Charlotte Louise Bridges Grimké (née Forten; August 17, 1837 – July 23, 1914) was an African-American anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator.

Later in life, she married Francis James Grimké, a Presbyterian minister who led a major church in Washington, DC, for decades.

Her diaries written before the end of the Civil War have been published in numerous editions in the 20th century and are significant as a rare record of the life of a free black woman in the antebellum North.

While the Fortens were free northern blacks, Charlotte's mother, Mary Virginia Wood, had been born into slavery in the south.

[3][4] Edy Wood and the wealthy planter James Cathcart Johnston carried on a longstanding relationship and had four daughters: Mary Virginia, Caroline (1827–1836), Louisa (1828–1836), and Annie E.

[4][6] In 1854, at age sixteen, Forten joined the household of Amy Matilda Cassey and her second husband, Charles Lenox Remond, in Salem, Massachusetts, so that she could attend the Higginson Grammar School, a private academy for young women.

[8] The school offered classes in history, geography, drawing, and cartography, with special emphasis placed on critical thinking skills.

In addition, she arranged for lectures by prominent speakers and writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Senator Charles Sumner.

[11] During the American Civil War, Forten was the first black teacher to join the mission to the South Carolina Sea Islands known as the Port Royal Experiment.

The Union allowed Northerners to set up schools to begin teaching freedmen who remained on the islands, which had been devoted to large plantations for cotton and rice.

[16] She chronicled this time in her essays, entitled "Life on the Sea Islands", which were published in Atlantic Monthly in the May and June issues of 1864.

[17] Forten struck up a deep friendship with Robert Gould Shaw, the Commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Sea Islands Campaign.

[11] Charlotte Grimké assisted her husband in his ministry, helping create important networks in the community, including providing charity and education.

[23] Charlotte Forten Grimké's last literary effort was in response to The Evangelist editorial, "Relations of Blacks and Whites: Is There a Color Line in New England?"

She responded that black Americans achieved success over extraordinary social odds, and they simply wanted fair and respectful treatment.

Forten admitted that she could not describe the manner of singing but she did write that the songs "can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit."