Frances Ann (Frank), Katherine (Kate), Charlotte (Lottie), Marie Louise (Loyise) and Florence Rollin were born in Charleston, but eventually settled in Columbia, South Carolina.
Katherine and Charlotte, both known as fierce lobbyists and political brokers, opened a school for freedmen in Charleston in the wake of the American Civil War and Emancipation.
Charlotte and her sisters also organized a "Women's Rights Convention" on December 20, 1870 that was attended by prominent Black and White Republicans.
After this convention, the Rollin sisters received a charter for a South Carolina branch of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
[5] Frances, after being denied a first class ticket on the steamer Pilot Boy due to her color, successfully sued the ship's captain in a military court for a violation of her civil rights.
The Sun compared the women to Victoria Woodhull, Catherine de Medici, Charlotte Corday and Luise Mühlbach.