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{{Short description|African-American abolitionist (1830–1872)}}
[[File:Osborne Perry Anderson.png|thumb|Osborne Perry Anderson]]
'''Osborne Perry Anderson''' (July 27, 1830 – December 11, 1872) was an [[African-American]] [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] and the only surviving African-American member of [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown's]] [[John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry|raid]] on [[Harpers Ferry]]. He became a soldier in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]].<ref name=Hinton>{{cite book
|title=John Brown and his men; with some account of the roads they traveled to reach Harper's Ferry
|last=Hinton
|first=Richard J
|location=New York
|publisher=[[Funk & Wagnalls]]
|year=1894
|page=505
|edition=Revised
|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ack4822.0001.001/3?page=root;size=100;view=image;q1=Brown%2C+John%2C+--+1800-1859}}</ref>

==Early life==

In 1830 Anderson was born a free [[African American]] in West Fallow Field Township, [[Chester County, Pennsylvania]]. He completed basic schooling and later attended [[Oberlin College]] in [[Ohio]], after which he moved to [[Chatham-Kent|Chatham]] in Canada West (now [[Ontario]]) in 1850 and opened shop as a printer. This skill served him later as an abolitionist. A different source says it was 1851 that he moved to Canada, where he worked for [[Mary Ann Shadd Cary]]'s ''[[Provincial Freeman (newspaper)|Provincial Freeman]]'' newspaper.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Five for Freedom, The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army
|first=Eugene L.
|last=Meyer
|location=Chicago
|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books
|year=2018
|isbn=9781613735718}}</ref>{{rp|ix}}

The same year, he was a member of the [[Chatham Vigilance Committee]] that sought to prevent former slaves from being returned to the United States and brought back into slavery, such as the case of Sylvanus Demarest.<ref name="CVC">{{Cite web |title=Chatham Vigilance Committee and the Demarest Rescue |url=https://theclio.com/entry/89722 |access-date=2021-04-11 |website=Clio |language=en}}</ref>

==John Brown and the raid on Harpers Ferry==

In May 1858, Anderson met [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and learned of the [[John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry|revolution]] that he was planning at a meeting in Chatham.<ref>Calarco, Tom. People of the Underground Railroad: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group (2008), p. 255.</ref> Because of his writing skills Anderson was appointed as the recording secretary at several of the meetings and was eventually promoted to a member of Brown's provisional congress.<ref>Alkalimat, Abdul (2004). ''The African American Experience in Cyberspace''. Pluto Press. {{ISBN|0-7453-2222-0}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2020}}

During the raid, Col. [[Lewis Washington]], great grand-nephew of George Washington, was taken hostage by the raiders, and surrendered to Anderson the sword of [[Frederick the Great]] and pistols presented by [[General Lafayette]] to [[General Washington]]. John Brown later brandished the sword while commanding his men at Harpers Ferry.<ref>{{cite book
|editor-last1=Russo
|editor-first1=Peggy A.
|editor-first2=Paul
|editor-last2=Finkelman
|last=Geffert
|first=Hannah
|chapter=They heard his call / the local Black community's involvement in the raid on Harpers Ferry
|title=Terrible swift sword: the legacy of John Brown.
|isbn=978-0821441503
|location=[[Athens, Ohio]]
|publisher=[[Ohio University Press]]
|year=2005
|page=41}}</ref>

During the [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|raid on Harpers Ferry]] Anderson was stationed with [[Albert Hazlett]], and once it became apparent to them that the raid was a failure they both retreated to Pennsylvania.  Hazlett was later captured and hanged.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.alliesforfreedom.org/opa.htm |title=Info on Anderson from Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society website |access-date=2007-04-30 |archive-date=2007-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008060255/http://www.alliesforfreedom.org/opa.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==''A Voice from Harper's Ferry''==

{{blockquote|Of the slaves who followed us to the Ferry, some were sent to help remove stores, and the others were drawn up in a circle around the engine-house, at one time, where they were, by Captain Brown's order, furnished by me with pikes, mostly, and acted as a guard to the prisoners to prevent their escape, which they did. As in the war of the American Revolution, the first blood shed was a black man's, [[Crispus Attucks]]', so at Harpers Ferry, the first blood shed by our party, after the arrival of the United States troops, was that of a slave. In the beginning of the encounter, and before the troops had fairly emerged from the bridge, a slave was shot. I saw him fall. Phil, the slave who died in prison, with fear, as it was reported, was wounded at the Ferry, and died from the effects of it... The first report of the number of 'insurrectionists' killed was seventeen, which showed that several slaves were killed; for there were only ten of the men that belonged to the Kennedy Farm who lost their lives at the Ferry, namely: [[John Henri Kagi]], Jerry Anderson, [[Watson Brown (abolitionist)|Watson Brown]], Oliver Brown, Stewart Taylor, Adolphus Thompson, William Thompson, William Leeman, all eight whites, and [[Dangerfield Newby]] and [[Lewis Sheridan Leary|Sherrard Lewis Leary]], both colored. The rest reported dead, according to their own showing, were colored.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=A voice from Harper's Ferry |wslink=A voice from Harper's Ferry |wspage=60 |last=Anderson |first=Osborne Perry |authorlink=Osborne Perry Anderson |date=1861 |publisher= |location=Boston |page=60 |chapter=Chapter 19 |scan=Index:A voice from Harper's Ferry (1861).djvu}}</ref>}}

After the failed raid, Anderson went on to publish an account of the events, titled ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73843 A Voice From Harper's Ferry]''. The book describes the conditions that were present at the Harpers Ferry raid, including the training, the supplies that were available, and the events that led up to and followed the raid. In it, he says he was the only surviving person who was with Brown during the entire raid.

