ONE

GROWING UP IN WILMINGTON

Mary Ann Shadd was born to Abraham Doras and Harriet Shadd, October 9, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the first of their thirteen children.

Mary Ann was lucky. She knew what it meant to be a free Black for she had been born one. None of Abraham's ancestors had ever been slaves.

Mary Ann knew from stories told to her firsthand what it meant to be a slave because their house was a "station" on the "Underground Railroad." This wasn't a real railroad nor was it underground. There were no trains or tracks. It was just a way of helping slaves escape from bondage in the South. The "stations" were the homes of dedicated White abolitionists and free Blacks.

Courageous conductors like Abraham Shadd defied sheriffs, overseers and posses to help fugitives reach the North and Canada where slavery had been abolished since 1833, sending them secretly on their way from one "station" to the other.

- 2 -

Runaway slaves had been coming to the Shadd house almost as far back as Mary Ann could remember. They generally didn't stay more than a night or two and none of them ever came back. The manner in which they came and went was very mysterious. They and her parents always spoke in whispers. It struck her as strange, too, that they always slept in the daytime and not at night like other people. They always went away after dark, just as quietly as mice. She used to hear them tip-toeing down from the attic where Harriet had arranged their sleeping quarters. Mary Ann would have liked to tell her friends about these visitors, but she was warned again and again by her parents not to. It was too risky.

Abraham Shadd earned a good living as a shoe-maker. He owned a small house, with a small yard, in Wilmington, Delaware in which Mary Ann had good times playing with her younger sisters. The yard was big enough for games like "Puss in the Corner" and "London Bridge is Falling Down."

Like other Black children in Wilmington, Mary Ann attended the African Society School, an all-Black school. But during her free time she had many interesting experiences.

As she grew older, Abraham would take her and her sisters for long walks along the Brandywine or Christina Rivers. It was fun to watch the sloops and schooners as they plied their way through the creeks and rivers.

- 3 -

Once Abraham took the girls down to the wharf to see the big ships. These ships sailed to far-off places, Abraham explained, like England and France on the other side of the ocean. Some went to Africa, but those ships usually came back with slaves and Abraham never talked too much about them.

One event which Mary Ann looked forward to each summer was "Big Quarterly," a religious festival for Black people. It was celebrated in Wilmington on the last Sunday of August, at the end of the summer harvest.

"Big Quarterly" was also a festival for feasting. Great platters with all kinds of food were set out on long tables in the streets of the Black neighborhood. Almost every house became an eating place. Visitors and townspeople, with their children, started their feasting early in the morning. The children hungrily stuffed themselves with fried chicken, ham and cabbage, chicken pot pie and greens, hot corn pones, frankfurters and watermelon.

Slaves received permission from their masters to attend "Big Quarterly." They were given identification passes to protect them from being picked up by slave-catchers as fugitives. All year they looked forward to this day of freedom.

Now and again, as Mary Ann discovered, something would happen to destroy their pleasure.

- 4 -

One "Big Quarterly" when Mary Ann was a little older, she helped her mother bake cakes with pink icing for the celebration. Then she went down to the street to help Abraham set out large platters of Harriet's pink cakes on one of the tables. Suddenly they heard a woman wailing, "Oh, Lord, help me! Oh, Lord, help me!"

Mary Ann and Abraham hurried to find out what was wrong. A Black woman was cowering on the ground in front of a big, heavyset White man. His hand was raised threateningly as if he was about to strike her.

The Black woman was a slave. She had lost her pass. The man was a slave-catcher and wanted to take her away and sell her to a Southern master.

Abraham spoke to him very quietly. He didn't show how angry he was. "This woman had a pass," he said. "I saw it myself." It was true. She had shown it to him, for the slaves as well as the free Blacks all trusted Abraham.

While he was talking to the white man other black men began moving toward them. The slave-catcher took one look at the group and quickly left.

The grateful slave kissed Abraham's hand as he lifted her to her feet.

"I'm lucky," Mary Ann said to Abraham later, "that I'm free and don't have to carry an identification pass. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were no slaves anywhere?"

- 5 -

Abraham nodded. "The day will come," he said.

Then and there, Mary Ann made a vow. When she became old enough to do something about it she, too, like her father and mother, would devote herself to helping her race. She hoped that she would be able to face danger as bravely and unselfishly as Abraham and Harriet.

In 1833, when she was ten years old, Mary Ann was sent away to a Quaker boarding school in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She had never before gone to school with white girls and felt a little shy at first. Her classmates were so friendly, however, that after a few days, she got over her shyness.

Three years later, Abraham moved to West Chester with the rest of the family. They lived in a fine frame house on ten acres of land owned by a white Quaker. Their own cow provided them with milk. This was an exciting experience for the Shadds, and Mary Ann was very happy to have her parents and sisters close by. The following year, Isaac, her first brother, was born. Older brothers and sisters appeared during the next years until Abraham and Harriet had thirteen children.

Mary Ann did so well in her studies that she graduated as a teacher when she was only sixteen years old.

- 6 -

She opened a private school for Black children in Wil-
mington, and later on accepted teaching positions else-
where. She was teaching in Norristown, Pennsylvania,
when, on September 18, 1850, the infamous Pugitive Slave
bill became a law.

President Millard Fillmore ordered that this
Law should be strongly enforced.

"What will happen to the slaves now?" Mary Ann asked her father. "Things will work out," Abraham told her.

