Case Study: Sarah Parker Remond Born: 1824 Died: 1894 Occupation: lecturer and doctor Claims to fame: she was an abolitionist and a suffragist Her background As a suffragist Glossary Sarah was born in Salem, While in the UK, Sarah studied at Segregation – the prejudiced and Massachusetts in the USA into a Bedford College for Women and racist practice of separating people family of successful business people, became involved with women’s rights based on skin colour or ethnicity entrepreneurs and anti-slavery in Britain and the USA. Sarah is campaigners. Despite being born free, believed to have been the only black The US Civil War (1861–65) – her parents had experienced racism woman to have signed the 1866 between the Northern and Southern and were aware of the conditions for petition for women’s voting rights. States, partially fought on the issue other black people in the USA. As a In 1867, she moved to Italy, and of slavery young, black woman, Sarah attended a qualified in 1868 as a medical doctor. segregated school. She brought a legal She married an Italian man and lived case against a theatre after being in Rome, working as a doctor. Questions forced out when she refused to sit in She remained passionate about 1. Why was it important for segregated seats. She won the case equal rights. abolitionist speakers to visit and the theatre was ordered to stop the UK? segregated seating. She became a Useful links/resources: 2. Was Sarah a typical suffragist? speaker for the American Anti-Slavery • http://www.wcwonline.org/ 3. Why do you think someone like Society, touring the USA and, Women-=-Books-Blog/remond Sarah became a supporter of in 1859–61, Britain and Ireland. women’s rights? In 1833, slavery was abolished in the • Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Empire, but it still traded with countries Suffrage Movement: a reference such as the USA that condoned and guide, 1866–1928 used slavery. Sarah’s talks appealed (Routledge, 1999) to people in the UK to not use • Claire Midgley, ‘Anti-slavery and slave-produced goods. She continued feminism’, Gender & History, 5:3 to visit Britain and Europe during the (1993), pp. 343–362 US Civil War period. • Dorothy B. Porter, ‘Sarah Parker Remond: abolitionist and physician’, The Journal of Negro History, 20:3 (1935), pp. 287–293.