Grimke's Criticism In The Diary Of Angelina Grimke

One of the key development’s in Angelina Grimke’s young life was her departure from her Presbyterian Church in Charleston. As was mentioned, Angelina had been part of the Presbyterian Church in her twenties, though in 1827, she would grow to distance herself from and eventually leave the Presbyterian Church. Some attribute this mainly to her growing anti-slavery sentiments and the congregation’s refusal to follow, based on bibliographic information provided by Theodore Weld. While others, such Marshall Foletta, have used the broader details of Angelina’s diary, to claim that it was due to her growing asceticism and the congregation’s refusal to accept a sterner standard against decadence and sin. While it is debatable which element contributed
Though with both supposed causes, then is a common element which can be related to a perfectibilist mentality. In each, there are moral ideals which Angelina regarded and believed should live in accordance with. She was displeased by their refusal to commit themselves to seeking to live in accordance with the values she regarded them as having a responsibility to follow. As was mentioned, a perfectibilist mentality can involve a high standard for oneself and others. When people fail to live up to these standards it can incur criticism. And if such standards are rejected, it brings the potential of offending the thinker and the lowering of regard for the transgressor. Angelina’s reaction to and defection from the Presbyterian Church is something befitting a person with a perfectibilist mentality in such a situation. As such, Angelina leaving the Church may have, in part, been an act of a young person with a developing perfectibilist
In describing Angelina’s development into an anti-slavery activist, Foletta claimed that “even as Grimke approached her career as an anti-slavery activist, she was still essentially an ascetic prophet, and her interest in slavery was contained within questions of biblical … proportions”. While Foletta had taken his emphasis to a somewhat occlusive level, which may be questioned, his analysis still points the high significance which asceticism played. Though, in the combination of various accounts, it is clear that Asceticism had played a significant role in the Grimke Sister’s