“This eloquent pamphlet is from the pen of a sister of the late Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston, S.C.  We need hardly say more of it than that it is written with that peculiar felicity and unction which characterized the works of her lamented brother.  Among anti-slavery writings there are two classes—­one especially adapted to make new converts, the other to strengthen the old.  We cannot exclude Miss Grimke’s Appeal from either class.  It belongs pre-eminently to the former.  The converts that will be made by it, we have no doubt, will be not only numerous, but thorough-going.”

Mr. Wright spoke of it as a patch of blue sky breaking through the storm-cloud of public indignation which had gathered so black over the handful of anti-slavery workers.

This praise was not exaggerated.  The pamphlet produced the most profound sensation wherever it was read, but, as Angelina predicted, she was made to suffer for having written it.  Friends upbraided and denounced her, Catherine Morris even predicting that she would be disowned, and intimating pretty plainly that she would not dissent from such punishment; and Angelina even began to doubt her own judgment, and to question if she ought not to have continued to live a useless life in Philadelphia, rather than to have so displeased her best friends.  But her convictions of duty were too strong to allow her to remain long in this depressed, semi-repentant state.  In a letter to a friend she expresses herself as almost wondering at her own weakness; and of Catherine Morris she says:  “Her disapproval, more than anything else, shook my resolution.  Nevertheless, I told her, with many tears, that I felt it a religious duty to labor in this cause, and that I must do it even against the advice and wishes of my friends.  I think if I ever had a clear, calm view of the path of duty in all my life, I have had it since I came here, in reference to slavery.  But I assure thee that I expect nothing less than that my labors in this blessed cause will result in my being disowned by Friends, but none of these things will move me.  I must confess I value my right very little in a Society which is frowning on all the moral reformations of the day, and almost enslaving its members by unchristian and unreasonable restrictions, with regard to uniting with others in these works of faith and labors of love.  I do not believe it would cost me one pang to be disowned for doing my duty to the slave.”

But her condemnation reached beyond the Quaker Society—­even to her native city, where her Appeal produced a sensation she had little expected.  Mr. Weld’s account of its reception there is thus given:—­