Though Anderson did not name the friends who aided his escape in his account, later analysis concluded that [[William C. Goodridge]], a conductor on the [[Underground Railroad]], hid him in [[York, Pennsylvania]], then sent him by rail to Philadelphia. Anderson proceeded from there to Canada.<ref name="pamarker">[http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-10E Explore PA History: William C. Goodridge Historical Marker] accessed 4-11-2017</ref>

==Later life==
Upon the start of the Civil War Anderson became a noncommissioned officer of the Union Army. In October 1872, "the colored citizens of Philadelphia" took up a collection of $69 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=69|start_year=1872}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to help him; in thanking them on October 20, he indicates that his health is poor ("Should Providence spare my life..."),<ref>{{cite news
|title=Interesting Correspondence
|first=Osborne P.
|last=Anderson
|author-link=Osborne Perry Anderson
|newspaper=[[The Christian Recorder]]
|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|date=October 25, 1872
|orig-date=October 20, 1872
|via=[[accessiblearchives.com]]
|url-access=subscription
|page=1
|url=https://www.accessible.com/accessible/docButton?AAWhat=builtPage&AAWhere=THECHRISTIANRECORDER.18721026_001.image&AABeanName=toc1&AANextPage=/printBuiltImagePage.jsp}}</ref> and the newspaper described him as in "feeble health" and "on his way to the South".<ref>{{cite news
|title=Osborne P. Anderson
|newspaper=[[The Christian Recorder]] (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
|date=October 25, 1872
|via=[[accessiblearchives.com]]
|url-access=subscription
|page=4
|url=https://www.accessible.com/accessible/docButton?AAWhat=builtPage&AAWhere=THECHRISTIANRECORDER.18721026_004.image&AABeanName=toc1&AACheck=1.59.6.4.1&AANextPage=/printBuiltImagePage.jsp}}</ref> In Washington D.C. two collections produced over $150.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Washington Letter
|author=Wide Awake
|newspaper=[[The Christian Recorder]]
|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|date=December 21, 1872
|orig-date=December 7, 1872
|via=[[accessiblearchives.com]]
|url-access=subscription
|page=1
|url=https://www.accessible.com/accessible/docButton?AAWhat=builtPage&AAWhere=THECHRISTIANRECORDER.18721221_001.image&AABeanName=toc1&AANextPage=/printBuiltImagePage.jsp}}</ref>
Within a week he died, in Washington, from [[tuberculosis]] and lack of care.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
|title=His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
|first=Bertram
|last=Wyatt-Brown
|contribution='A Volcano Beneath a Mountain of Snow': John Brown and the problem of Interpretation
|pages=10–38, at p. 27
|editor-first=Paul
|editor-last=Finkelman
|editor-link=Paul Finkelman
|location=[[Charlottesville, Virginia]]
|publisher=[[University Press of Virginia]]
|year=1995
|isbn=0813915368}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
|title=Five for Freedom. The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army
|first=Eugene L.
|last=Meyer
|location=Chicago
|pages=144–146
|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books ([[Chicago Review Press]])
|year=2018
|isbn=9781613735725}}</ref> He was interred at [[Columbian Harmony Cemetery]].<ref>Meyer, Eugene L. "At Cemetery, a John Brown Raider Is Remembered." ''Washington Post.'' November 16, 2000.</ref> All the bodies from that cemetery were moved to [[National Harmony Memorial Park]] in [[Landover, Maryland]]. The exact location of his remains in the cemetery is unknown as most of the reburials were in the nature of a mass grave. His gravestone marker, if there was one, was sold with the others as scrap and probably ended up as "rip-rap" securing the Potomac shoreline of Stuart Plantation. There is a more recent memorial, but it is almost certainly not located over his remains.

==Works==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{cite wikisource |title=A Voice from Harper's Ferry |wslink=A voice from Harper's Ferry |last=Anderson |first=Osborne Perry |authorlink=Osborne Perry Anderson |date=1861 |publisher= |location=Boston |page= |pages= |scan=Index:A voice from Harper's Ferry (1861).djvu}}

==See also==
* [[John Brown's raiders]]

==Legacy==
* ''The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson'', a play by [[Ted Lange]], was produced in [[Winston-Salem, North Carolina]], in 2015.<ref>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[Winston-Salem Chronicle]]
|location=[[Winston-Salem, N.C.]]
|date=July 30, 2015
|page=3
|via=[[North Carolina Newspapers]]
|url=https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn85042324/2015-07-30/ed-1/seq-35/
|title=The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal
|last=Huntingto [sic]
|first=Tom
|journal=[[American History]]
|date=April 2017
|volume=52
|number=1
|via=[[EBSCO Information Services|EBSCO]] Academic Search Complete
|url=https://web-a-ebscohost-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=12&sid=f8098e5b-b839-4df2-9b48-8902c5324510%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=120663389&db=a9h
|title=Escape from Harpers Ferry}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Wikisource|A voice from Harper's Ferry}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Osborne Perry Anderson}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11924}}

{{John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Osborne Perry}}
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[Category:African Americans in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:1830 births]]
[[Category:1872 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Columbian Harmony Cemetery]]
[[Category:John Brown's raiders]]
[[Category:Oberlin College alumni]]
[[Category:Canadian printers]]
[[Category:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Abolitionists from Pennsylvania]]