Las hermanas Grimké

Sarah and Angelina, two patricians from the American deep south originally from Charleston, reneged on their homeland and the fate that slave capitalism had in store for them. The ability to understand their position as a privileged class, while at the same time terrifyingly oppressive, made them escape from the spider web that the plantation economy had weaved for centuries by destroying bodies and minds. Their life itinerary would lead them to become abolitionist leaders, first, and precursors of feminism later. They turned their severe religious training into ideological fuel for social transformation. Their bet without concessions led them to enter a Quakerism from which they would be expelled; their passion for equality made them teachers in free schools; their search for freedom led them to phalansteries. They wrote manifestos and capital essays for the emancipation of women buried by masculine historeography. They were dazzling speakers before massive audiences, ridiculed by the press. Their legendary eloquence and cunning saw them win out of disputes with ecclesiastical leadership, compromising anti-slavery and patriarchal elites. In a puritanical, sexist and racist society, social conventions, the politics of half measures and the subalternity of women were shattered. They lived austerely, always surrounded by poverty, but they enjoyed life with a clear-sightedness and determination that are still dazzling today. And this, despite being fully aware of the historical time in which they were trapped. His epic, guided by an iron will, is that of those who want everything and, thanks to this, push the limits of what is possible.