Mary Ann Shadd: Editor, Teacher and Toronto Newspaper

Mary Ann Shadd (October 9, 1823, to June 5, 1893) was a Black teacher, writer, and newspaper editor who moved from the United States to Upper Canada in 1851 and founded the Provincial Freeman in 1853. When the paper resumed publication in March 1854 after a year’s suspension, it was based in Toronto, and it later moved to Chatham. Parks Canada designated her a national historic person in November 1994.

Her Toronto connection is a short chapter in a longer career, and this article treats it that way. The wider story of Black settlers in the city is told in Black history in Toronto and the Underground Railroad.

Life in brief

Item	Detail
Born	October 9, 1823, Wilmington, Delaware
Died	June 5, 1893, Washington, D.C.
Parents	Abraham Doras Shadd, an abolitionist, and Harriet Parnell
Role	Teacher, newspaper editor, emigration advocate, lawyer
Toronto connection	The Provincial Freeman resumed publication in Toronto in March 1854
Married	January 3, 1856, St. Catharines, to Thomas Fauntleroy Cary; one son and one daughter

Education and early teaching

Shadd was the eldest child of Abraham Doras Shadd and Harriet Parnell. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, the family moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, when she was 10, and she attended a Quaker boarding school there for six years. At 16 she returned to Wilmington and organized a school for Black young people. Between 1839 and 1850 she taught in Wilmington, New York City, Trenton, New Jersey, and in West Chester and Norristown, Pennsylvania.

In 1849 she published a 12-page pamphlet, Hints to the colored people of the North, which urged self-reliance and warned against copying white materialism. It was an early statement of the ideas that her newspaper later carried.

Emigration to Canada

Parks Canada says she encouraged skilled Black Americans to seek refuge in Canada from dangerous conditions in the United States. In the fall of 1851 Shadd moved to Windsor, Upper Canada, and opened a school supported by the American Missionary Association. She quarrelled with Henry Walton Bibb over segregated settlements and over the fundraising of the Refugee Home Society. In January 1853 the association withdrew its support, partly because of objections to her evangelical religious views. In the summer of 1852 she had published A plea for emigration, which encouraged Black Americans to move to Canada.

The Provincial Freeman

In early 1853 Shadd founded the Provincial Freeman with Samuel Ringgold Ward, who was named editor but served mainly to attract interest. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls Shadd the driving force. The first issue appeared in March 1853. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography does not name the city of publication. The Ontario Heritage Trust’s background paper on the newspaper places that first edition in Windsor, Canada West, and describes it as a prototype meant to attract subscribers and advertisers. The Canadiana catalogue record is less consistent: its notes also say Windsor, but its “Published” field lists Toronto.

Publication was then suspended for a year while Shadd lectured in the United States and Canada to raise money. The Canadiana record dates the suspension from March 24, 1853, to March 25, 1854. By March 1854 the paper was running again, this time based in Toronto, with the motto “Self-Reliance is the True Road to Independence.” On June 30, 1855, William P. Newman became editor and the paper moved to Chatham. Shadd returned in May 1856 as one of three editors. After 1856 it appeared only sporadically, and the Dictionary says it ceased entirely by 1859. The Ontario Heritage Trust gives 1860 for the collapse, mainly for economic reasons, and notes that the last surviving copy is dated June 1859. Parks Canada describes it as the leading voice of the refugee communities in Canada and gives 1853 as the founding year. The University of Pennsylvania Libraries hold digitized copies, which Parks Canada links from its page.

What the Toronto years tell us

The sources read for this article give the Toronto phase only as a place of publication from March 1854 until the move to Chatham in 1855. The Ontario Heritage Trust speaks of almost a year and a half in Toronto, and notes that Samuel Ringgold Ward, the editor named in the first edition, lived in the city. Neither source gives a street address for the office, and no address is printed here. A plaque for Shadd stands at 177 King Street East in Chatham, not in Toronto. Readers looking for Toronto sites connected with Black history should start with the article linked above and with the City of Toronto Archives and the Ontario Heritage Trust.

Marriage, Chatham, and John Brown

On January 3, 1856, Shadd married Thomas Fauntleroy Cary, a Black businessman, in St. Catharines. They had a son and a daughter. Thomas Cary died in 1860. After the Freeman closed she stayed in Chatham and went back to teaching.

In the spring of 1858 the abolitionist John Brown arrived in Canada, and Shadd learned of his plans. Osborne Perry Anderson, who belonged to the same circle, later joined Brown at Harpers Ferry in October 1859. Shadd edited Anderson’s memoir, A Voice from Harper’s Ferry, published in 1861.

Return to the United States

In late 1863 Shadd accepted Martin Robinson Delany’s invitation to serve as an enlistment recruiter and returned to the United States. After the Civil War she stayed to help educate newly freed Black Americans. In July 1868 she obtained an American teaching certificate, taught briefly in Detroit, and settled in Washington, D.C. She supported herself by teaching and received a law degree from Howard University in 1883. In 1881 she made a short trip back to Canada to organize a suffrage rally. She died in Washington on June 5, 1893, weakened by rheumatism and cancer.

Timeline

1823: born in Wilmington, Delaware.
1849: publishes Hints to the colored people of the North.
1851: moves to Windsor, Upper Canada.
1853: founds the Provincial Freeman.
1854: the paper resumes in Toronto.
1855: the paper moves to Chatham.
1856: marries Thomas Cary.
1863: returns to the United States as a recruiter.
1883: receives a law degree from Howard University.
1893: dies in Washington, D.C.

Frequently asked questions

Was Mary Ann Shadd based in Toronto?

Only briefly. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says the Provincial Freeman resumed in March 1854 based in Toronto and moved to Chatham in 1855. She lived mainly in Windsor and Chatham.

When was the Provincial Freeman founded?

In early 1853, with the first issue in March 1853. Samuel Ringgold Ward was named editor, but Shadd was the driving force.

Why did Shadd move to Canada?

She went to Windsor in the fall of 1851 and encouraged other Black Americans to follow, publishing A plea for emigration in 1852. Her pamphlets and paper argued for self-reliance.

Is Mary Ann Shadd a national historic person?

Yes. Parks Canada designated her in November 1994 as a newspaper editor and leader of the Black refugee movement.

Last verified: October 2026

Sources

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Shadd, Mary Ann Camberton (Cary),” vol. 12
Parks Canada, “Mary Ann Shadd National Historic Person”
Ontario Heritage Trust, “The Provincial Freeman,” provincial plaque background paper
Canadiana (Canadian Research Knowledge Network), catalogue record and issue list for the Provincial Freeman
Government of Canada, Women and Gender Equality Canada, “Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823 – 1893)”

Cite this page

APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Mary Ann Shadd: Editor of the Provincial Freeman. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/mary-ann-shadd

MLA: “Mary Ann Shadd: Editor of the Provincial Freeman.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/mary-ann-shadd. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Mary Ann Shadd: Editor of the Provincial Freeman.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/mary-ann-shadd.

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