An Abolitionist Abroad
232 pages, 6 x 9
2 b&w illus.
Paperback
Release Date:09 Nov 2016
ISBN:9781625342461
An Abolitionist Abroad
Sarah Parker Remond in Cosmopolitan Europe
University of Massachusetts Press
Sarah Parker Remond (1826–1894) left the free black community of Salem, Massachusetts, where she was born, to become one of the first women to travel on extensive lecture tours across the United Kingdom. Remond eventually moved to Florence, Italy, where she earned a degree at one of Europe's most prestigious medical schools. Her language skills enabled her to join elite salons in Florence and Rome, where she entertained high society with musical soirees even while maintaining connections to European emancipation movements.
Remond's extensive travels and diverse acquaintances demonstrate that the nineteenth-century grand tour of Europe was not exclusively the privilege of white intellectuals but included African American travelers, among them women. This biography, based on international archival research, tells the fascinating story of how Remond forged a radical path, establishing relationships with fellow activists, artists, and intellectuals across Europe.
Remond's extensive travels and diverse acquaintances demonstrate that the nineteenth-century grand tour of Europe was not exclusively the privilege of white intellectuals but included African American travelers, among them women. This biography, based on international archival research, tells the fascinating story of how Remond forged a radical path, establishing relationships with fellow activists, artists, and intellectuals across Europe.
Salenius effectively draws on archival research of Remond and her contemporaries to showcase Remond's activism and demonstrate that African Americans were critically and intimately engaged in transatlantic political and social activities.'—DoVeanna Fulton, author of Speaking Power: Black Feminist Orality in Women's Narratives of Slavery
'Sirpa Salenius's An Abolitionist Abroad is a much needed addition to our understanding of the complex transatlantic networks that developed throughout the nineteenth century.'—Stéphanie Durrans
, European Journal of American Studies
Sirpa Salenius is senior lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland.
