionist speakers and activists, which Weld taught. Angelina Grimké and her sister Sarah were the only female participants.

The first contact between the two was in 1835, when Grimké wrote to Wm. Lloyd Garrison talking about the abolitionist cause. Garrison, somewhat to her surprise, published it, along with great praise.{{cite news

|title=Christian Heroism

|via=newspapers.com

|last=Garrison

|first=William Lloyd

|authorlink=William Lloyd Garrison

|others=[Unsigned but obviously written by Garrison, the editor]

|newspaper=The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts)

|date=September 19, 1835

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48905012/grimke-boston-riot-printed/

|access-date=July 1, 2021

|archive-date=July 2, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702083828/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48905012/grimke-boston-riot-printed/

|url-status=live

}} Weld read The Liberator, as all American abolitionist leaders did.

Weld and Grimké became more than acquaintances when Weld ran, in Ohio, a three week summer training camp for abolitionist organizers. Under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 70 agents were trained. The Grimké sisters were the only female students.{{rp|664}}

Both Angelina and Theodore travelled around a lot in the Northeast in the 1830's, speaking about the evils of slavery and organizing local abolition societies. As a result, their courtship is extraordinarily well documented, as it took place primarily through letters. Fortunately they have been preserved and published, and there are articles devoted to their relationship.

In the context of nineteenth-century women's rights, Weld and Grimké were set to determine for themselves what marriage between a man and a woman should be. The two "lacked contemporary examples of egalitarian marriages to emulate".{{cite journal

|title='The Forgetfulness of Sex': Devotion and Desire in the Courtship Letters of Angelina Grimké and Theodore Dwight Weld

|first=Robert K.

|last=Nelson

|journal=Journal of Social History

|volume=37

|number=3

|url=https://www-jstor-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/stable/3790158

|jstor=3790158

|year=2004

|pages=663–679

|doi=10.1353/jsh.2004.0018|s2cid=144261184

}}

{{main|Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia)}}

The date of the wedding, May 14, was chosen to coincide with the inauguration of abolitionism's great new venue, Pennsylvania Hall, which opened the same day. It was a beautiful building in downtown Philadelphia, where (Quaker) abolitionism in the United States had started. Taking place in the building were the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, which had built the building, and an initial meeting to found a National Requited Labor Association, which promoted purchase of goods produced by paid, not enslaved workers. The first free produce store in the country was opened in one of the four storefronts on the ground floor of Pennsylvania Hall. Another held the editorial office of John Greenleaf Whittier's newspaper, the Pennsylvania Freeman, another an abolitionist reading room, and the fourth the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society's office. The well-lit main hall held 3,000.{{cite encyclopedia

|title=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

|contribution=Pennsylvania Hall

|first=Beverly C.

|last=Tomek

|year=2015

|url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/pennsylvania-hall/

|access-date=2020-11-27

|archive-date=2019-12-27

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227175848/https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/pennsylvania-hall/

|url-status=live

}} This was a grand day for the American abolitionist movement.

On Monday, a day of meetings, speeches, and reports concluded with "what was, among abolitionists at least, the wedding of the century,"{{cite news

|title=Grimke–Weld Wedding

|first=Beverly

|last=Tomek

|url=https://universalemancipation.wordpress.com/major-abolition-events/grimke-weld-wedding/

|date=2011

|publisher=Universal Emancipation. Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Movements in the Atlantic World

|access-date=2020-11-27

|archive-date=2020-01-11

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111033339/https://universalemancipation.wordpress.com/major-abolition-events/grimke-weld-wedding/

|url-status=live

}} "an abolition wedding."{{rp|98}}

File:Weld-Grimke wedding invitation.jpg

Over 80 handwritten invitations were sent, to friends and acquaintances in many states.{{cite book

| last=Lerner

|author-link=Gerda Lerner

| first=Gerda | title=The Grimké Sisters From South Carolina

| location=New York

| publisher=Schocken Books

| year=1967

| isbn=978-0-8052-0321-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/grimkesistersfro0000lern }}{{rp|238}} At the top, uniquely, was the abolitionist icon, the image of a kneeling slave in chains.{{cite news

|title=Prophetic!

