Sarah Parker Remond
Encyclopedia
Sarah Parker Remond was an American physician
, lecturer, abolitionist, and agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society
. She worked giving speeches throughout the United States over the horrors of slavery. Because of her eloquence, she was chosen to travel to England to gather support for the abolitionist cause in the United States and, after the American Civil War
started, for support of the Union Army and the Union blockade of the Confederacy. She was the sister of orator Charles Lenox Remond
.
, Remond was born to John Remond and Nancy Lenox of eight children. Her mother Nancy was the Newton-born daughter of a man who fought in the Continental Army; her father, John was a free person of color who arrived from the Dutch island of Curaçao at age ten in 1798. The Remonds settled in Salem, where they built a successful catering, provisioning, and hairdressing business. They prospered in Salem and tried to protect their children, but there was no way to protect them from the pervasive racism. The family valued education, and in 1835, Remond and her sister passed an exam to attend the Salem High School. In less than a week the girls were forced out by the racist school board. Outraged, the Remonds moved to Newport, RI, where she attended a private school for blacks. Her father worked to desegregate the schools in Salem, and when he finally succeeded in 1841, the family returned. Remond continued her education by reading widely and attending concerts and lectures, reading books, pamphlets and newspapers borrowed from friends or purchased from the anti-slavery society of her community, which sold many titles at a cheap price.
Salem in the 1840s was a center of anti-slavery activity. The whole family was committed to the abolition movement. They played host to many of the movement's leaders, including William Lloyd Garrison
and Wendell Phillips
, and to more than one fugitive slave fleeing north. Her father was a life member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society; and her older brother Charles Lenox Remond was the American Anti-Slavery Society's first black lecturer and the nation's leading black abolitionist until Frederick Douglass
appeared on the scene in 1842. Along with her mother and sisters, Remond was an active member of the state and county female anti-slavery societies.
In 1853, Remond was forcibly removed and pushed down a flight of stairs at the Howard Athenaeum in Boston where she had gone to attend an opera, Don Pasquale
, for which she had purchased a ticket. This incident stemmed from her refusal to sit in a segregated section for the show. Remond sued for damages and won her case. She was awarded $500, which did not compensate for her injury and embarrassment, but her goal was not to make money on the case but to force an admission that she was wronged.
Remond’s sisters went into their parents' trade, becoming caterers, bakers, and hairdressers, but she chose a different path. With the moral support as well as the financial backing of her family, she became an anti-slavery lecturer. Abby Kelley Foster, another Massachusetts woman, provided Remond an example and the encouragement she needed to become an anti-slavery lecturer. "I feel almost sure," Remond wrote to Abby, "I never should have made the attempt but for the words of encouragement I received from you. Although my heart was in the work, I felt that I was in need of a good English education. ... When I consider that the only reason why I did not obtain what I so much desired was because I was the possessor of an unpopular complexion, it adds to my discomfort."
In 1856, the American Anti-Slavery Society hired a team of lecturers, including Remond, her brother Charles Lenox Remond, a well-known antislavery lecturer in the United States and Great Britain, and Susan B. Anthony to tour New York State addressing anti-slavery issues. Over the next two years, she, her brother, and others spoke in Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania; often being confronted with poor accommodations due to their race.
Although she was inexperienced, even early on, Remond was an effective speaker. William Lloyd Garrison praised her "calm, dignified manner, her winning personal appearance and her earnest appeals to the conscience and the heart." Over time, she became one of the Society's most persuasive and powerful lecturers.
In 1856, she published a letter in the Daily News protesting attacks on Black people in the London press after an insurrection in Jamaica. One lecture that she delivered in London, "The Freeman or the Emancipated Negro of the Southern States of the United States," was published in The Freedman (London) in 1867.
Remond proved to be such a good speaker, and such a good fundraiser, that she was invited to take the anti-slavery message to Great Britain, something her brother had done ten years before. Accompanied by Samuel May, Jr., she sailed for Liverpool on December 28, 1858 from Boston on the steamer Arahia to enlist the aid of the English people in the American antislavery movement. She arrived in Liverpool on January 12, 1859, after a frightening trip. The ship had been covered with ice and snow. It rolled and tossed so much that many of the passengers were sick, including Remond, who regained her strength after a few days of recuperation in the home of William Robson in Warrington.
