Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) was the oldest of thirteen children born to free blacks Abraham and Harriet Shadd of Wilmington, Delaware. Abraham Shadd, a prosperous shoemaker and respected political activist, was a leader of the black convention movement, an anticolonizationist, and early member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Shadds were devoted to educating their children. After moving to West Chester, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1830s, the Shadds enrolled Mary Ann in a Quaker-owned, private school for free blacks, where she was turtored by Quaker anti-slavery activist Phoebe DArlington. For the next tweleve years, Mary Ann Shadd Cary taught at black schools in the mid-Atlantic region and in New York City. Her experiences led her to publish Hints for the Colored People of the North (1849), an analyis of the manner by which the northern political economy repressed blacks. The pamphlet began Cary's lifelong examination of the interrelationship between economics and racism.

In 1851, Cary immigrated to Canada West. Not long after, her family followed. Settled in Windsor, she opened a school for blacks and wrote Notes on Canada West (1852), an immigration guide for fugitives. On March 1853 in Windsor, Ontario, she published the first edition of the Provincial Freeman , a newspaper dovoted to anti-slavery issues for Canadians and Americans. Her strong views seemed to keep her in trouble in the local black community. She moved the paper to Toronto, Ontario, where she continued to publish the newspaper with her brother and her sister. This is where she met Thomas J. Cary, a Toronto businessman and antislavery activist.

In January of 1856, Mary Ann married Thomas J. Cary. Thomas and Mary Ann had two children, Sarah and Linten. She was also rearing Thomas's three children from a previous marriage. Not long after the marriage she moved to Chatham.

In Chatham she established her newspaper office in the James Charity Block, at the corner of King and Adelaide. She was assisted at the newspaper by her brother, Issac and Oborne Aderson.

In 1860, Thomas died and the papper was no longer being printed.

Near the end of the Civil War, after blacks were admitted to the union army. Mary Ann became a reruiter in Indiana. When the Civil War was over Mary Ann moved to Detroit, where she recieved her first-class teaching certificate. From here she moved to Washington, D.C., where she spent the remainder of her life.

Accomplishments
* Mary Ann was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Delaware Women on March 19, 1997 in Dover, Delaware
* She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in July, 1998 in Seneca Falls, New York
* She spoke at the National Negro Convention.
* In 1869, she embarked on a new career as the first woman to attend Howard University Law School.
* In 1883, Mary Ann recieved her law dregree.
* She also fought along-side Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for Woman's Suffrage, testifying before a Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. She was probably and becoming the first Negro woman to cast a vote in a national election.

She attempted to improve the quality of life for everyone.

Sources:
Gwen Robinson