|newspaper=The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts)

|date=June 22, 1838

|page=3

|via=newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80408946/weld-grimke-wedding/

|access-date=June 28, 2021

|archive-date=June 28, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628133832/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80408946/weld-grimke-wedding/

|url-status=live

}}

According to a hostile newspaper, Weld and Grimké "took care to have a number of colored persons among the bridesmaids and groomsmen."{{cite news

|title=Commingling of colors

|newspaper=Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia)

|page=2

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/macon-georgia-telegraph-jul-16-1838-p-2/

|date=July 16, 1838

|access-date=June 29, 2021

|archive-date=June 29, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629091151/https://newspaperarchive.com/macon-georgia-telegraph-jul-16-1838-p-2/

|url-status=live

}}

===Guests at the wedding===

Given the meetings, many abolitionists from around the country were in attendance. Many were guests at the wedding.

§ indicates an African American

• James G. Birney (Huntsville, Alabama), leading Southern abolitionist, presidential candidate of the Liberty Party in the 1840 and 1844 presidential elections.
• Charles C. Burleigh (Northampton, Massachusetts), an abolitionist speaker, editor of The Unionist and The Pennsylvania Freeman.{{citation

|title=Charles C. Burleigh

|first=Joe

|last=Lockard

|year=2020

|url=https://davidrugglescenter.org/florence-profiles/charles-calistus-burleigh/

|location=Florence, Massachusetts

|publisher=David Ruggles Center for History and Educatio

|access-date=2021-06-28

|archive-date=2021-01-22

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122181600/https://davidrugglescenter.org/florence-profiles/charles-calistus-burleigh/

|url-status=live

}} He refused to shave his beard as long as slavery lasted.

• Celia M. Burleigh (Cazenovia, New York), at the time a girl of 11.
• Maria Weston Chapman (Boston), abolitionist activist, fundrsiser, and writer; previously a teacher.
• § Betsy Dawson and her daughter, former slaves of the Grimké family{{rp|104}}
• § Sarah Mapps Douglass (Philadelphia), a Black woman and a Quaker, head of a school for African-American girls. She was a lifelong friend of Sarah Grimké, and the two had worked together in the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society.{{rp|288}}
• § Grace Bustill Douglass (Philadelphia), an African-American abolitionist and women's rights advocate.{{rp|289}}
• Amos Dresser, Oberlin student, part of Weld's Oneida Institute walkout of 1832, then, in 1834, the Lane Student walkout, also led by Weld. He was famous in abolitionist circles for having been publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee, for possessing abolitionist literature. "I have just heard of Dresser's being flogged; it is no surprise at all", Angelina wrote in the letter mentioned above, which was Weld's first contact with her.{{cite news

|title=Letter to William Lloyd Garrison

|newspaper=The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts)

|date=September 19, 1835

|page=2

|via=newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48905012/grimke-boston-riot-printed/

|access-date=July 1, 2021

|archive-date=July 2, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702083828/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48905012/grimke-boston-riot-printed/

|url-status=live

}}

• Other Lane rebels attending were Hiram Wilson, George Avery, and Henry Stanton.{{rp|241}}
• William Lloyd Garrison (Boston), publisher of abolitionist books and pamphlets; editor-publisher of The Liberator, the leading anti-slavery newspaper in the United States.
• Sarah Grimké, the bride's sister.{{cite book

|title=Pennsylvania Hall: A "Legal Lynching" In the Shadow of the Liberty Bell

|first=Beverly

|last=Tomek

|location=New York

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|year=2014

|isbn=978-0199837601}}{{rp|96}} The only other members of the Grimké family to attend were two former house slaves of their father: Betsy Dawson and her daughter.{{rp|241}} Stephen (Grimké), another former slave of thrir father, may also have been present.{{cite book

|last=Lerner

|authorlink=Gerda Lerner

|first=Gerda

|publisher=University of North Carolina Press

|title=The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women's Rights and Abolition

|year=2004

|location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina

|isbn=9781469604879

|url=Http://muse.jhu.edu/book/24037

|via=Project MUSE

|access-date=2021-07-02

|archive-date=2021-06-28

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628143500/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/24037

