Join us for this year’s Annual Meeting on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 2 pm. This very special program will feature a delicious lunch provided by one of Harford’s most noted caterers, an opportunity to browse the ever-expanding museum collection, and the chance to experience a unique living history performance by historical interpreter Christine Potts as she transports us to the world of Sarah Grimke, noted abolitionist and suffragist.

Sarah Grimke Speaks!

When 26-year-old Sarah Moore Grimke boarded a ship from Charleston to Philadelphia in 1819 to accompany her ailing father north, she embarked on a history-making journey that took her from failed Southern belle to pioneering abolitionist and women’s rights activist.

Born into the Southern gentry, Sarah’s abhorrence of slavery and devotion to God led her to convert to Quakerism and settle in Philadelphia, where her charismatic and irrepressible younger sister Angelina Emily Grimke later joined her. After tumultuous years within the Society of Friends, Sarah then followed Angelina north to New York, where the two rose to public prominence and national notoriety by doing the largely unprecedented: daring to speak their minds.

In a time when no “respectable woman” would utter a word of public discourse, the Grimke sisters became among the first women in America to conduct a lecture tour. What began as ladies’ gatherings in private parlors soon grew to packed audiences of men and women held spellbound by the sisters’ calls for immediate abolition of the enslaved and then, perhaps even more controversially, equal rights for women.

In this 50-minute program, Chris Potts tells Sarah’s story in Sarah’s voice, immersing the listener in a compelling vocal performance. With a background in teaching, writing, and performative storytelling, Chris first developed the idea to research the life and interpret the story of Sarah Grimke after leading a discussion on Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings in 2019 at the Historical Society of Harford County, where she now serves as Executive Director.