At the end of the 1830s the abolitionist sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke, along with Angelina's new husband, Theodore Weld, begin collecting first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery and publishing them in American Slavery as It Is. The success of the book helps to move northern opinion against slavery. But the birth of children and the challenges of domestic lives mean the sisters set aside their public roles as voices against slavery and for women's rights. Turning inward sets the sisters into painful conflict with each other. Teens Archibald and Francis Grimke, sons of Angelina and Sarah's brother, Henry Grimke and his colored mistress, Nancy Weston, have barely survived the unspeakable hardships of slavery. They make their way to freedom in the North, but education proves elusive. Eventually their excellence as students at Lincoln University leads to their surprising revelation to their abolitionist aunts. At Harvard Law and at Princeton Theological, the young men embark on difficult but illustrious careers. But the end of Reconstruction means a renewed struggle for African American freedom and rights. The romantic and domestic heartbreaks of Archie and Frank are intertwined with their lifelong struggle for the survival and equal rights of their people.