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|171}}{{cite journal

|title=The Grimke Sisters and the Struggle Against Race Prejudice

|first=Gerda

|last=Lerner

|journal=Journal of Negro History

|volume=48

|number=4

|authorlink=Gerda Lerner

|date=October 1963

|pages=277–291

|jstor=2716330

|doi=10.2307/2716330

|s2cid=150152454

|url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2716330

|access-date=2021-06-25

|archive-date=2021-07-02

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702083831/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2716330

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|287}} see Sarah's remarks on the Black relatives present.{{rp|679}}

• Abby Kelley (Lynn, Massachusetts), teacher, about to speak at the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. Described as more radical than Angelina.{{cite journal

|title=Partners in Motion: Gender, Migration, and Reform in Antebellum Ohio and Kansas

|first=Lynne Marie

|last=Getz

|journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies

|year=2006

|volume=27

|number=2

|pages=102–135

|doi=10.1353/fro.2007.0004

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137424

|jstor=4137424

|s2cid=157292171

|access-date=2021-06-17

|archive-date=2021-06-19

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103203/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137424

|url-status=live

}}

• Samuel Philbrick (Brookline, Massachusetts). Philbrick's house, originally built by the Tappans, was an Underground Railroad stop. The Grimké sisters spoke in his house in 1837, the first recorded anti-slavery meeting in Brookline.{{cite web

|url=http://www.garrenshay.com/ur/Walnut%20St.htm

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031101005846/http://www.garrenshay.com/ur/Walnut%20St.htm|url-status=dead

|author=Brookline Underground Railroad Committee

|archive-date=November 1, 2003

|title=The Samuel Philbrick House

|access-date=September 12, 2007}}

• Gerrit Smith and his wife Anne (Peterboro, New York).{{rp|104}} Smith was the leading abolitionist philanthropist; later one of John Brown's Secret Six.
• Jane Smith (abolitionist) (Philadelphia), a friend of Angelina.{{rp|104}}
• Henry Brewster Stanton (Seneca Falls, New York), member of Weld's student walk-out group, leading abolitionist speaker, soon to marry Elizabeth Cady. For their honeymoon, they went to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention. They named one of their sons Theodore Weld Stanton.
• Charles Stuart (Utica, New York), first president of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, intimate friend of Weld{{rp|31–34}}
• Arthur Tappan{{rp|104}}
• Lewis Tappan (New York), businessman and philanthropist, whose donations were central to the founding of Oberlin College, in its early years the most anti-slavery college in the country. Tappan's funds were also central to the defense of the Africans in the Amistad incident.
• James A. Thome (Kentucky), agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, speaker at its 1834 meeting,{{cite book|title=Letter of Mr. Henry B. Stanton. Speech of Mr. James A. Thome. Letter of Rev. Dr. S. H. Cox. Debate at the Lane seminary, Cincinnati. Speech of James A. Thome, of Kentucky, delivered at the annual meeting of the American anti-slavery society, May 6, 1834. Letter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox, against the American Colonization Society

|year=1834

|location=Boston

|publisher=Garrison and Knapp

|url=https://archive.org/details/debateatlanesemi00thom}} wrote apologizing for not attending.{{rp|200}}

• Lewis Weld, Theodore Weld's older brother, "the president of the asylum for deaf mutes."{{cite book

|page=199

|first=Robert H.

|last=Abzug

|title=Passionate Liberator. Theodote Dwight Weld & the Dilemma of Reform

|location=New York

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|year=1980

|isbn=019502771X}}

• Anne Warren Weston (Boston){{cite book

|title=Lift up thy voice : the Grimké family's journey from slaveholders to civil rights leaders

|first=Mark

|last=Perry

|location=New York

|page=172

|publisher=Penguin Books

|year=2003

|isbn=0670030112

}}

• John Greenleaf Whittier (Philadelphia), abolitionist newspaper editor and poet. He waited outside during the ceremony since, as a practicing Quaker, he could not be present when a Quaker (Grimké) married a non-Quaker (Weld).{{cite book

|title=Angelina Grimké : rhetoric, identity, and the radical imagination

|last=Browne

|first=Stephen H

|date=1999

|url=https://archive.org/details/angelinagrimkerh0000brow/page/8/mode/1up?q=Marriage

|location=East Lansing, Michigan

|publisher=Michigan State University Press

|isbn=0870135309}}{{rp|8}}{{rp|104}} His newspaper's new office in Pennsylvania Hall was destroyed in the fire, but not its press.