Before she sailed, she told Abby Kelly Foster, she feared not "the wind nor the waves, but I know that no matter how I go, the spirit of prejudice will meet me." In fact, she met with acceptance in Britain. "I have been received here as a sister by white women for the first time in my life,” she wrote; "I have received a sympathy I never was offered before." She was the first educated, cultivated black woman — described by one as "a lady every inch" — that the British had ever seen. She spoke out against both slavery and racial discrimination, stressing the sexual exploitation of black women under slavery. At Tuckerman Institute on January 21, 1859, Remond gave her first antislavery lecture on the free soil of Britain. Without notes she eloquently spoke of the inhuman treatment of slaves in the United States. Her stories of these atrocities shocked many of her listeners, bringing tears to the eyes of the British. She played an important role in drawing the attention of British abolitionists to the problems endured by free Blacks as well throughout the United States. In her short autobiography, written in 1861, she stressed that "prejudice against colour has always been the one thing, above all others, which has cast its gigantic shadow over my whole life."
A clear and forceful speaker, Remond lectured to enthusiastic crowds in cities throughout England, Scotland and Ireland, and raised large sums of money for the anti-slavery cause. Once the Civil War began, she worked to build support in Britain for the Union blockade of the Confederacy and influenced public opinion in Britain to support the Union cause. At the end of the war, she lectured on behalf of the Freedmen, soliciting funds and clothing for the ex-slaves. She was an active member of the London Emancipation Society and the Freedman's Aid Association in London.
During her years in Britain, she combined lecturing with studying French, Latin, English literature, music, history and elocution at the Bedford College for Women, which would later become part of the University of London
,
, abolition activist;, and John who was married to Ruth Rice.
Remond visited Rome
and Florence
Italy
on several occasions while living in England. In 1866 at 42, she left London for Florence, where she entered the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital as a medical student. After becoming a doctor, she remained there and practiced medicine for more than twenty years, never to return to the United States. She was later joined by two of her sisters. Remond married Sardinia
n, Lazzaro Pinto on 25 April 1877. She died on 13 December 1894 in Florence, and is interred at Cimitero Protestante in Rome.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, lecturer, abolitionist, and agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...
. She worked giving speeches throughout the United States over the horrors of slavery. Because of her eloquence, she was chosen to travel to England to gather support for the abolitionist cause in the United States and, after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
started, for support of the Union Army and the Union blockade of the Confederacy. She was the sister of orator Charles Lenox Remond
Charles Lenox Remond
Charles Lenox Remond was an American orator, abolitionist and military organizer during the American Civil War...
.
Early years
Born in Salem, MassachusettsSalem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, Remond was born to John Remond and Nancy Lenox of eight children. Her mother Nancy was the Newton-born daughter of a man who fought in the Continental Army; her father, John was a free person of color who arrived from the Dutch island of Curaçao at age ten in 1798. The Remonds settled in Salem, where they built a successful catering, provisioning, and hairdressing business. They prospered in Salem and tried to protect their children, but there was no way to protect them from the pervasive racism. The family valued education, and in 1835, Remond and her sister passed an exam to attend the Salem High School. In less than a week the girls were forced out by the racist school board. Outraged, the Remonds moved to Newport, RI, where she attended a private school for blacks. Her father worked to desegregate the schools in Salem, and when he finally succeeded in 1841, the family returned. Remond continued her education by reading widely and attending concerts and lectures, reading books, pamphlets and newspapers borrowed from friends or purchased from the anti-slavery society of her community, which sold many titles at a cheap price.
Activism
Her family and associates included many activists of the times. The Remonds' home provided a safe haven for both Black and white abolitionists. Remond regularly attended antislavery lectures in Salem and Boston. Along with her household duties of cooking and sewing, Her mother taught her daughters to seek liberty in a lawful manner and that being Black was not a crime, but merely a fluke of birth.Salem in the 1840s was a center of anti-slavery activity. The whole family was committed to the abolition movement. They played host to many of the movement's leaders, including William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
and Wendell Phillips
Wendell Phillips
Wendell Phillips was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater.-Education:...
, and to more than one fugitive slave fleeing north. Her father was a life member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society; and her older brother Charles Lenox Remond was the American Anti-Slavery Society's first black lecturer and the nation's leading black abolitionist until Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
appeared on the scene in 1842. Along with her mother and sisters, Remond was an active member of the state and county female anti-slavery societies.
In 1853, Remond was forcibly removed and pushed down a flight of stairs at the Howard Athenaeum in Boston where she had gone to attend an opera, Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, for which she had purchased a ticket. This incident stemmed from her refusal to sit in a segregated section for the show. Remond sued for damages and won her case. She was awarded $500, which did not compensate for her injury and embarrassment, but her goal was not to make money on the case but to force an admission that she was wronged.
