The Provincial Freeman first published by Mary Ann Shad. Mary Ann Shadd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the oldest of 13 children to Harriet and Abraham Shadd. Both her parents were leaders in the Underground Railroad, which helped black slaves reach freedom in Canada. Her parents sent her to a Quaker school, and her love of learning led her to open a school for black children, then to continue teaching for years. When the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, forcing authorities in all states to send black slaves back to captivity in the south, Shadd and her brother Isaac moved to Canada. On March 24, 1853, Shadd and Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward edited and published The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to the ideals of freedom and educating black people in Canada and the United States. In this process, Shadd became the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. The paper was first published in Windsor, then Toronto and then Chatham, Ontario and continued until September 20, 1857. The newspaper was considered aggressive for its time as Shadd and others were critical of those who took advantage of freed slaves, and critical of black religious leaders in the south for not encouraging blacks to become self-reliant. The paper read, "Self-reliance Is the Fine Road to Independence." Shadd married Thomas F. Cary from Toronto in 1856 and while living in Chatham, they had two children. Cary died in 1860 and eventually Shadd moved to Washington, D.C. where she established a school for black children and studied law at Howard University, becoming a lawyer in 1870. Shadd died in Washington on June 5, 1893.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
