Black Abolitionist, attorney, educator and author Mary Ann Shadd!

Mary Ann Shadd Cary an African American journalist and abolitionist was born in 1823. In she started a newspaper called The Provincial Freemen, a weekly publication for African Americans, to assist self liberated black people and to promote information about the successes of Black people living in Canada.   When the Civil War broke out, Mary Ann Shadd Cary returned to the United States to help in the war effort. 

Shadd moved to Washington, DC, where she taught, then pursued law studies and became the first Black woman to complete this degree at Howard University. Shadd fought for many causes, including women’s right to vote. 

In addition Shadd testified before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives along with women’s rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Shadd succeeded in achieving another first when she became the first Black women to cast a vote in a national election:

A Black teacher and journalist, Mary Ann Shadd, was the first Black woman in North America to publish a newspaper and the first woman to study for a law degree at an American university. 

Mary Ann Shadd was the eldest of 13 children. Her father worked for the abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator run by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and provided help to fugitive African Americans as a member of the Underground Railroad. Shadd Cary would grow up to follow in her father’s footsteps.

Shadd settled in Windsor, Ontario where she wrote educational booklets outlining the advantages of Canada for settlers willing to work and the need for living within one’s means. She set up a school in Windsor for fugitives from slavery.