Mary Ann soon found out that they were working
out. Not always, of course, but through the "Underground
Railroad" and with conductors like Harriet Tubman and
Abraham hundreds of slaves were escaping from the South.

- 7 -

TWO

DEFYING THE PUGITIVE SLAVE LAW

It was a gray October dawn in 1850. Mary Ann lay ver still in the bed she was sharing with her sisters, Elizabeth and Harriet. She was listening hard, waiting for her father to arrive with the runaway slaves.

She climbed out of bed carefully so as not to disturb her sisters and stood still for a moment -- a tall, slender young Black woman, her body tense. Then she stepped into the hall. The house was quiet. Suddenly she heard the sound she had been waiting for -- three sharp taps on the window by the door. Her father had arrived with his "passengers!"

She flew down the hall to the kitchen and unlocking the door, flung it open. A weary-looking group of black people shuffled into the kitchen after Abraham. He had met up with them two days ago in Maryland. They were on their long journey to Canada. Mary Ann's soft brown eyes quickly took in their appearance. There was a short man with one eye, a tall man with a limp, a sad-faced woman

- 8 -

with a baby in her arms, and a small boy and girl. Their
clothes were soiled and ragged. All of them were barefoot,
including Abraham.

Harriet quickly had the tea kettle boiling on the
coal stove, and Mary Ann helped her prepare the food.
Everyone in the family knew exactly what to do in this
situation and pitched in to make the visitors comfortable.
But everyone moved about quietly. Having a "station" on the
"Underground Railroad" had always been dangerous, but now
it was more so. Since September when Congress passed the
Pugitive Slave Law, having a "station" on the "Underground
Railroad" had become very dangerous. Federal officers
were out to help owners of runaway slaves recover their
property, which is what slaves were considered. It was
necessary now to take all kinds of precautions. Like lock-
ing the door to the house.

Those blacks who were free and those who were en-
slaved were growing desperate. All over the United States
they began talking more and more about Canada.

Black people had been fleeing there for almost
twenty-five years, but in small numbers. Now, suddenly,
everything changed. Abolitionists made Canada the final
destination for all "passengers" on the "Underground Rail-
road." These visitors were headed for Canada. They all
prayed they would make it.

- 9 -

"Federal officers were patrolling the main roads," Abraham said when Mary Ann asked what had delayed them. "It's all on account of that terrible new Law."

"Everywhere you looked there was a slave-catcher with his lantern and whip," the sad-faced woman said.

"Bloodhounds were sent after us. We had to cut across the rivers and swamps to escape them," Abraham explained further. Somewhere along the way they had lost their shoes.

Mary Ann's eyes filled with tears when she saw their scratched and bleeding feet. She tried to make friends with the small girl, and smiled at her. The woman with the baby had called her Cissy. Cissy didn't smile back. She just looked frightened.

"Is that your baby sister?" asked Mary Ann.

The small girl shook her head and started to cry.

The man with the limp quickly explained that Cissy's parents and brothers and sisters had been sold to different masters. Cissy had no family any more.

The visitors had come a long way and were tired. They were hungry, too. They had not eaten for forty-eight hours. Children and grownups said little as they greedily ate Harriet's delicious hot corn meal, and drank the hot tea with honey that Mary Ann and her sisters set out before them.

- 10 -

While they were eating Abraham rose from his
seat. At the door he motioned Mary Ann to follow him.
They stood outside the house in the cool air. "Lock the
door while I'm gone," Abraham told her. "I want to make
sure we weren't followed."

The visitors began to talk about the terrible
sufferings of the slaves since the pasaage of the new Law.
Many of the masters were cruel. They approved of slavery
because it helped them to make a lot of money. Even
some free Blacks kept slaves.

A short time later Abraham returned. He held
his finger to his lips. "A slave-catcher was asking ques-
tions down-a-ways," he whispered.

Absolute quiet followed his announcement. Would
the neighbors talk? Mary Ann wondered. All the Black
folks knew Abraham brought runaways up from the South and
gave them food and shelter in his home. The White folks
knew he was a staunch abolitionist and wrote many articles
for anti-slavery magazines and newspapers. Twice he had
been a delegate to the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia.

Suppose a Federal officer were to come after
Abraham?

Mary Ann swallowed hard as her father went out-
side a second time. No one said a word until he returned.
A smile covered his face. For the time being the runaways
were safe.

- 11 -

Limping up and down the Shadd kitchen, the tall man told of the terrible things being done to slaves to keep them from running away. The short man said his eye had been burnt out because he had tried to run away from his master three times. Many slaves were tied with heavy ropes that cut into their skins, he said.

Mary Ann clutched the back of the old kitchen chair as she saw the big red welts on Cissy's arms and legs. Mary Ann had heard some of the stories before how to stop the exodus of their so-called "property," slave-holders and overseers were spreading frightening lies about the country in the North.

They warned, "Wild geese in Canada are so common they will scratch a man's eyes out." "Corn won't grow there, not anything but rice." "Half your wages have to be paid to the Queen of England every day."

Few slaves listened to these lies. Along with thousands of Northern freedman, including prominent leaders, they headed North in droves. Although the danger of capture pursued them to the bridge the Ferry Master at Detroit reported that in 1850 at least 900 fugitive slaves crossed the Detroit River at that point into Canada.

