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Charlotte Forten Grimke
1837-1914
Name: Charlotte Forten Grimke
Birthplace: Philadelphia
Status: Free Person of Color
Occupation/Training: poet, Teacher, Diarist
Residence: Philadelphia; New England; Port Royal, SC; Jacksonville, FL; Washington, DC
Abolitionist Involvement: Not allowed to attended the segregated schools of Philadelphia by her parents, Charlotte's early years of training came through private tutors. She developed her interest in abolition through the associates of her family, her parents, aunts, and uncle. in 1854 she was sent to Salem Mass where she lived with Charles Remond and his family, who were also ardent abolitionists. On a regular basis she was exposed to persons such as William Lloyd Garrison, WiIliam Wells Brown, Wendell Phillips, and John G. Whittier. Completing her schooling in 1855, she was enthusiastically received when her award winning poem "A Parting Hymn" was recited. she remained in Salem for two years where she was a teacher, and met persons such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and others. She joined the Female Anit-Salvery Society, and developed facility in French and German.
In 1862 in the midst of the Civil War, she sailed to South Carolina where she worked with newly freed slaves, as part of the Port Royal experiment. Between 1854 and 1864 she kept a diary from the days of teaching in Salem till the end of her tenure in South Carolina. It is from these diary entries that most of the details about her experiences and life are taken. She taught in a school in SC in a Baptist church. She witnessed some significant events of the war, including the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan 1, 1863. She saw the dress parade of the First. South Carolina Volunteers. She met some of the wives of the non-commissioned officers including Susie King Taylor, the famous black nurse who served with the 33rd U.S.Colored Infantry. After the massacre of the 54th Massachusetts Colored at Ft. Wagoner, Forten went to Beaufort SC to mend pantaloons and jackets of the wounded black soldiers, and she also wrote letters for them. She became ill shortly after that time, and was forced to return to the northeast where she could receive care for her own health. Her diary is one of the most extensive written and is kept at the Moorland Spingarn Research Library in Washington DC.
Family: Parents--Mary Wood Forten and Robert Bridges Forten
Place of Death: Washington DC
Publications/References: The Journal of Charlotte Forten ed. by Ray Allen Billington 1953
Links: http://users.aol.com./queenmut/Forten.html and
http://adam.slis.lsu.edu/student/homepage/grads/thedis/grimk.htm
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