The invention of Wing

Sarah Grimke is one of the two main characters in the novel The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Sarah Grimke begins the novel as an eleven year old girl and ends as a middle-aged woman. The daughter of wealthy Charleston, South Carolina planter parents, Sarah grows up with slavery around her at every turn. Her earliest memory is that of when she was four years old, and seeing the family slave, Rosetta, ruthlessly beaten. It shocks Sarah and gives her a stutter when she speaks, which will come and go for the rest of her life. The experience also makes an abolitionist out of Sarah, who, throughout the rest of her life, will become a champion of abolition and a fierce opponent of slavery. Sarah is given the gift of a slave on her eleventh birthday –Handful –but Sarah refuses to accept the gift, though she is ultimately forced to do so. She becomes friends with Handful, and the two care and watch out for one another.

As a young adult, Sarah has her heart broken by her fiancée, who has two other women he is engaged to. She becomes an even more vocal proponent of abolition, as well as women’s rights, along with her sister, Nina. The two ultimately write tracts against slavery, which get them banned from Charleston. Sarah decides to become a Minister in the Quaker church, and refuses to marry Israel Morris when he asks her to choose between him and the ministry. She is saddened by the choice, but resolves to continue with her life’s work. She ultimately travels to Charleston despite the ban, and helps Handful and Handful’s sister, Sky, to escape to freedom.