Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee, All the Best. Have you ever heard this quote?

I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

If you've heard this quote before, you might attribute it to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And you would be right.

She did say that a lot. But what you might not know is that Justice Ginsburg was in fact quoting

19th century abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sarah Grimke. Today we will be reading the

document that contains that quote, a series of letters from Sarah

Grimke to fellow abolitionist Mary S. Parker in 1838. These letters were later published under the

title Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman. And this book is known as the

first sustained argument for equal rights written by a woman in the

United States. Before we start, I want to welcome my reading partner today, Rebecca Archibald. Hi, Becca.

Hi, Amy. I'm just so thankful that you're joining me today to talk about this book. So thanks for

being here. So we want to talk a little bit about Sarah Grimke, who she was and how she came to write these letters.

Becca and I will take turns kind of talking through her bio.

And Becca, why don't you start us off at the beginning of her life?

Okay.

So Sarah was born in South Carolina on November 26th in the year 1792. She was the six of 14 children.

Her father was a rich planter, an attorney, and judge in South Carolina, and at one point,

speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives. So he was kind of a big deal. Sarah's early

experiences with education shaped her future as a feminist and an abolitionist.

Throughout her child, she was keenly aware of the infuriary of her education when compared to her brothers.

While her brothers went off to Yale, she was educated by private tutors on subjects appropriate for young women of her class, including French embroidery,

painting with watercolors, and playing the harpsichord.

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