In a hoarse voice the woman with the baby told how slavecatchers had caught her husband. He had been shackled to other runaways and sent back South in irons.

- 12 -

The cruel overseer had lashed him thirty times with a thick whip.

These terrible punishments did frighten some of the slaves and they stayed behind but the majority were ready to risk their lives rather than remain in bondage.

As she sat there listening to the visitors a thought struck Mary Ann. Under the new Law not only the runaways were in danger if taken for a fugitive and transported South. Her mother and father would be in danger, too! They might have to pay a fine of one thousand dollars for hiding or rescuing a fugitive. If a runaway was lost still another thousand dollars would be demanded of them. But worse still, Mary Ann shivered, Abraham and Harriet could be put in prison for six months. Perhaps all the rest of them would have to go, too. Not even the 20,000 free blacks in the North were safe any longer.

Would Abraham give up his work now? Mary Ann wondered, because of this threat?

As if in answer to Mary Ann's unspoken questions, Abraham moved to his wife's side. His hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled.

"We will take our chances, whatever happens," Abraham said.

Harriet nodded her head.

They never worry about themselves, Mary Ann thought. They only care about helping the suffering members of our race.

- 13 -

She was trying hard to follow their example.

The sun was bright in the sky when Abraham led the visitors to the attic where, as usual, makeshift beds had been prepared. The children started to cry. The baby began whimpering. These sounds were quickly muffled.

That night, when Mary Ann was in her bed she heard footsteps moving stealthily down the attic stairs. The visitors were leaving.

It seemed so still after the visitors had gone.

What is going to happen to them now? Mary Ann asked herself. Will they be caught? Will Cissy have to go back to that heartless overseer?

Oh, no! "Dear God, help them to get to Canada," she prayed.

Mary Ann buried her face in her pillow. The "Underground Railroad" would surely see that they reached their destination.

She wished there was something she could do now to help these poor people, not just on the "Underground Railroad," but perhaps, perhaps -- IN CANADA ITSELF!

She wanted to be a part of the new life the Blacks were going to forge for themselves in Canada.

"What could I do to help my people in their new land?" she kept asking herself. Of course there were many things she could do. She had taught school for years.

- 15 -

moving very slowly. It had to plow its way through great
blocks of ice which drifted by. Some blocks seemed almost
as long as the ferry.

A frightening thought suddenly struck Mary Ann.
Suppose they came upon even larger blocks of ice and the
boat got stuck. What would happen to them? She took her
younger brother's arm.

"You're a little scared, too, Isaac, aren't you?"
she asked.

He nodded. "I guess we're going to share a lot
of new experiences." The way he put it was comforting.
The danger passed and before long the ferry pulled up
safely to the landing at the town of Windsor, Canada West.*
It was snowing hard as they disembarked.

Brother and sister were hustled into an open
sleigh and taken to the home of a White family where they
were to stay while observing living conditions among the
Blacks in Canada West.

*Now Ontario.

- 16 -

THREE

---

SETTLING DOWN IN A NEW COUNTRY
---

When Mary Ann rose the first morning in Canada,
almost an inch of snow blanketed her bed by the opened
window.

"I'll know better tonight," she said to herself.
"I'll keep the window closed."

It seemed to her that it snowed twenty-four hours
a day during the first week. The cold didn't really bother
her, nor the other blacks who came from Northern States.
During many a winter in Delaware and Pennsylvania, the
thermometer had gone down to zero. It was fugitives from
the deep South who found it hard to get used to the
climate.

After they had a chance to look around, Mary Ann
and Isaac decided to stay in Windsor for the time being.
They rented two rooms from a Canadian black family who
owned a pink wooden house.

"The houses are painted every color in the rain-
bow," Mary Ann wrote Abraham and Harriet. "They're ugly,

- 17 -

too, and the streets are narrow and crooked, not at all
like Wilmington or West Chester. But I like it here."

Church groups, anti-slavery societies, charitable organizations and private individuals helped the fugitives and the free blacks find a place to live in. They provided them with food and clothing. One citizen of Battle Creek, Michigan, donated two thousand fruit trees!

Mary Ann was very happy to find that so many fugitives were able to take care of themselves. Almost all of those who were well enough to work could find a job. They needed relief only on arrival.

It was exciting to see black masons, painters, shoemakers and tailors.

Mary Ann found out some things, however, that weren't so pleasant. Although the blacks were free on Canadian soil, they had not escaped prejudice.

Only a few blacks were farmers. It was hard for them to get land. They could not buy cabin-class tickets on a Chatham steamer. White property holders in some towns asked the government to end black immigration. Many white Canadians objected to black settlements. Hotels in Windsor, Chatham and other towns excluded blacks.

Public schools refused to admit black children. Canadian school laws, however, allowed blacks to have their own schools.

- 18 -

Despite all this, Mary Ann felt that the good outweighed the bad, and that it was good for her race to move to Canada.

Mary Ann became one of the founders of the Windsor Anti-Slavery Society. "We must fight slavery until it is abolished from the earth," she told the others, a look of iron determination on her face.

Recognizing her leadership and ability, the members put her on the Executive Committee.

Like other black leaders, Mary Ann realized that in order to advance themselves, the blacks had to learn to read and write. In many schools, black and white, instruction was very scanty. Children ran wild due to the lack of proper supervision. Because of her experience, Mary Ann was selected by the American Missionary Association to raise the teaching standards in black schools in Canada. Her first assignment was a school in Windsor.

