Mary Ann Shadd Cary
made her mark as the first Black woman publisher in North America, and
as the first woman publisher in Canada. Mrs. Cary was also an
abolitionist, teacher, activist, and lawyer in her lifetime, and
established a racially integrated school just across the border from
Detroit.
Cary
was born Mary Ann Shadd on October 9, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. She
was the eldest of 13 children to her free-born parents. Shadd's father,
A.D. Shadd, was a well-known abolitionist and conductor on the
Underground Railroad who became Canada's first Black elected official in
1858.
The
family moved from Delaware to Pennsylvania once it became illegal to
educate Black people in their former state. Cary ultimately returned to
the town of West Chester where she established a school for Black
children and did the same in New York as well.
When
the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was enacted, the Shadd family went north
to Canada. Cary's racially-integrated school was established in
Windsor, Ontario shortly after her arrival.
In 1853, Cary's anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freemen,
was established. The paper sought to inform African-Americans of
Canada's opportunities, especially those seeking to escape or had
recently arrived to the nation. Her brother Issac Shadd ran the
newspaper, between hosting the meetings for the Harper's Ferry Raid at
his home, according to some accounts.
The
newspaper publisher married Thomas F. Cary in 1856. The pair had two
children but her husband died just a few years after their union. In
1863, the height of the Civil War, Cary returned to the United States
and worked as a recruiting officer for the Union Army in Indiana. Much
of Cary's motivation to do so was to stamp out the practice of slavery.
In
1883, just 10 years before her death, Cary became just the second Black
woman to earn a law degree in the United States, after graduating from
Howard University.
Cary's home is a historical landmark in Washington, D.C., which is her final resting place.
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