OSBORN, CHARLES: 1775-1850.
" Charles Osborn (Aug. 21, 1775-Dec. 29, 1850), abolitionist … the son of David and Margaret (Stout) Osborn, was born in Guilford County, N.C. About 1794 he removed to Knox County, Tenn., where he became a Quaker preacher. He lived in Jefferson County, Tenn., Mount Pleasant, O., and from 1819 to 1842 in Wayne County, Ind., excepting the years from 1827 to 1830 that he spent in Warren and Clinton counties, O. In 1842 he removed to Cass County, Mich., and in 1848 to Porter County, Ind., where he died. On Nov. 11, 1798, he married Sarah Newman, who died on Aug. 10, 1812, leaving seven children, and on Sept. 26, 1813, he married Hannah Swain, who bore him nine children …
"In December 1814, at the house of his father-in- law, Elihu Swain, he began his career as an antislavery leader by laying the foundations for the Tennessee Manumission Society, whose organization he did not, however, complete until the next February at Lostcreek Meeting House. In 1816 he founded similar societies in Guilford County, N. C. While at Mount Pleasant, O., he published the PHILANTHROPIST, from Aug. 29, 1817, to Oct. 8, 1818, a paper partially devoted to anti-slavery agitation. It has been asserted that he himself and, through him, the manumission societies and PHILANTHROPIST were the earliest advocates of immediate emancipation. This assertion cannot be substantiated. The societies definitely advocated gradual emancipation … Following Quaker tradition he long opposed the use of products of slave labor, considering them stolen goods because slaves' labor was stolen by their masters. His exhortations resulted in the formation on Nov. 22, 1842, of the Free Produce Association of Wayne County, Ind., and the establishment of a propagandist newspaper, the FREE LABOR ADVOCATE AND ANTI-SLAVERY CHRONICLE. When the conservatives, who, only mildly abolitionist, believed in confining anti-slavery activity to their own religious organizations, gained control over the Indiana Yearly Meeting, which before 1842 was dominated by the active abolitionist radicals, they removed him and others from the Meeting for Sufferings, page: 243[View Page 243] a governing committee of the Church, on which he had served for years. This was a severe and unexpected blow to him. Bitterly lamenting the conservatives' position, he participated prominently in the session of 2,000 radicals who formed the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends in February, 1843. He continued his interest in the later activities of the seceders and died condemning the Fugitive-slave Law. After his death, in 1854 the Church published The Journal of That Faithful Servant of Christ, Charles Osborn.
Condensed from R. A. K., Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XIV.
- A Testimony Concerning the Separation Which Occurred in the
Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, in the Winter of 1842 and '43;
Together with Sundry Remarks and Observations, Particularly on the Subjects
of War, Slavery, and Colonization. Centerville,
1849.
- Journal of That Faithful Servant of Christ, Charles Osborn,
Containing an Account of Many of His Travels and Labors in the Work of the
Ministry, and His Trials and Exercises in the Service of the Lord, and in
Defense of the Truth, as It Is in Jesus.
Cincinnati, 1854.