She received 37½ cents a month from each pupil. The Missionary Association, which helped support the school, paid her $120 a year.

"I welcome this opportunity," Mary Ann told Isaac. "Our black children must become respectable and law-abiding subjects under Queen Victoria's dominion."

Before long, the people of Kent County were talking about Mary Ann's school. It had the reputation of being "highly respectable," as well as excellent.

- 19 -

By summer, Mary Ann felt at home in Windsor.
She was as excited as the black Canadians about Emancipa-
tion Day, which recalled the emancipation of Canadian
blacks in Canada West on August 1, 1833.

It was a bright and sunny day with a pleasant
breeze. At an early hour, wagons drove into Windsor with
families from surrounding black settlements. The Detroit
ferry brought boatloads of visitors from hundreds of miles
away in the United States.

At eight o'clock, Mary Ann and Isaac hurried to
the barracks where all those who were taking part in the
procession were to form in line. One group wore badges
reading: "God, Humanity, the Queen, and a Free Country."
Another carried a banner with drawings symbolizing slavery
and freedom. On one side of the banner a man was shown on
his knees, in chains. He was asking, "Am I not a man and
a brother?"

On the other side the emancipated blacks were
represented by a man standing erect, chains and fetters
lying at his feet, and broken manacles in his hands.

The British Union Jack waved in the soft breeze
as the procession left the barracks to the shrill music
of the fife and drum. Mary Ann's brown eyes sparkled as
she kept in step with her brother.

- 20 -

On their way to the ferry landing, the marchers sang anti-slavery songs. After more groups from Detroit joined them, they set out for the meeting grounds, led by a brass band.

A beautiful area on the river bank had been set up for the occasion. As the march ended everyone crowded around the speaker's stand. Nine cheers were given for Queen Victoria. The band struck up the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen." There were soul-stirring talks by white and black ministers and other abolitionists, followed by numbers of lively band music.

FOUR

GETTING READY TO PUBLISH A NEWSPAPER

Slaveholders continued to spread false rumors
about the welfare of the fugitives in Canada. The latest
was that they were starving.

"Our people must be told what Canada is really
like," Mary Ann said to herself. She made up her mind
to do something about it.

After a great deal of research, she wrote
"Notes on Canada West," describing the weather and soil,
as well as the social and political life of the country.
This forty-four page pamphlet sold for 12½ cents a copy.

Newspapers praised it. "Mary Shadd accomplished
wonders," cheered _The Voice of the Fugitive_, published by
Henry Bibb, a runaway slave. "She is a skillful writer,"
the white _Windsor Herald_ noted.

The pamphlet did not accomplish enough to suit
Mary Ann. A vigorous newspaper campaign was needed to per-
suade more of her people to "leave Yankeedom."

- 22 -

She went to see Henry Bibb. He liked the idea.
She then suggested that his paper encourage black Americans
to become British.

Here he disagreed. "We are exiles, not permanent
residents of Canada," Henry Bibb said. "As soon as slavery
is abolished in America, we'll go back."

Mary Ann was disturbed. "Our people will not
get on with the daily business of making a life for them-
selves in Canada," she protested, "If they don't think
they'll be here to stay." She did not consider herself
an exile. "My home now is Canada West," she told Henry Bibb.

This was the first of a number of visits and
disagreements. She could not persuade Henry Bibb to come
out against begging white and black preachers. These
preachers went from house to house, and to anti-slavery
and church meetings asking for money and clothing for the
fugitives.

"It is humiliating," Mary Ann said. "People will
think we can't make our own way. Don't you want to tell
the truth about our problems, Henry?"

"I don't want to antagonize anyone," Henry
Bibb said, "We must move slowly."

Move slowly, Mary Ann thought indignantly. That
won't get us very far. Nor will Henry Bibb. Neither *The
Voice*, nor the white abolitionist papers came out strongly
enough against evils like slavery to suit her.

- 23 -

"We need an independent paper that will fight for our cause," she said to herself, "and not be afraid to speak out."

But who would publish such a newspaper?

"You should be the one," Isaac told her when she discussed this with him. He said he would help her. She talked to her parents about it. They had moved to Windsor with five of their children. Abraham and Harriet agreed with Isaac.

It didn't take long to convince Mary Ann. Her eyes shone as she thought of how much she could do for her people with a newspaper of her own.

But first, she had to learn how to run a newspaper.

She went to Toronto to see George Brown, publisher of the *Toronto Globe*, a white abolitionist paper. She told him why she had come. "Impossible," George Brown said. "You can't publish a newspaper. It costs too much money."

"I'll get the money," Mary Ann said.

George Brown shook his head. "You need office space, a printing press, furniture.... You will have to pay wages. Besides, there aren't enough blacks to support two newspapers."

"Mine will be different," Mary Ann assured him.

"My newspaper will express the views of intelligent black

- 24 -

Canadians. It will inform the people in America about
Canada. It will establish a reputation we can be proud
of."

George Brown was not convinced. "Go home, Mary
Ann, and continue with your teaching," he said. "You are
doing a good job."

Mary Ann was discouraged but refused to abandon
her plans without a try. All the way back to Windsor, in
the open sleigh stage, she kept asking herself, "Where
will I get the money?" Perhaps if people learned about
the kind of paper she was going to publish they might even
offer assistance without being asked.

