Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary was an American-Canadian anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher, and lawyer. She was the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. She was also the second black woman to attend law school in the United States. Mary Shadd established the newspaper Provincial Freeman in 1853, which was published weekly in southern Ontario. it advocated equality, integration, and self-education for black people in Canada and the United States.
Events from the year 1853 in Canada.
Samuel Ringgold Ward was an African American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor, labor leader, and Congregational church minister.
William Whipper was a businessman and abolitionist in the United States. Whipper, an African American, advocated nonviolence and co-founded the American Moral Reform Society, an early African-American abolitionist organization. He helped found one of the first black literary societies in the U.S known as the Reading Room Society whose constitution stated that its aim was the "mental improvement of the people of color in the neighborhood of Philadelphia." William Whipper epitomized the prosperity that Northern Blacks were able to attain in the mid-19th century.
Henry Walton Bibb, was an American author and abolitionist who was born into slavery. Bibb told his life story in his Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, which included many failed escape attempts followed finally by success when he escaped to Detroit. After leaving Detroit to move to Canada with his family, due to issues with the legality of his assistance in the Underground Railroad, he founded the abolitionist newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive. He lived in Canada until his death.
The Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is a historic residence located at 1421 W Street, Northwest in Washington, D.C. From 1881 to 1885, it was the home of Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–93), a writer and abolitionist who was one of the first African American female journalists in North America, and who became one of the first black female lawyers after the American Civil War. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also is a contributing property to the Greater U Street Historic District.
Mary Grew was an American abolitionist and suffragist whose career spanned nearly the entire 19th century. She was a leader of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. She was one of eight women delegates, all from the United States, who were denied their seats at the London World Anti-Slavery Convention, in 1840. An editor and journalist, she wrote for abolitionist newspapers and chronicled the work of Philadelphia's abolitionists over more than three decades. She was a gifted public orator at a time when it was still noteworthy for women to speak in public. Her obituary summarized her impact: "Her biography would be a history of all reforms in Pennsylvania for fifty years."
Harriet Forten Purvis was an African-American abolitionist and first generation suffragist. With her mother and sisters, she formed the first biracial women's abolitionist group, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She hosted anti-slavery events at her home and with her husband Robert Purvis ran an Underground Railroad station. Robert and Harriet also founded the Gilbert Lyceum. She fought against segregation and for the right for blacks to vote after the Civil War.
Voice of the Fugitive was Canada's first Black newspaper that was directed towards freedom seekers and Black refugees from the United States.
Mary Elizabeth Bibb was an American-born educator and abolitionist leader. She is considered by some to be the first female black journalist in Canada. She was a teacher and abolitionist in the United States, before moving with her husband Henry Bibb to Canada after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which made it very easy for slavecatchers to capture fugitive and free Blacks. She established schools for Black Canadians, published the Voice of the Fugitive newspaper, and helped African Americans get settled in Canada.
Sattira 'Sattie' Douglas was an American abolitionist and educator. An African American organizer, she helped form and lead multiple committees and clubs in Chicago and the West. Douglas traveled to Kansas near the end of the American Civil War, where she took up teaching freedmen and women, who had recently escaped slavery.
Abraham Doras Shadd was an African-American abolitionist and civil rights activist who emigrated to Ontario, Canada, and became one of Canada's first black elected officials. He was the father of prominent activist and publisher Mary Ann Shadd and her siblings Eunice P. Shadd and Isaac Shadd.
Eunice P. Shadd, also known as Eunice Lindsay, was an American-Canadian physician born in Pennsylvania and raised in Chatham, Ontario. She was one of the first black women to graduate from Howard University College of Medicine.
The Colored Women's Progressive Franchise was an organization advocating for equal rights of African American women organized by Mary Ann Shadd Cary in 1880. Also referred to as the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association or the Colored Women's Progressive Association, the organization paved the path for a movement of Black women's organizations and institutions that articulated feminist concerns and agendas, which followed the end of Reconstruction. Among the features of the significance of the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise is that it preceded the women's club movement in Washington, D.C., by more than a decade. It is speculated that this historical precocity as well as Shadd Cary's confrontational style are among the reasons that the organization did not last for very long.
The Essex, later Windsor Record was a weekly newspaper in Windsor, Ontario, Canada from 1861 until 1888, and then until 1917 as the Windsor Record.
Isaac D. Shadd was a newspaper publisher, printer, politician, and bookkeeper. Before the American Civil War, he and his sister Mary Ann Shadd moved to Chatham, Ontario, and published the anti-slavery newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. He and his wife taught at the Chatham Mission School. He was involved in the planning of the John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and led the Chatham Vigilance Committee to rescue Sylvanus Demarest in 1858. He returned to the United States and served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era from 1871 until 1876. From 1874 to 1875, he was the Speaker of the House.
The Anglo-African and The Weekly Anglo-African were periodicals published by African American abolitionist brothers Thomas Hamilton (1823–1865) and Robert Hamilton (1819–1870) in New York City during the American Civil War era. For a short period, one paper was also named the Pine and Palm.
The Chatham Vigilance Committee was formulated before the American Civil War by black abolitionists in the Chatham, Ontario area to save people from being sold into slavery. Some of the members of the group were graduates of Oberlin College in Ohio. It is most well known for its rescue of Sylvanus Demarest, but the Committee rescued other people.
Black Canadians migrated north in the 18th and 19th centuries from the United States, many of them through the Underground Railroad, into Southwestern Ontario, Toronto, and Owen Sound. Black Canadians fought in the War of 1812 and Rebellions of 1837–1838 for the British. Some returned to the United States during the American Civil War or during the Reconstruction era.
Alfred Schmitz Shadd was born in about 1870 to Garrison William Shadd and Harriet Poindexter Shadd, his father and mother respectively. He spent his years as an educator, politician, doctor and office holder. He gained his medical certification from the University of Toronto where he graduated with distinction. He died in 1915 of appendicitis.
