Charles Lenox Remond

Charles Lenox Remond (1 February 1810 – 22 December 1873) was an American orator, abolitionist and military organizer during the American Civil War. He was the brother of Sarah Parker Remond, also heavily engaged in the cause.

Early years
Remond was born free in Salem, Massachusetts to John Remond, a native of the island of Curaçao, a hairdresser, and Nancy Lenox, daughter of a prominent Bostonian, a hairdresser and caterer. The eldest son of eight children, Charles Remond began his activism in opposition to slavery while in his twenties as an orator speaking at public gatherings and conferences in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New York and Pennsylvania.

Activism
In 1838 the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, chose him as one of its agents. As a delegate from the American Anti-Slavery Society, he went with William Lloyd Garrison to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. The young Remond had a reputation as an eloquent lecturer and is reported to have been the first black public speaker on abolition.

In 1842 at meetings held by Remond and his sister in New Brighton, Massachusetts, Remond stated "When the world shall learn that "mind makes the man"-- that goodness; moral worth, and integrity of soul, are the true tests of Character, then prejudice against caste and color, will cease to be."

Remond recruited black soldiers in Massachusetts for the Union Army during the Civil War, particularly for the famed 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry. He was also active in recruiting for the U.S. Colored Troops.

Personal life
Remond's family operated a hairdressing business, and catering service in which several members participated. Remond would eventually strike out on his own; after the Civil War ended, he worked as a clerk in the Boston Customs House, and as a street lamp inspector. He later purchased a farm in South Reading (now Wakefield), Massachusetts.

Charles L. Remond's siblings included Nancy, the eldest, wife of James Shearman, an oyster dealer; Caroline, a salon owner, wife of Joseph Putnam; Cecelia, co-owner of a wig salon, wife of James Babcock; Maritchie Juan, wig salon co-owner; Sarah Parker, abolition activist; and John, who was married to Ruth Rice.

Remond was married to Amy Matilda (Williams) Cassey (1809–56), the daughter of Rev. Peter Williams, Jr. and the widow of wealthy Philadelphia barber Joseph Cassey, to whom she bore eight children. After Cassey's death in 1848, she married Remond and moved to Salem, Massachusetts where she lived until her death on 15 August 1856. His second wife was Elizabeth Magee, a native of Virginia, whom he married in Newton, Massachusetts on 5 July 1858, with the famed Abolitionist Rev. Theodore Parker officiating. Before her death in 1871, she bore Remond four children: Amy Matilda (1859–72), Charles Lenox, Jr. (1860–82), Wendell Phillips (1863–66), and Albert Ernest (1866–1903).

Remond died in Boston in December 1873.

Charles Remond Douglass, the son of Frederick Douglass, was named for him.

Remond is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, in Salem.