Her public talks won Mary Ann headlines in the
local press. Her admirers were delighted that she was
going to publish a newspaper. They offered tables, kero-
sene lamps and a desk. A few sent money but only small
amounts. Mary Ann was worried.

"Do you suppose George Brown was right, after
all?" Isaac asked her.

"No," Mary Ann said determinedly. "We Shadds
are not defeatists. I won't give up."

She began making more speeches. We never missed
the chance to talk about what she intended to print in her
newspaper. More people became interested. A committee
was formed to help her.

- 25 -

The enthusiastic Samuel Ringgold Ward, a Congregationalist black minister, became one of the backers. He said he would edit the paper with her.

Several well-to-do men from Toronto finally gave Mary Ann the money needed to get started. One generous supporter presented her with a small second-hand printing press.

The ground floor of a dark old wooden building in Windsor became the newspaper's first home. At one end of a very long room, Mary Ann set up a small office. The other end was for the printing press. Her brother Isaac was in charge of the printing.

The press needed at least three men to feed it and three to take off the printed sheets. They would have to manage with half that number. And they did.

She ran her fingers along the letters of the press, thinking of all she wanted to write about. "I'm going to tell the truth," she pledged to herself. Through her newspaper she would educate public opinion on the rights of black people. She would prove that black people were fit for freedom and could live on terms of equality with white men.

"We're going to do great things together, you and I," she said to the printing press, and then laughed at herself for being so silly.

FIVE

THE PROVINCIAL FREEMAN

It was a blustery March evening. Snow had been falling for several hours. A chill North wind whipped through the drifts that lined the streets of Windsor, and blew the white flakes against the window panes of the dark old wooden building. Icy gusts of snow sifted through the cracks of the window frame into the makeshift printing room.

Mary Ann was too busy watching the men take off the printed sheets from the printing press to notice the cold and the snow outside. Isaac folded and handed the first sheet to her. Her brown eyes danced with excitement and her heart was singing as she held the soft paper in her hands. "My very own newspaper," she whispered as if she could hardly believe it.

Holding the front page close to the kerosene lamp, she looked at the name of her paper as if she were seeing it for the first time -- *The Provincial Freeman*. In print it looked very important.

- 28 -

She glanced down to read her own name printed
just below the masthead, M.A. SHADD, Editress, Publishing
Agent and Financier. Then she read the motto aloud to
the three men, "Self Reliance is the True Road to Freedom."
They liked it. The motto told exactly how Mary Ann felt.
Black people would have to learn to help themselves to
become truly independent. "If given a chance we can succeed
on our own," she said.

She would make her readers understand that
slavery had to be abolished.

I won't be satisfied, she thought, fiercely
hugging her paper to her, until all my people are forever
free.

Only one issue of *The Provincial Freeman* ap-
peared in 1853. Mary Ann wanted to see how the paper was
received before publishing weekly issues.

Critics immediately hailed the paper as "well-edited" and "well-printed."

"We do not know her equal among the colored ladies
of the United States," commented one white newspaperman.
Another praised her as "one of the best editors in the
Province, even if she does wear petticoats." These and
other "friendly greetings" from the press were to Mary Ann
"encouraging and refreshing."

The following March, the second issue of *The Provincial Freeman* appeared on the newsstands. It continued as a weekly. By that time Mr. Bibb's paper had folded up.

- 29 -

The Freeman carried local and foreign news,
advice on agriculture, stories, and poetry by outstanding
poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It wasn't long before Mary Ann began making her
voice heard in the United States and Canada. The paper
crackled with abolitionist propaganda.

Her family called her "The Rebel" because of the
way she lashed out against the evils of the day. She
strongly condemned whatever might make the black man sub-
servient, particularly the "do-good" groups. "They act
as though we were children and they were our fathers,"
Mary Ann stormed in indignation.

She denounced all-black churches, and all-black
settlements, which were like ghettos. In her opinion,
these separations would only delay integration. "If we
do not mingle, how will the whites ever get to know edu-
cated and progressive blacks?" Mary Ann asked herself.

She continued to oppose begging preachers and
came out strongly against white missionaries. Sometimes
she was blamed for stirring up trouble between the fugitives
and the white missionaries. The American Missionary As-
sociation was so angry at her because she criticized some
of their workers that they suspended her school at Windsor.

In the summer of 1855, The Provincial Freeman was
moved to Chatham where the Shadd family had finally settled.
The paper's new home was a large white brick house at 46 King

- 30 -

Street East, on the corner of Adelaide, in what was called the Charity Block. Abraham had a boot and shoe store on the ground floor.

More letters of praise now flooded the desk of the "editress." Many were from distant towns in the United States and Canada.

Many people, however, were violently opposed to the paper. They wrote insulting letters to Mary Ann. Pro-slavery Canadians tried to get the paper banned. Some blacks and whites objected when Mary Ann found fault with her own people. In one editorial she attacked those blacks who kept on complaining about Canada.

"No other people living in a land of equal rights grumble as much as they do," she reported.

This editorial brought her sharp criticism at a meeting when she was the speaker. The moment she finished John Scoble took the floor. Scoble was a white agent for the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

"You cannot afford to lose your friends," Scoble warned the blacks who were there. "And you will if you permit *The Provincial Freeman* to be published. That paper should be stopped at once."

"Your remarks are unjustified," Isaac flared, quickly coming to his sister's defense.

