Born to prominent abolitionist parents prior to the American civil war, Mary Ann Shadd supported black rights and suffragist movements in both Canada and the United States. As a black woman, she was able to achieve several ground-breaking feats, including becoming the first black woman in North America to publish a newspaper, the first to earn a law degree and the first to vote in a national election.
Mary Ann was educated at a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania for six years. Afterwards, at the age of 16, she organized a school for black youths in her hometown of Wilmington. She spent the next eleven years teaching in schools throughout the northern states, acting on her belief that education was one of the primary means through which black people would achieve racial parity. She encouraged her pupils and peers to pursue anti-slavery reform and integrate — as opposed to segregate — in North America.
In 1851, Shadd moved to Upper Canada (now called Ontario) where she helped black refugees who fled to Canada via the Underground Railroad. She opened an integrated school that was open to all who could afford to attend. However, financial backing for the school fell through, after which Shadd devoted herself to writing. She published the widely spread pamphlet A plea for emigration, in which she encouraged American black people to immigrate to Canada. A year later, in 1853, the Provincial Freeman was born. The newspaper addressed all aspects of black life in Canada but particularly focused on issues of racial discrimination and segregation.
The Provincial Freeman met its demise in 1859 due to financial problems. Shortly after, Shadd got a teaching job at an interracial school in Chatham. She returned to the United States during the Civil War to serve as an enlistment recruiter, and remained in the U.S. after the war had ended. She obtained an American teaching degree and eventually relocated to Washington D.C., where she studied at Howard University and received a law degree from the institution in 1883.
Mary Ann Shadd returned to Canada only once — in 1881 to organize a suffragist rally — before her death in the summer of 1893. However, the 12 years she spent on Canadian soil undeniably helped shape our country for the better.