Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer. Her family was involved in the Underground Railroad assisting those fleeing slavery. She was the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher of a newspaper in Canada.
About Mary Ann Shadd in brief
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer. Her family was involved in the Underground Railroad assisting those fleeing slavery. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, her family relocated to Canada. She returned to the U.S. during the American Civil War where she recruited soldiers for the Union. She taught, went to Howard University Law School, and continued advocacy for civil rights for African Americans and women for the rest of her life. She was the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher of a newspaper in Canada. Her efforts to create free black settlements in Canada first began in Windsor, Ontario, where she founded a racially integrated school with the support of the American Missionary Association. In 1853 she founded an anti-lavery paper called The Provincial Freeman, published weekly in southern Ontario, which advocated equality, integration and self-education for black people in Canada and the United States. It ran for four years before financial challenges forced Mary Ann to fold the paper. She died in Toronto, Ontario on March 24, 1853, at the age of 75.
She is buried in the Shadd family cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware, with her husband, Abraham D. Shadd, and their two children, Isaac Shadd and Mary Ann’s grandson, A. D. Shadd, who were born in 1823 and 1828 respectively. The Shadds were active in the American Anti-Slavery Society and were active as a conductor on the Underground railroad and in other civil rights activities. Mary Ann wrote to Frederick Douglass in 1848 to offer her suggestions on what could be done to improve life for African-Americans. She expressed her frustration with the many conventions that had been held to that date, such as those attended by her father, where speeches were made and resolutions passed about the evils of slavery and the need for justice for black Americans. She also later taught in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and New York City. In 1840, after being away at school, Mary Ann returned to East Chester and established a school for black children. She and her brother Isaac moved to Canada, and settled in Windsor. Three years later, A D. Shadd moved his family to the United Canadas, settling in North Buxton, Ontario.
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This page is based on the article Mary Ann Shadd published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 17, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