An Indian who was present also supported Mary Ann.

Hurt and angry, she wrote later:

Such a mean attack was never made against any
paper. Every device that a wicked heart would sug-
gest, was used to turn the people against me.

Despite opposition, Mary Ann "heroically braved
the storm." She received encouragement to keep on pub-
lishing her paper by many prominent people. Lucretia Mott,
the well-known Quaker feminist and abolitionist, gave Mary
Ann financial as well as moral support.

As the years passed, Mary Ann remained true to
herself, and expressed her convictions even when she knew
they would be unpopular. She continued to seek justice
for all members of her race, the free as well as the slaves.
Again and again she called attention to the progress of
the blacks in Canada, proving their right to "equal and
exact justice."

- 32 -

SIX

ADVENTURES ON A SPEAKING TRIP

The Provincial Freeman, like other black and white abolitionist newspapers, had to struggle to survive. Subscribers did not pay their bills. Sometimes unscrupulous men, pretending to be agents for the paper, pocketed the money they collected for subscription.

"Pay us what you owe us," Mary Ann pleaded. Still the money did not come in. To increase the circulation of her paper and to get more money she would have to go on a lecture tour of the big Northern cities of the United States.

"Slave-hunters are all over the North," Abraham said when she told him. "You'll be taking a chance, Mary Ann."

"I'm not afraid," she said firmly.

On a cold, crisp day in late October 1855, she left for Detroit. She had been invited to lecture in five different states; Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York.

Mary Ann traveled around the country by rail and steamer. She was constantly on the go, often during a snow

- 33 -

storm. Sometimes she was so tired that she became ill.
But, sick or well, she always managed to give her talk.
"The paper is more important than I am," she told herself.
Accounts of her experiences appeared regularly in *The Provincial Freeman*.

Week after week Mary Ann addressed anti-slavery
groups and other societies. She always discussed the pos-
sibility of mass emigration of black Americans to Canada.
At the risk of personal attack she took the opportunity,
when she could, of asking aid for the fugitives.

In some communities she met up with racial hate.
On one train trip the conductor glared at her when she took
her seat. He didn't want blacks in his car. Mary Ann
stared straight back at him until he walked off.

Certain restaurants, hotels and boarding houses
would not admit black people. She usually managed to find
a friendly black or white family to stay with.

Mary Ann never wrote articles about the unpleasant
experiences. "I prefer to give my time to matters of
greater importance," she insisted.

Many audiences were unfriendly to Mary Ann in the
beginning because of the color of her skin. But her attrac-
tive looks and winning manner helped her gain their respect.
White people responded generously to her plea for more
subscribers.

- 34 -

All the meetings weren't pleasant experiences. Opposition to anti-slavery groups was increasing. People blamed them for dividing the Union. Hecklers tried to make fools of the speakers. Mary Ann's ready wit usually put them in their place.

On one occasion after she expressed the hope that there would be freedom for all people "from the South Pole to the North Pole" a man at the back of the room stood up. "You talk about the North Pole and the South Pole," he said loudly. "Well, can you tell me why there is a North Pole and a South Pole but no East Pole or West Pole?"

"I would say," Mary Ann replied, her eyes twinkling, "it may be for the same reason that we have INsects but no OUTsects."

The audience burst into laughter. The heckler was made to feel like a fool, not Mary Ann. He got up quickly and left.

It wasn't always that easy to dispose of such people. A few weeks later when Mary Ann was sharing a platform with other speakers, rioters stormed into the hall. They began to whistle, shout and stamp. Mary Ann could hardly make herself heard. The rioters didn't want her to be heard. Still not satisfied, they began pelting her with rotten eggs. The meeting ended in a big uproar.

"I have been stirring," Mary Ann wrote Abraham and Harriet, "The Rebel" was living up to her reputation.

- 35 -

The highlight of Mary Ann's trip, in the winter of 1855, was Philadelphia.

She was there when a black convention was taking place and was determined to attend it. Black conventions held after 1848 generally seated women. Most black abolitionists favored women's rights. Sometimes, however, the delegates needed prodding. A fiery discussion took place over Mary Ann in which she took an active part. Finally, she was seated.

On November 5, she participated in a debate with Mr. J.C. Wears of Philadelphia. The topic was: "Shall the Free Colored People of the United States Emigrate to Canada?"

Mary Ann opened the discussion.

"I have twelve reasons to offer in favor of emigration to Canada!" she said. "If another opportunity to talk is given me, I will give twelve more."

Among her reasons in favor of Canada were the unbiased laws of the country, the fine agricultural advantages, the cheapness of the soil, and the character of the inhabitants. She also compared the opportunities the black man faced as a British subject, to his chances in the United States.

Mr. Wears paid no attention to anything Mary Ann had said. Instead he began giving his reasons why the blacks should remain in the United States. "If there is mass emigration, the slave in chains will be forgotten, the

- 36 -

fugitive will be unprotected." Just before he concluded, he shook his finger at Mary Ann. "Don't let anyone be de-ceived," he cried; "there is prejudice against the blacks in Canada."

When her turn came again, Mary Ann charged her opponent with having ignored her remarks. This reminded her, she said, of the stable boy's flea. "When he went to put his finger on it, it was not there." The audience roared with laughter.

"There is prejudice in Canada," she admitted, "but there is no law to back it up. The black man there has nothing to fear."

The three judges all agreed that Mary Ann had won the debate.

