Mary Ann Shadd

Mary Ann Shadd
Mary Ann Shadd

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (October 9, 1823 – June 5, 1893) was born to Abraham and Harriett Shadd, both free-born blacks, in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the oldest in her family of 13 children. Her father, a shoemaker, was a key figure in the Underground Railroad and a subscription agent for William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator.

When she was ten, Mary Ann and her family moved from their home in Delaware to West Chester, Pennsylvania, so the children could get an education at a Quaker-run school where she was educated for the next six years before moving back to Wilmington.

In 1840, Shadd returned to West Chester and established a school for black children. She also taught in Norristown, Pennsylvania and New York City.

Contents

Social activism

When the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 in the United States threatened to return free northern blacks and escaped slaves to bondage, Shadd and her brother Isaac moved to Canada and settled in Windsor, Ontario. In Windsor, she founded a racially integrated school with the support of the American Missionary Association. Shadd's support for racial integration embroiled her in a public dispute with Henry Bibb, the established leader in the black community in Canada. Bibb's newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive, attacked Shadd's ideas and character, leading Shadd to found The Provincial Freeman newspaper in 1853, along with Samuel Ringgold Ward. The paper quickly folded, but Shadd and Ward revived it a year later from an office in King Street, Toronto. The paper continued to be published until 1859 promoting temperance, moral reform, civil rights and black self-help while attacking the racial discrimination blacks faced within North America. It was one of the longest published black newspapers until the Civil War.

Shadd believed that separate churches, schools and communities for blacks would ultimately undermine the search for freedom. She campaigned for equality and integration for black people, making public speeches and addressing issues of abolition and other reforms. Eventually, many of her family members, including her father and sisters, joined her in Canada.

In 1856, she married Thomas F. Cary, a barber from Toronto who was involved with the newspaper. They had two children, Sarah and Linton, and lived in Chatham, Ontario, where she continued to work on her newspaper and teach school. In 1858, John Brown held a secret "convention" at the home of her brother Isaac. In 1861, she published Voice from Harper's Ferry, a tribute to Brown's unsuccessful raid.

Civil War and postbellum activism

Mary Ann Shadd Cary House in Washington, D.C.

After her husband died in 1860, Shadd Cary and her children returned to the United States. During the Civil War, she served as a recruiting officer to enlist black volunteers for the Union Army in the state of Indiana. After the Civil War, she taught in black schools in Wilmington, before moving to Washington, D.C., where she taught in public schools and attended Howard University School of Law. She graduated as a lawyer in 1883, becoming only the second black woman in the United States to earn a law degree. She wrote for the newspapers National Era and The People's Advocate.

Shadd Cary joined the National Woman Suffrage Association, working alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for women's suffrage, testifying before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives and becoming the first black woman to cast a vote in a national election.

She died in Washington, D.C. on June 5, 1893. Shadd's former residence in the U Street Corridor was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. In 1987 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[1]

See also

References

  • Beardon, Jim and Butler, Linda Jean, Shadd: the Life and times of Mary Shadd Cary. Toronto: NC Press Ltd., 1977.
  • Rhodes, Jane, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: the Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mary Ann Shadd — Nacimiento 9 de octub …   Wikipedia Español

  • Mary Ann Shadd Cary House — U.S. National Register of Historic Places U.S. National Historic Landmark …   Wikipedia

  • Mary Carey — Not to be confused with Mariah Carey. Mary Carey is the name of: Mary Boleyn (c. 1490–1543), married name Mary Carey, sister to Queen Anne and mistress of Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France Mary Carey, Lady Carey (c. 1609–c. 1680), née …   Wikipedia

  • Congressional Club — Mary Ann Shadd Cary House U.S. Historic district Contributing property …   Wikipedia

  • List of National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. — This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in the District of Columbia, of which there are 75. The United States National Historic Landmark program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures,… …   Wikipedia

  • Этаж наследия — «Этаж наследия» (англ. Heritage Floor)  композиция, составляющая единый объект с инсталляцией «Званый ужин» Джуди Чикаго, отдающей дань уважения достижениям и тяготам женского труда и имеющей форму треугольного банкетного стола на 39… …   Википедия

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in the upper NW Quadrant of Washington, D. C. — Main article: National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington, D.C. This is a list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. that are both east of Rock …   Wikipedia

  • National Women's Hall of Fame — The National Women s Hall of Fame is an American institution. It was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the 1848 Women s Rights Convention. The mission of the Hall is to honor in perpetuity those women …   Wikipedia

  • National Women's Hall of Fame — Le National Women s Hall of Fame, fondé en 1969 à Seneca Falls dans l État de New York, honore et perpétue la mémoire des citoyennes américaines qui se sont particulièrement illustrées dans le domaine des arts, des humanités, des sciences, de la… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • National Women's Hall of Fame — (en español: Salón de la Fama Nacional de Mujeres) es una institución estadounidense creada en 1969, en la ciudad de Seneca Falls, Nueva York, lugar donde se realizó la primera Convención sobre los Derechos de la Mujer en 1848.[1] [2] La misión… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”