• Henry C. Wright (Newburyport, Massachusetts), called a "blazing advocate" for the abolition of slavery, writer and speaker.
• § Theodore S. Wright (New York City), a Black minister, who said a blessing.{{cite book

|page=111

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ojhsW0VgooC&pg=PA112

|title=The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume II: A House Dividing against Itself: 1836-1840

|year=1971

|publisher=Belknap Press

|first=Wm. Lloyd

|last=Garrison

|author-link=William Lloyd Garrison

|isbn=0674526619

|access-date=2020-11-27

|archive-date=2019-12-15

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215211551/https://books.google.com/books?id=0ojhsW0VgooC&pg=PA112

|url-status=live

}} He had been a founding member and was on the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Angelina "could not conscientiously consent to be married by a clergyman". Theodore was more than happy to go along with her wishes.{{rp|233}}

They investigated and found that under Pennsylvania law, marriage is a civil contract and those entering into the contract could do so in whatever way they chose; the only requirement was the presence of a notary public, so that there would be a legal record. However, again under Pennsylvania law, twelve witnesses fulfilled the function of the notary public.{{rp|232}} Given this, they decided to marry in front of their friends, without "a stranger" present.{{rp|289}}

Theirs is the first American wedding in which the couple themselves declared themselves married: the marriage was "not by minister or magistrate, but by standing up in the midst of their invited guests, and taking each other for husband and wife", which a reporting newspaper called a "unpardonable offence". In addition, it is the first in which the couple created their own vows. However, they did so extemporaneously. According to the bride's sister Sarah:

{{quote|Neither Theodore nor Angelina felt as if they could bind themselves to any preconceived form of words, and accordingly uttered such as the Lord gave them at the moment. Theodore addressed Angelina in a solemn and tender manner. He alluded to the unrighteous power vested in a husband by the laws of the United States over the person and property of his wife, and he abjured all authority, all government, save the influence which love would give to them over each other as moral and immortal beings. ...Angelina's address to him was brief but comprehensive, containing a promise to honor him, to prefer him above herself, to love him with a pure heart fervently.{{rp|105}}}}

Newspaper coverage was contemptuous, calling Weld a "he-male" and Grimké a "she-male".{{cite news

|title=(Untitled)

|newspaper=Morning Herald (New York, New York)

|date=May 9, 1838

|page=2

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-may-09-1838-p-2/

|via=newspaperarchive.com

|access-date=June 18, 2021

|archive-date=June 19, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103134/https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-may-09-1838-p-2/

|url-status=live

}} However, they reported that: "Alvan Stewart, Esq.[,] read the civil law, and another individual the divine law, to the parties; after which, Mr. W. addressed the audience in the following words, viz.:

{{quote|I here promise before God, his angels, and this assembly, to take Miss Angelina Emily Grimke for my wife, as an equal, and I waive all claims to that obedience which is usually claimed in the marriage ceremony.{{cite news

|title=Form of marriage

|newspaper=Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston, Texas)

|date=August 18, 1838

|page=1

|url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth48006/m1/1/zoom/?q=%20%22theodore%20weld%22&resolution=2.0702222922418505&lat=918.9638992299078&lon=2963.976541881699

|via=The Portal to Texas History}}{{cite news

|title=Marriage Extraordinary

|newspaper=Sangamo Journal (Springfield, Illinois)

|date=August 25, 1838

|page=2

|via=newspaperarchive.com}}

}}

Miss Angelina repeated nearly the same, and thus the pair became man and wife."{{cite news

|title=(Untitled)

|newspaper=Morning Herald (New York, New York)

|date=June 12, 1838

|page=2

|via=newspaperarchive.com

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-jun-12-1838-p-2/

|access-date=June 19, 2021

|archive-date=June 19, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103217/https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-morning-herald-jun-12-1838-p-2/

|url-status=live

}} According to the bride's sister Sarah, Weld "abjured all authority, all government, save the influence which love would give to them over each other."{{cite journal

|title='The Forgetfulness of Sex': Devotion and Desire in the Courtship Letters of Angelina Grimké and Theodore Dwight Weld

|first=Robert K.

