Osborn Perry Anderson

July 27, 1830 - December 13, 1872

A free African American living in Canada, Anderson worked for the Provincial Freeman newspaper in Chatham when he met John Brown at the Chatham Convention. Anderson followed John Brown to Harpers Ferry, MD, where he helped Brown to stage a raid on the arms depot. Brown's idea was to arm all the slaves in the south and together they could secure their freedom. Almost everyone was captured by the military. Anderson escaped after the raid by walking through the mountains into Pennsylvania and taking trains to Canada. He penned A Voice from Harpers Ferry in 1861 and was a recruiter for the Union army in 1864. Osborne Anderson died of tuberculosis in Washington, D.C.