A few evenings later, she received another honor. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, the singer known as the "Black Swan" gave a benefit performance for her.

At half past seven on November 9, the Samson Street Hall was packed to overflowing, with a mixed audience of blacks and whites. In tribute to Mary Ann, Miss Greenfield included several anti-slavery songs in her program.

The committee, which included William Still, felt assured that Mary Ann was entitled to the financial assistance she was given, as well as their fullest "confidence and admiration."

- 37 -

The following year, Mary Ann was back in the United States. She was heralded as "a conductor of the Freeman" when she addressed a large group of people in a city in upstate New York. It was a successful meeting. The local newspaper editor found her a woman of "superior intellect," and "full of good ideas."

On this trip Mary Ann managed to have some fun. The mercury was "down to the bottom," as she put it, when she went on a sleigh ride with six young men and women and a man she called "a genial old one." The sleigh turned over when going around an icy curve of a hill and everyone was thrown out. Mary Ann was the first to pick herself up. She started to laugh when she saw the others struggling to dig themselves out of the snow. Unhurt, they kept on complaining about the cold. She then began pelting them with snowballs.

"Mary Ann, stop! I'm freezing to death," one young woman protested.

"You'll get used to this weather when you come to live in Canada," Mary Ann said, "just as I did. Besides, it's better to have snowballs thrown at you than rotten eggs."

Until now Mary Ann had been fortunate on her trips. The worst thing that had happened to her was a case of frostbite from which she recovered quickly.

- 38 -

Abraham's fears for her safety had been ground-
less, she thought, as she left New York in the winter of 1856
and headed West. She had been invited to speak in Chicago
but had arranged for a few stops on the way.

At dusk she arrived at a small Western town.
She had expected to be met, but the station was deserted.
She did not know where she was to spend the night and had
no idea where the black section was either.

"Well, Mary Ann, chin up," she said to herself
and started walking. Suddenly she sensed she was being fol-
lowed. She stood still and turned around. In the fading
light she saw a short, heavy-set white man. He was finger-
ing a thick whip, the kind she had read about.

"Hello, Betsy," the man said.

Mary Ann kept her cool. "I'm afraid you've made
a mistake."

The man broke into a loud guffaw. "That's a good
one, Betsy, but it won't work. I know you're Henry Stewart's
kitchen girl down Alabama Way. Come along. I ain't going
to hurt you."

"Get your hands off me," Mary Ann cried, her
eyes flashing.

Suddenly, the door to the house in front of which
they were standing opened. A gray-haired man stepped out.

"Be thee Miss Mary Shadd, the publisher?" he
asked.

- 39 -

"Yes, oh, yes," Mary Ann cried quickly.

"What seems to be the trouble?"

"This man is trying to kidnap me and take me south!" She burst into tears.

"She looks to me like Betsy, Henry Stewart's slave," the man said, not quite so self-assured as he had been. "I still think she is."

"Thee knows thee is wrong. Miss Shadd is our house guest." The Quaker turned back to Mary Ann. "My son went down to the station to meet thee. My wife had a fainting spell and I couldn't leave the house. I guess the lad was late. Here he is now," he broke off as a young boy hurried up the walk.

"She was gone, Father," the boy began.

"Nay, but she is here."

The boy turned to Mary Ann. "I am glad thee is safe. I saw that man follow thee, but I didn't know it was thee."

The slave hunter hurried off without another word.

SEVEN

A MEETING WITH JOHN BROWN

The year 1856 was a very important one for the Shadd family. On January 3 Mary Ann became the wife of thirty-one-year-old- Thomas P. Cary, a barber from Toronto. The couple made their home in Chatham, the Carys sharing a house with other families. Thomas helped Mary Ann with the newspaper.

That spring Isaac married Amelia Freeman.

Despite her duties as a housewife, in the true spirit of Women's Lib today, Mary Ann went about the business of publishing and editing her newspaper and lecturing.

Slavery continued to be the burning issue.

The 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the Supreme Court of the United States added fuel to the fire. The decision left the territories open to slavery. It proclaimed that at the time this country was founded, the blacks had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Abolitionists were outraged.

- 41 -

"Your national ship is rotten and sinking, why
not leave it," Mary Ann told her people. She was more
convinced than ever that their future was in Canada.

"If I were a lawyer," she said to her husband,
"I would fight these laws. They are un-American."

Thomas smiled. He was accustomed to Mary Ann's
outbursts.

"Are you thinking of studying law?" he asked.

"Oh, Thomas, if only I could!"

"I believe you have your hands quite full as it
is," he said.

When her husband said this, a far-away look ap-
peared in her eyes. "Perhaps some day....." She knew,
of course, that Thomas was right. She had a little daugh-
ter, Sarah Elizabeth, nicknamed Sally, to look after, as
well as her paper. "First things first," she decided.

The Dred Scott decision encouraged more slave-
hunters to follow the fugitives to Canada. Many were assisted
by money-minded blacks. These blacks were used as bait by
slave-catchers, to lure unsuspecting runaways into a trap
so that they would be captured.

Mary Ann was constantly on the look-out for new
"passengers" arriving on the "Underground Railroad." They
had to be protected from the slave-hunters.