|last=Nelson

|journal=Journal of Social History

|volume=37

|number=3

|year=2004

|pages=663-679

|jstor=3790158

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3790158}}{{rp|676}} In another report, "Weld denounced traditional marriage vows and Grimké refused to include the word 'obey'". Referring to the legal principle of femme couverte, Weld renounced any power or legal authority over his wife, other than that produced by love, and she vowed to love and honor, not obey him.{{rp|105}}{{rp|172}}

The marriage certificate was read aloud by David Garrison, and, replacing the need for a notary under Pennsylvania law, it was then signed by "the company".{{rp|233}}{{rp|289}}

The free produce movement, whose goal was making available products (not just produce in the modern sense) not produced by slave labor, was to have its organizational meeting in Pennsylvania Hall. One of the four small stores along the side of the building was for sale of these products.

The wedding cake was baked by a Black baker, using free produce sugar.{{rp|289}}

Angelina's trousseau was exclusively of "free" cotton.{{cite book

|title=The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina. Pioneers for Women's Rights and Abolition

|first=Gilda

|last=Radner

|location=New York

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|year=1998

|isbn=0195106032}}{{rp|234}}

That a marriage had taken place and that both Blacks and whites were present was soon generally known. Lacking detailed information, the rumor began that this was an “amalgamation wedding”, that is, a white person and a Black person were marrying. This outraged the crowd and helped fuel the anger that erupted at Pennsylvania Hall.{{cite encyclopedia

|title=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia

|contribution=Pennsylvania Hall / Grimke-Weld Wedding Invitation

|date=2015

|first=Lucy

|last=David

|contribution-url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/pennsylvania-hall/21834_ca_object_representations_media_89459_mediumlarge/

|access-date=2021-06-26

|archive-date=2021-06-26

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626100542/https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/pennsylvania-hall/21834_ca_object_representations_media_89459_mediumlarge/

|url-status=live

}} According to a newspaper, reporting the arson: "Mrs. Angelina Grimke Weld, it appears, was one of the agitators. ...This is rather a queer honey moon for Angelica and Theodore, wedded on Monday, bedded on Tuesday, and setting Philadelphia on fire on Wednesday."{{cite news

|title=Abolition riot in Philadelphia

|newspaper=New York Daily Herald

|date=May 19, 1838

|page=2

|access-date=June 30, 2021

|archive-date=July 2, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702083836/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56168959/new-york-daily-herald19may1838riot-at/

|url-status=live

|via=newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56168959/new-york-daily-herald19may1838riot-at/}} Arthur Tappan, in a letter to the editor, called this "an atrocious lie".{{cite news

|title=Letter to the editor

|first=Arthur

|last=Tappan

|authorlink=Arthur Tappan

|newspaper=New York Daily Herald

|date=May 28, 1838

|page=2

|via=newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80651510/letter-to-the-editor-of-arthur-tappan/}}

{{main|Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia)}}

The Weld-Grimké wedding was timed to coincide with the opening on Monday, May 14, 1838, of Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia). Built by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, it was the first and only building erected anywhere as a meeting place for abolitionists and affiliated movements. Blacks and women were just as welcome as white men, both as attendees and as speakers, and they sat together, which was very unusual and the subject of comment.

Angelina was the final speaker in Pennsylvania Hall, on Wednesday night, refusing to let stones breaking the windows stop her. It was also the last speech Angelina would give for many years.{{rp|106}} After she was finished, the white attendees exited arm-in-arm with the Blacks, for the latter's protection.

The next day, in the biggest case of arson since the British burned the Capitol and the White House during the War of 1812, the hall was burned to the ground by a pro-slavery mob. Firemen were forcibly prevented from saving the building.

