info@grimke.co.uk
31 St John's Road, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 1LX
31 St John's Road, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 1LX
This year of 2008 has been even more significant for me than last year. As I am sure you are aware, it has been for all of us full of challenges, caused by the downturn in the world's economy. However, there have also been signs of hope – for instance, the election of the first non-white President of the United States of America. Despite the fact that I have profound difficulties with certain policies of the Democratic Party, nevertheless I see Barack Obama entering the White House as a "breath of fresh air".
I believe that this will assist the continued work of racial reconciliation, which is so desperately needed in our fractured society. Do not think that just by legislating the implementation of anti-racist and anti-discriminatory policies you are going to change the human heart? Unless there is a "root-and-branch" renewal in each person, communities will not unite to heal the wounds of the past and to move on together in justice and compassion.
In August this year I was privileged to take part in a gathering of academics and descendants of slaves and slaveholders at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The theme of the weekend was "Extending the Table"... Read More
Before I embark on a historical record of the family, it is important to emphasize that my knowledge is partial and based on the facts at my disposal. It may very well be that in future I shall have to revise any observations which I make, in the interests of accuracy and integrity.
My name is Bill Grimke-Drayton, and I am British. However, I am a direct descendant of two slave-owning families from Charleston in South Caronlina. My great-great grandfather, Theodore Drayton Grimke, left the States shortly before the Civil War of 1861-1865, taking up a position in his father-in-law's business in Lancashire, England.
He had met his English wife-to-be on the so-called Grand Tour of Europe. What were his thoughts as he left his home? I believe he was greatly influenced by the radical views of this aunts, the famous abolitionists, Sarah Moore Grimke and Angelina Grimke (wife of Theodore Dwight Weld). All resided in the north, and would certainly not have been welcome back in Charleston, I believe that Theodore Drayton Grimke through his associations would have known that the north with it's industrial might would eventually win the war....