One Sunday she was standing outside her house
when a black boy without hat, coat or shoes came fleeing

- 42 -

up her street. Two white men were in hot pursuit. Without
a moment's hesitation she dashed after the boy on the
double. She reached him ahead of his pursuers and flung
her arms around him. Bursting into tears, he said that he
was a runaway slave. These men had tried to capture him
in the States without success. He had managed to stay out
of their clutches until he reached Chatham.

Mary Ann was not afraid of the slave hunters.
She brought the boy to the courthouse where she had the
bell rung so violently that the townspeople knew at once
something had happened. The townspeople were angry that
this had occurred in a country under the British flag.
"These two manhunters must be driven from our midst," they
demanded. The men fled, happy to get away alive.

On April 30, 1858, the whole town of Chatham was
astir. John Brown, the notorious abolitionist had arrived
with twelve of his white followers, including his son Owen.

The group went directly to the office of The
Provincial Freeman. Brown told them that he had chosen
Chatham for his meeting place because of its large black
population.

The first of many meetings of those interested
in Brown's movement was held May 8 in the small frame black
school on Princess Street.

- 43 -

John Brown talked of a mass invasion of the South to free the slaves. He drew up rules and regulations for a free government, sworn to get rid of slavery.

Mary Ann found herself growing more and more excited as Brown laid his plans for an attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

"All the slaves will rise up and follow him,"
Mary Ann said to herself.

Brown left Chatham for the States without having gotten any black followers. Isaac felt doubtful about his fantastic scheme. He decided, however, that someone from the *Freeman* office should be represented in Brown's group. Lots were drawn and Osborne Anderson, the twenty-eight-year-old printer's devil, was chosen.

The slaves in the States did not rally to John Brown's banner as he hoped they would. He was captured by a company of United States Marines and convicted of treason. On December 2, 1859 he was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia.

Two years went by. There were many changes in Mary Ann's life. Her husband died, leaving her with an infant baby, Linton, and three-year-old Sally to care for. Meanwhile *The Provincial Freeman* had been going through difficulties because of an economic depression. By the time the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, *The Freeman* as well as the other black newspapers in Canada, had been forced to discontinue publishing.

- 44 -

With the support of the American Missionary Association, Mary Ann started running a new black school in Chatham. In what spare time she had she compiled and published the notes of Osborne Anderson who had been John Brown's only black supporter.

Mary Ann's hope for her people was filled in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation brought an end to slavery.

Later that year, when she was teaching in the States, Mary Ann was appointed by special order, Recruit-ing Army Officer, to enlist black volunteers in the Union Army in Indiana. She accepted the commission from the Governor of the state and, with her usual "true patriotic fervor" helped form a regiment for service at the front.

Immediately after the War, Mary Ann was caught up in the National Woman's Suffrage Association. Meetings were held in the United States and Canada urging the government of the United States to write a new Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote.

Mary Ann became a loyal fighter for women's rights. She even conducted a meeting in Canada to organize a stand for "Votes for Women." Those who didn't want women to vote were so angry that they began to threaten her. She fled to the Detroit border of the United States, barely escaping her would-be captors. Undaunted, Mary Ann returned

- 45 -

to Canada sometime later and held a second meeting with
twice the response and attendance as the first.

In 1869, Mary Ann moved to Washington, D.C. with
her daughter Sally. Linton had not survived his second
year.

- 46 -

EIGHT

A LAW DEGREE FOR MARY ANN

Mary Ann found a teaching job in Washington.
Teaching school, however, did not satisfy her. She was
still energetic and ambitious. She had not lost her desire
to study law.

Why shouldn't I become a lawyer now? she thought.
She did not consider herself too old to learn. There was
nothing to keep her from becoming a lawyer now. Nothing,
she soon discovered, except the fact that she was a woman.

Mary Ann decided to apply to the Law School of
Howard University. This newly-opened university was named
after General Oliver Otis Howard. He had served the North
in the Civil War and had proved to be a staunch friend of
the black people.

She went to the Law Department and spoke to the
man who was in charge of admission. He wasn't very friendly.
In fact, he did his best to talk Mary Ann out of becoming
a lawyer.

- 47 -

"Women will only cause a disturbance in the classroom," he said. "The male students will not concentrate on their books."

"I wish to become a lawyer," Mary Ann said determinedly. "This is a free country. I have my rights."

"Very well," he said with a sigh of resignation.

Mary Ann quickly picked up the pen and signed up for the first course before he could change his mind.

Her courses interested Mary Ann and she worked hard at her studies. She worked as hard as any man. In July 1870, she took part in the Second Annual Declamation of the Law Department. The subject she chose for her formal speech was "Corporations." Corporations are big business.

Despite her success, Mary Ann was constantly aware of the hostility that existed in Law School against her sex. This prevented her from graduating in the first class.

In 1871, Mary Ann returned to teaching, and continued in the school system of the Capital until 1884. For two of these years she was appointed principal of a grammar school.

In 1881, ten years after she had left, Mary Ann was back at Law School. In June 1883, she was one of four women, the only black woman, in a class of five to receive the L.L.B. degree. She graduated with honors.

- 43 -

Mary Ann started her career as a lawyer at the age of sixty-one.

In the years that followed, Mary Ann was busy practicing law and writing. She sent articles to _The Weekly Advocate_, and became a regular contributor to _The New National Era_, edited by Frederick Douglass. Her reports on the progress of the Woman's Suffrage Movement show that Mary Ann remained a staunch fighter for woman's rights.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary died on June 5, 1893 after an illness of about five months.

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