Abolitionist-feminist Angelina Grimke's "Pennsylvania Hall" address in 1838 is more than an important early feminist document. Through the use of rhetorical techniques (such as those known to contemporary feminists as elements of "consciousness raising"), Grimke empowers herself and her women listeners through the act of speaking. Most important, her speech transforms then-current definitions of woman's proper role through the related and mutually enforcing concepts of "enactment" and "iconicity," thus continuing to provide a model of rhetorical empowerment for the oppressed. What emerges is a model of empowerment not only for Grimke's contemporaries, but for her rhetorical heirs as well. (Thirty-one notes are included, and excerpts from the Grimke address are attached.) (Author/SG)