Sarah Parker Remond, born in Salem, MA, was an influential anti-slavery activist and lecturer on human and women’s rights.

She was born in 1826 to John Remond and Nancy Lenox Remond, the 9th of 10 children of free born, economically secure parents whose prosperity was rooted in hair salons and catering businesses. The Remond family was well respected in Salem and had a history of anti-slavery activism. John became active in the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830s. Nancy Remond was one of the founders of the Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. The oldest brother, Charles Lenox Remond, became an anti-enslavement lecturer and influenced his sisters to become active in anti-enslavement work. They belonged to the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, founded by Black women including Nancy L. Remond. The Society hosted prominent North American 19th-century abolitionist speakers, including William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.

In 1835, after passing an entrance examination, Remond and her sister were admitted to Salem High School. White parents protested and, within a week, the school committee decided to remove all Black children and establish a separate school for them. The Remond family moved to Rhode Island where the children were refused admittance to public schools again. Eventually Sarah Remond received some education at a private school that Black residents of the town had established. The family returned to Salem in 1841, where her father successfully campaigned for desegregation of local schools. Remond also became more active anti-discrimination work after a policeman injured her while forcefully removing Sarah from the Howard Athenaeum in Boston in 1853. She was attending a performance with some friends and refused to leave a section reserved for white people only. Remond sued in a civil suit, winning five hundred dollars and an end to segregated seating at the hall.

With the support of her family, Remond began lecturing in 1856. In time, she developed a knack for public speaking and addressed a number of packed anti-slavery meetings in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In January 1859 she delivered her first lecture in England, gradually incorporating Ireland and Scotland into her itinerary. Remond's time in the UK was especially important as she was thought to be the first woman to discuss slavery in front of mass audiences. Her lectures were quite popular. She spoke fearlessly of the sexual exploitation of enslaved Black women, a topic generally deemed taboo to discuss in public at the time, even in newspapers. The next year, she enrolled at Bedford College for Ladies in London, where she is thought to be the first Black student enrolled, continuing her lectures during school holidays.

Remond remained in England during the Civil War, participating in efforts to persuade the British not to support the Confederacy. Great Britain was officially neutral, but many feared that their connection to the cotton trade would result in British support for the Confederate insurrection. She supported the US shipping blockade that prevented goods reaching or leaving the Confederacy. Remond became active in the Ladies’ London Emancipation Society. At the end of the war, she raised funds in Great Britain to support the Freedmen's Aid Association in the United States.

Once she returned to the United States, Remond joined with the American Equal Rights Association to work for equal suffrage for women and African Americans. In 1867, she went back to England and moved to Florence, Italy by 1868. Remond studied medicine at one of Europe’s most prestigious medical schools, Bedford College for Ladies (now part of the University of London).

At the age of 50, she married Lazzaro Pintor, a Sardinian businessman making her Madame Remond Pintor. She practiced medicine for 20 years in Florence before her death in 1894. Sarah Parker Remond is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome where a Memorial plaque was erected in her honor.

Sources:

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Biography of Sarah Parker Remond, North American 19th-Century Black Activist." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/sarah-parker-remond-biography-4068400

“May 4, 1853: Sarah Remond Ejected from Boston Theater.” MassMoments. Accessed on 2022, January 29. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/sarah-remond-ejected-from-boston-theater.html

“Sarah Parker Remond.” Collections Online, Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed on 2022, January 29. https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=1300&pid=3

Coleman, W. (2007, January 18). Sarah Parker Remond (1824-1894). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/remond-sarah-parker-1824-1894/

Lucy Jordan, Lucy. “A Voice for Freedom, the life of Sarah Parker Remond” University of London. https://london.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/leading-women/a-voice-freedom-life-sarah-parker-remond

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