Trailblazer and activist Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a force in Canada's Black history

 

'She had to navigate... with two strikes against her already being Black and being a woman,' says descendant

The Provincial Freeman was founded in 1853 by Mary Ann Shadd Cary and its motto was 'Devoted to anti-slavery, temperance, and general literature.' It was the first newspaper published by a Black woman in North America, and the first published by a Canadian woman.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary left a remarkable legacy in Canada's history. Yet many people have never heard of her. 

Black communities have kept her story alive, but it's only in the last decades that her life's work has been recognized.

Shadd Cary is the first Black woman publisher in Canada. She was also an abolitionist, journalist, lawyer and educator who helped lay the groundwork for racial integration and women's equality in Canada.

"Her accomplishments are even more impressive when you think about the kind of world that she was born into and the fact that she had to navigate that world with two strikes against her already being Black and being a woman. And it is surprising and exhilarating to see how much she was able to accomplish," said Maxine Robbins, married to Ed Robbins who is Shadd Cary's great, great, great nephew. 

As a retired teacher, Robbins adds that she wished she had a role model like Shadd Cary.

Shadd Cary was relentless in her activism and fighting for equality. She founded a racially-integrated school at a time when Black students were not allowed to learn in public schools, established The Provincial Freeman — an anti-slavery newspaper, travelled to the U.S. advocating for racial integration and insisting on equality, and at the age of 60 became the second Black woman in the U.S. to earn a law degree. 

In October 2023, the City's Toronto History Museums marked the 200th anniversary of Mary Ann Shad Cary's birth, by hosting a series of panel discussions and poetry recitations celebrating her life, work and influences, and connecting her inspiring legacy with Shadd Cary family descendants, academics, journalists and the Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine.