Episode 3 - Sarah Parker Remond

Meet Sarah Parker Remond!  An adventurous spirit, born free into a prominent New England family, she soared to unimaginable heights during the tumultuous 1850s.
 
Here we retell only a fraction of this trailblazer's extraordinary life.
 
Resources: 

1. Baumgartner, Kabria .  “In Pursuit of Knowledge.” New York, New York. New York University Press, 2019. 
2. Jones, Martha S. “The Vanguard.” First edition New York, NY: Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2020.
3. Remond, Sarah Parker. “The Negroes and Anglo-Africans as Freedmen and Soldiers.”  Hanover Square West, London England.  Victoria Press, 1864.
4. Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn.  “African American Woman and the Struggle for the Vote, 1850 - 1920,” Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University Press,1998.
5. Salenius, Sirpa. "An Abolitionist Abroad: Sarah Parker Remond in Cosmopolitan Europe."  Amherst, Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.

“Black Suffragist in the Spotlight” is written and produced by Jennifer Rolle.  The music selection  “Passage” is by  Moija (Uppbeat);  “Future” and “Good Feelings” are by Aleksandr Shamaluev.   The cover art featuring photographs of the activists  Hallie Quinn Brown and Helen Nannie Boroughs are courtesy of the Library of Congress.  Please send inquiries to theblacksuffragist@gmail.com and visit theblacksuffragist.net for future media events. 

Transcript

Podcast Transcript 

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JENNIFER ROLLE:  Welcome to Black Suffragist in the Spotlight.  Featuring profiles of the unsung heroes of women’s suffrage.  Hello, I’m your host, Jennifer Rolle. Women of color have largely been a footnote in the narrative of women’s rights.  Bringing them here centerstage we call attention to their contribution to social justice and gender equity.  And our bite-sized biographies just might have you take a deeper dive into their amazing stories.                                            

Dear Listeners,

Although our third honoree was a woman of considerable wealth, social standing within her community did not shield her from the challenges of discrimination.  Her pursuit of social justice and gender equality extended beyond the shores of America.

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Sarah Parker Remond was free-born on June 6, 1826, in Salem, Massachusetts.   Her parents,  John and Nancy Remond, were successful entrepreneurs and prominent social reformers.  At 16 Sarah delivered her first speech alongside her brother Charles who was a notable orator and leading abolitionist.   Naturally astute, she was largely self-educated by newspapers, books, and lectures due to an interruption in her formal education.  

In 1835, she was expelled from her school in Salem due to newly implemented segregation laws.  So, the Remonds uprooted their lives and moved to Rhode Island in hopes of finding a learning institution that would accept Black children.  Subsequently, John Redmond contested the Jim Crow law, and it was eventually overturned.   The family  returned to their hometown in 1841, but by that time Sarah was too old to attend classes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

While building on a career in public speaking, she experienced an event that  reopened the wounds of painful childhood memories.   On May 18, 1853, Sarah Remond, then 27, was attending a Mozart concert at a Boston theater when she was told to change her seat to the segregated section.   When Sarah refused LAW enforcement arrived, which resulted in her being thrown down a flight of stairs.  She later sued for damages, winning a settlement of $500 and the court later ruled that the venue end their unjust practices.  

A few years later, she was a rising star on the lecture circuit touring throughout the country on behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  As the country edged closer to a Civil War, she accepted a speaking tour abroad to solicit global support.   On  December 28, 1858, the activist pushed off the New England harbor and set sail to the United Kingdom aboard the “Arahia.”

It must have been frightening traveling alone on the steamer.   But before embarking on her voyage, she confided in a friend: 

 “I do not fear the wind nor the waves, but I know that no matter how I go, the spirit of prejudice will meet me.”  

After a rough two-week travel, Sarah arrived at Liverpool in January 1859.   As the first Black woman to speak out publicly against slavery in England, she was warmly embraced --  much to her surprise.  For the next three years, she delivered more than 45  lectures to packed halls across England, Scotland, and Ireland. Remond spoke with urgency raising an awareness to the atrocities of slavery.  And during the height of the conservative  Victorian Era, she addressed the sexual abuse of enslaved women. 

 In 1865, after emancipation,  she remained steadfast in pursuit of social equity. And as a founding member of the 1863 Ladies' London Emancipation Society, she continued her fight for women’s suffrage.  From October 1859 to June 1861, Sarah studied at Bedford College between speaking engagements.

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 At 42, she attended medical school in Florence, Italy, and practiced medicine for over 20 years.  The activist found love later in life.   In 1877, she married painter, Lazzaro Pinto Cabras.

Sarah Parker Remond was an abolitionist, orator, citizen diplomat, and physician.  In her short 1861 autobiography, she observed that "prejudice against color has always been the one thing, above all others, which has cast its gigantic shadow over my whole life."

 It has been believed that she never returned to the United States. 

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J.R. Thank you for listening to our spotlight series.  If you have a question, or if you would like to share your thoughts, please contact me at theblacksuffragist@gmail.com. I’m Jennifer Rolle, please join me next time for for another tribute to an unsung trailblazers.  Stay safe and be well.   

Until then, stay safe and be well.

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