Page:The black man - his antecedents, his genius, and his achievements (IA blackmanantecede00browrich).pdf/254

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CHARLES LENOX REMOND.

Charles L. Remond is a native of Salem, Mass. He has the honor, we believe, of being the first colored man to take the field as a lecturer against slavery. He has been, more or less, in the employ of the Anti-Slavery Society for the past twenty-eight or thirty years. In 1840, he visited England as a delegate to the first "World's Anti-Slavery Convention," held in London. He remained abroad nearly two years, lecturing in the various towns and cities of Great Britain and Ireland. The following lines, addressed to him, appeared in one of the public journals, after the delivery of one of his thrilling speeches, in Belfast, and will give some idea of the estimation in which he was held as a platform speaker.


TO C. L. REMOND.

Go forth and fear not! Glorious is the cause
Which thou dost advocate; and nobly, too,
Hast thou fulfilled thy mission—nobly raised
Thy voice against oppression, and the woes
Of injured millions; and, if they are men,
Who can deny for them a Saviour died?
Nor will it e'er be asked, in that dread day
When black and white shall stand before the throne
Of Him their common Parent, "Unto which
Partition of the human race didst thou
Belong on earth?" Enough for thee to fill
The lot assigned thee, as ordained by Heaven.
I would not praise thee, Remond,—thou hast gifts