Charles Remond
© Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Like his younger sister Sarah, Charles Lenox was inspired to fight for freedom by their
parents John and Nancy Remond. Charles traveled as a promoter of the abolitionist
paper, The Liberator. In 1833 he became an officer of the New England Anti-Slavery
Society. He traveled to London for the World Anti-Slavery Convention and toured the
British Isles lecturing about abolition. When he returned to the United States he began
working with Frederick Douglass. The two would continue to work together
intermittently through the Civil War.
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Charles Remond’s father, John, immigrated to America from Curaçao in 1798 and
became a successful hairdresser and merchant (Ripley 79). Later, he established the
Salem African Society, an early mutual aid society, and worked to desegregate the
public schools in the Massachusetts shipping town. John and his wife Nancy were
both early members of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and emphasized both
education and public service to their eight children at an early age (Ripley 79).
Charles followed in his father’s footsteps, working as a barber before becoming a
subscription agent for The Liberator in 1832 (Greenidge-Copprue 28).
Remond’s travels as a promoter of The Liberator exposed him to new abolitionist
circles throughout New England. In 1833, he became an officer of the New England
Anti-Slavery Society when members of the Colored Association of Massachusetts
decided to merge with the AAS state auxiliary. In 1837, after speaking at a Rhode
Island Anti-Slavery Society meeting, the Massachusetts AAS hired Remond as the
first full-time black lecturer in the organization (Ripley 79, Greenidge-Copprue 28).
During the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, Remond established
himself as a firm supporter of Garrison and female abolitionists. When women
delegates were refused seats at the convention, Remond issued an address rebuking
the marginalization of abolitionists because of their gender (Ripley 79). He engaged
in a yearlong lecture tour in the British Isles after the convention, returning home
on December 4, 1841 carrying a petition signed by 60,000 Irish supporters of
abolition (Greenidge-Copprue 28).
Shortly after he returned to the United States, he began working with Frederick
Douglass on the lecture circuit. In 1843, at the National Convention of Colored
Citizens, the two orators openly challenged Henry Highland Garnet’s appeal for
slaves to revolt in the South (Ripley 79). Remond later named his third son after
Douglass and the two would remain friends until around 1850, when Douglass’ split
with Garrison strained their relationship. In 1852, Remond threatened to cancel his
subscription to Frederick Douglass' Paper when Douglass suggested that the U.S.
Constitution was inherently anti-slavery (Greenidge-Copprue 29). Although their
relationship would never completely heal, Remond did change his views about
nonresistance after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Dred
Scott Decision of 1857. In 1858, he advocated slave insurrections in the South to
help bring down the slave regime and in 1859 argued that American slavery would
“go down in blood” (reprinted in Ripley 79). After the outbreak of the Civil War,
Remond rejoined Douglass to help recruit black soldiers for the war effort
(Greenidge-Copprue 29).
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Works Cited & Further Reading
“Letters to Antislavery Workers and Agencies.” Journal of Negro History 10, no. 3
(1925): 468-519.
Greenidge-Copprue, Delano. "Charles Lenox Remond.” In Encyclopedia of African
American History 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick
Douglass, edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Oxford University Press,
2006.
Ripley, C. Peter, ed. The Black Abolitionist Papers. Vol. I. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1985.
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