The Power of Woman: The Life and Writings of Sarah Moore Grimke.

The Power of Woman: The Life and Writings of Sarah Moore Grimke. By Pamela R. Durso. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2003. 216 pp.

In this time of struggle regarding the place of women in the church, it is helpful to look back to hear other voices. Historian Pamela R. Durso, associate director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, brings to light the struggles of one antebellum woman of faith in her impressive book The Power of Woman: The Life and Writings of Sarah Moore Grimke. Sarah was one of the famous abolitionist Grimke sisters from South Carolina. Durso skillfully gleans her story from both primary and secondary sources, portraying a woman who rebelled against established societal norms. In Durso's portrayal, this rebellion sprang from two sources: Sarah's religious and feminist beliefs.

Sarah's early Episcopalian upbringing seemed to have little influence on her life. But her evangelical conversion experience as a young adult offered Sarah a sense of spiritual calling that remained important throughout her life. Her spiritual journey brightened when she joined the Society of Friends, only to be dimmed with the realization that the Quakers' rhetoric regarding the equality of all humans was not always practiced within the societies. Throughout her adult life, Sarah "believed God willed her involvement in the abolition movement and in the public defense of the right of women to work in the antislavery cause" (110).

Durso's most compelling work is her analysis of Sarah's feminist interpretation of scripture. In her Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, Sarah argued against the established scriptural interpretation ,demanding that women submit to men stating: "I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy' (123). Durso demonstrates Sarah's ideological development over time. As Sarah's beliefs strengthened, she increased her condemnation of institutionalized religion. But by the time her "Condition of Women" was published, Sarah moved from distancing herself from all established institutions to embracing the idea that only through total involvement in government would women be able to change their world.

Though Durso thoughtfully weaves together the life story and ideological arguments of Sarah Grimke, one point needs expansion. Durso falls into the trap that ensnares many women's historians, using the word "feminist" without explanation. It is incumbent on historians to define feminism more dearly. Most historians are "skirting" the debate as to the appropriateness of defining nineteenth-century women with the term "feminist." Does this twentieth-century word have too much baggage to be used in other contexts? Even with this shortcoming, The Power of Woman is a powerful telling of the story of Sarah Grimke and her struggles as a female believer.--Reviewed by C. Delane Tew, assistant professor of history, Judson College, Marion, Alabama.