It does not appear that Judge Grimke entertained any views differing greatly from those of intelligent men in the society about him.  He was a man of wide culture, varied experience of life, and a diligent student.  Therefore, as he made a companion of his bright and promising daughter, he doubtless did much to sharpen her intellect, as well as to deepen her conscientiousness and sense of religious obligation.  Her brother Thomas, too, added another strong influence to her mental development.  She was nearly fifteen when he returned from college, bringing with him many new ideas, most of them quite original, and which he at once set to work to study more closely, with a view to putting them into practical operation.  Sarah was his confidante and his amanuensis; and, looking up to him almost as to a demi-god, she readily fell in with his opinions, and made many of them her own.

Of her mother there is little mention in the early part of her life.  Mrs. Grimke appears to have been a very devout woman, of rather narrow views, and undemonstrative in her affections.  She was, however, intelligent, and had a taste for reading, especially theological works.  Her son Thomas speaks of her as having read Stratton’s book on the priesthood, and inferring from its implications the sect to which the author belonged.  The oldest of her children was only nineteen when Angelina was born.  The burdens laid upon her were many and great; and we cannot wonder that she was nervous, exhausted, and irritable.  The house was large, and kept in the style common in that day among wealthy Southern people.  The servants were numerous, and had, no doubt, the usual idle, pilfering habits of slaves.  All provisions were kept under lock and key, and given out with scrupulous exactitude, and incessant watchfulness as to details was a necessity.

As children multiplied, Mrs. Grimke appears to have lost all power of controlling either them or her servants.  She was impatient with the former, and resorted with the latter to the punishments commonly inflicted by slaveowners.  These severities alienated her children still more from her, and they showed her little respect or affection.  It never appears to have occurred to any of them to try to relieve her of her cares; and it is probable she was more sinned against than sinning,—­a sadly burdened and much-tried woman.  From numerous allusions to her in the diaries and letters, the evidence of an ill-regulated household is plain, as also the feelings of the children towards her.  From Angelina’s diary we copy the following:—­

“On 2d day I had some conversation with sister Mary on the deplorable state of our family, and to-day with Eliza.  They complain very much of the servants being so rude, and doing so much as they please.  But I tried to convince them that the servants were just what the family was, that they were not at all more rude and selfish and disobliging than they themselves were.  I gave one or two instances of the manner