The Invention of Wings

Second eldest daughter of the 10 living children of Judge John and Mary Grimké, Sarah Grimké, born November 26, 1792, becomes a famous abolitionist and ardent supporter of women’s rights. Kidd uses the historical facts of her life and embroiders a compelling story upon the historically-known outline of her life.

At age four, Sarah witnesses the whipping of a family slave, Rosetta and loses her ability to speak. In many ways, Sarah never recovers from this trauma, and she never forgets the evils and horrors of slavery. At several points in the novel, she remembers the horror of Rosetta’s whipping. She abhors slavery from this young age, and she is disturbed to find that she has been given a slave for her 11th birthday—Handful. She unsuccessfully attempts to set Handful free.

Sarah’s character, throughout the novel, is defined by life choices where she defies societal, and legal, expectations by affirming her own personal beliefs. Quietly determined, Sarah frequently braves the censure of others to do what she believes is right, beginning with her desire to learn and have a profession like her brothers. Her defiant choices continue when Sarah breaks the law and teaches Handful to read.

Sarah’s choices of conscience frequently result in painful personal consequences. For example, as a result of teaching Handful to read, she loses her favored status with her father and her access to his library and the knowledge it contains. Her father also cruelly crushes her dream of becoming a woman lawyer.

As she gets older, her choices and their consequences only grow more painful. After a failed engagement, she chooses to turn her back on Charleston society and dedicate her life to God. At the time, she realizes that she is also refusing to marry and have a family. Later, when Israel asks her to marry him, she refuses because he will not let her keep her work, as an abolitionist and possibly as a Quaker minister, while also being married to him. She chooses herself, her work, and her independence, but it costs her marriage and a family life.

These choices frequently cause Sarah pain when she reflects back upon them, but not regret. She does not regret her choices, only the societal pressures and circumstances that forced her to make them. For example, she knows that if Israel would have been able to let her also work that she would have been happy to marry him, but she never regrets choosing her work over marriage.

Her most controversial choice is to become an abolitionist and women’s rights speaker and writer. Though despised and publicly threatened, Sarah never seriously considers stopping her work, because she believes that through her work she is serving a higher purpose: the abolition of slavery.

In their abolitionist efforts, Sarah and Nina are important to the abolitionist cause because as Southerners they can speak as firsthand witnesses to the practices and evils of slavery. By exposing the true realities of slavery, Sarah hopes to force an end to its practice.

Sarah’s personal triumph over slavery comes when she helps Handful and Sky escape at the end of the novel. Though she cannot, by herself, end slavery throughout the U.S., she can effect change in her own sphere. That message—each person must struggle and do what he or she can to make things better—operates as a secondary theme of this novel.

Charlotte, who Handful calls Mauma, is Handful’s mother and a Grimké family slave. Mauma is the most influential person in Handful’s life, and she raises her daughter to be independent-minded, strong, and mindful of family connections through joining Handful to Mauma’s life story and family history. Mauma passes on her skills as a seamstress to Handful, along with many life lessons.

Though Mauma’s role as a mother to Handful and Sky provides much of her life purpose, as she does have an independent life outside of her role as mother. Her relationship with Denmark Vesey, for example, reveals both her desire for a romantic relationship and her longing to be free. Associating with an outspoken free black man exposes Mauma to danger, while it also embodies her own yearning for freedom.

Mauma teaches Handful other essential survival skills and, most importantly, provides Handful with a powerful family story that give her an identity outside of slavery. Though Mauma’s bids for freedom are not successful, she is able implant the skills necessary for her daughters to gain freedom.

Nina is Sarah’s sister, and the youngest child of the Grimké family. She is born when Sarah is 12. As her godmother, Sarah raises Nina, and she imparts to Nina all of her hatred of slavery. When she is very young, she calls Sarah “Mother.”

Beautiful and bold, Nina rebels against the requirements of her social class and status from her early life: She refuses to own a slave; she refuses to join the church because the clergy and members own slaves; and she refuses to become a traditional Charleston “belle” when that time comes.

Like the historical Angelina Grimké, Nina follows her sister to the North and joins her work as an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. Because of her naturally daring and courageous character, she encourages Sarah to be more brave and audacious than she would have been on her own. Though Nina marries, she continues to work with Sarah—toward abolition of slavery and women’s equality—and offers Sarah a home with her family.