Lecture focuses on the Miamian who spoke at Gettysburg

A+portrait+of+Ohio+Governor+Charles+Anderson%2C+1814-1895%2C+by+Charles+T.+Weber+that+is+in+the+art+museum%E2%80%99s+collection.%C2%A0

A portrait of Ohio Governor Charles Anderson, 1814-1895, by Charles T. Weber that is in the art museum’s collection. 

Ohio Governor Charles Anderson, Miami class of 1833, campaigned for abolition at Gettysburg on the same day President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. Anderson, however, was opposed to formerly enslaved Americans moving from the South to the North after the war.

Born in Kentucky on a farm staffed by enslaved people, Anderson became an early proponent of racial equity. He argued Ohio’s Black Laws were “brutal and inhumane in practice.”

Rob Tolley, a 1977 Miami graduate with degrees in English and anthropology, will present, “Charles Anderson: The Miamian Who Spoke at Gettysburg,” at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum.

Tolley will discuss his discovery of a collection of artifacts and documents that belonged to Anderson, who died in 1895.

The program is free and open to the public.