Remond’s sisters went into their parents' trade, becoming caterers, bakers, and hairdressers, but she chose a different path. With the moral support as well as the financial backing of her family, she became an anti-slavery lecturer. Abby Kelley Foster, another Massachusetts woman, provided Remond an example and the encouragement she needed to become an anti-slavery lecturer. "I feel almost sure," Remond wrote to Abby, "I never should have made the attempt but for the words of encouragement I received from you. Although my heart was in the work, I felt that I was in need of a good English education. ... When I consider that the only reason why I did not obtain what I so much desired was because I was the possessor of an unpopular complexion, it adds to my discomfort."
In 1856, the American Anti-Slavery Society hired a team of lecturers, including Remond, her brother Charles Lenox Remond, a well-known antislavery lecturer in the United States and Great Britain, and Susan B. Anthony to tour New York State addressing anti-slavery issues. Over the next two years, she, her brother, and others spoke in Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania; often being confronted with poor accommodations due to their race.
Although she was inexperienced, even early on, Remond was an effective speaker. William Lloyd Garrison praised her "calm, dignified manner, her winning personal appearance and her earnest appeals to the conscience and the heart." Over time, she became one of the Society's most persuasive and powerful lecturers.
In 1856, she published a letter in the Daily News protesting attacks on Black people in the London press after an insurrection in Jamaica. One lecture that she delivered in London, "The Freeman or the Emancipated Negro of the Southern States of the United States," was published in The Freedman (London) in 1867.
Remond proved to be such a good speaker, and such a good fundraiser, that she was invited to take the anti-slavery message to Great Britain, something her brother had done ten years before. Accompanied by Samuel May, Jr., she sailed for Liverpool on December 28, 1858 from Boston on the steamer Arahia to enlist the aid of the English people in the American antislavery movement. She arrived in Liverpool on January 12, 1859, after a frightening trip. The ship had been covered with ice and snow. It rolled and tossed so much that many of the passengers were sick, including Remond, who regained her strength after a few days of recuperation in the home of William Robson in Warrington.
Before she sailed, she told Abby Kelly Foster, she feared not "the wind nor the waves, but I know that no matter how I go, the spirit of prejudice will meet me." In fact, she met with acceptance in Britain. "I have been received here as a sister by white women for the first time in my life,” she wrote; "I have received a sympathy I never was offered before." She was the first educated, cultivated black woman — described by one as "a lady every inch" — that the British had ever seen. She spoke out against both slavery and racial discrimination, stressing the sexual exploitation of black women under slavery. At Tuckerman Institute on January 21, 1859, Remond gave her first antislavery lecture on the free soil of Britain. Without notes she eloquently spoke of the inhuman treatment of slaves in the United States. Her stories of these atrocities shocked many of her listeners, bringing tears to the eyes of the British. She played an important role in drawing the attention of British abolitionists to the problems endured by free Blacks as well throughout the United States. In her short autobiography, written in 1861, she stressed that "prejudice against colour has always been the one thing, above all others, which has cast its gigantic shadow over my whole life."
A clear and forceful speaker, Remond lectured to enthusiastic crowds in cities throughout England, Scotland and Ireland, and raised large sums of money for the anti-slavery cause. Once the Civil War began, she worked to build support in Britain for the Union blockade of the Confederacy and influenced public opinion in Britain to support the Union cause. At the end of the war, she lectured on behalf of the Freedmen, soliciting funds and clothing for the ex-slaves. She was an active member of the London Emancipation Society and the Freedman's Aid Association in London.
During her years in Britain, she combined lecturing with studying French, Latin, English literature, music, history and elocution at the Bedford College for Women, which would later become part of the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
,
Personal life
Of Remond's siblings were Nancy, the eldest, wife of James Shearman, an oyster dealer; Caroline, a salon owner, wife of Joseph Putnam; Cecelia, co-owner of a wig salon, wife of James Babcock; Maritchie Juan, wig salon co-owner; CharlesCharles Lenox Remond
Charles Lenox Remond was an American orator, abolitionist and military organizer during the American Civil War...
, abolition activist;, and John who was married to Ruth Rice.
Remond visited Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on several occasions while living in England. In 1866 at 42, she left London for Florence, where she entered the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital as a medical student. After becoming a doctor, she remained there and practiced medicine for more than twenty years, never to return to the United States. She was later joined by two of her sisters. Remond married Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
n, Lazzaro Pinto on 25 April 1877. She died on 13 December 1894 in Florence, and is interred at Cimitero Protestante in Rome.