In the newspapers, coverage of the riot and arson somewhat overshadowed reporting on the marriage. One newspaper report said that outrage over the wedding contributed to the tensions that led to the hall's destruction.{{cite news

|title=Riots in Philadelphia

|newspaper=The Miner's Journal (Pottsville, Pennsylvania)

|date=May 23, 1838

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/pottsville-miners-journal-and-pottsville-general-advertiser-may-23-1838-p-2/

|page=2

|via=newspaperarchive.com

|access-date=June 18, 2021

|archive-date=June 19, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103205/https://newspaperarchive.com/pottsville-miners-journal-and-pottsville-general-advertiser-may-23-1838-p-2/

|url-status=live

}}

The outrage was that Blacks and whites sat together "promiscuously", walked in the street together, and a newspaper remarked on recommendations that whites not support segregated seating. "The publication of these resolutions and the practical carrying of them out in the street, and in the hall, produced a tremendous excitement, which was manifested slightly on Monday evening, and grew more and more strong, till the catastrophe on Thursday night."{{cite news

|title=Riot in Philadelphia. Destruction of Pennsylvania Hall by arson

|newspaper=Burlington Weekly Free Press (Burlington, Vermont)

|date=May 25, 1838

|page=2

|via=newspapers.com

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80530362/riot-at-pennsylvania-hall/

|access-date=June 30, 2021

|archive-date=July 2, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702083830/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80530362/riot-at-pennsylvania-hall/

|url-status=live

}}

Angelina and Sarah were promptly excommunicated by the Quakers, as they knew they would be:{{cite book

|title=The Grimké sisters. Sarah and Angelina Grimké, the first American women advocates of abolition and woman's rights

|last=Birney

|first=Catherine H.

|date=1885

|page=232

|location=Boston

|publisher=Lee & Shepard

|url=https://archive.org/details/grimksisterssara00birn/page/n3/mode/2up}} Angelina for marrying a non-Quaker, and Sarah for being present.{{rp|683–684}}

After the wedding, Theodore, Angelina, and Sarah, who had agreed to live together for the rest of their lives,{{rp|186}} spent several weeks at the house of Weld's parents, in Manlius, New York. Neither Angelina nor Sarah had ever cooked a meal, and they knew nothing about housekeeping; Weld's mother instructed them.{{cite book

|title=Angelina Grimké Voice of Abolition

|last=Todras

|first=Ellen H.

|date=1999

|location=North Haven, Connecticut

|publisher=Linnet Books

|isbn=0208024859}}{{rp|107}}

They set up housekeeping in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Theodore commuted to New York for his work as director of publications for the American Anti-Slavery Society. The team of three set to work documenting slavery's abuses, using as a source, advertisements posted by their owners concerning runaway slaves. Theodore purchased thousands of issues of newspapers being discarded at the New York Stock Exchange reading room, took them home, and the two women operated a clipping service, something never done before in the United States, almost 50 years before the first commercial clipping service was created.

The names of all three are on the title page of their highly influential exposé American Slavery As It Is, published the following year (1839). This book, which contained a subject index, directly influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe and was a major source for Uncle Tom's Cabin.{{cite encyclopedia

|contribution-url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/columency/weld_theodore_dwight/0

|contribution=Weld, Theodore Dwight

|access-date=May 15, 2021

|title=The Columbia Encyclopedia

|edition=8th

|publisher=Columbia University Press

|year=2018

|archive-date=June 19, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619103209/https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/columency/weld_theodore_dwight/0

|url-status=live

}}

Theodore and Angelina had three children: Charles Stuart Weld (1839–1901), Theodore Grimké Weld (1841–1917), and Sarah Grimké Weld (1844–1899).{{citation

|title=Weld-Grimké family papers (1740-1930, bulk 1825-1899)

|author=Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan

|date=2016

|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-400wel?view=text

|access-date=June 20, 2021

|archive-date=February 27, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227042137/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-400wel?view=text

|url-status=live

}}

They then moved to Washington, D.C., where Weld was involved in a forgotten but major issue at the time, ending slavery in the District of Columbia (see gag rule). For economic security they then became educators, running a boarding school.

{{reflist}}

[[:Category:Weld family]

[[:Category:Weddings in the United States]

[[:Category:May 1838 events]

[[:Category:Abolitionism in the United States]

[[:Category:American abolitionists

[[:Category:Grimké family]

[[:Category:History of women's rights in the United States]

[[:Category:1838 in Pennsylvania]