15 Pioneering Female Journalists

Mary Ann Shadd (Public domain image via Library and Archives Canada)

13. Mary Ann Shadd

Mary Ann Shadd was born in 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. Given that she would eventually have to face the American Civil War, the timing of her birth would have been enough trouble already. However, she was also a woman in the early 19th century. On top of that, she was also a black woman. All of this together would have been enough to beat anyone down. However, Mary Ann Shadd would not only survive, but thrive in this hostile environment.

During her childhood, it became illegal to education black children in the state of Delaware. As a result, the Shadd family picked up stakes and moved to Pennsylvania, where young Mary was educated a relatively progressive Quaker school. Mary would eventually return and establish a school for black children in 1840.

However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively put all black citizens in danger of being kidnapped and taken to slave owners in the South, made things even more difficult. The Shadds again moved, this time to Ontario. Mary’s father, A.D. Shadd, eventually became Counselor of Raleigh Township and therefore the first black man elected to political office in Canada.

After all of this, it’s easy to understand why Mary and her family became passionate abolitionists. Mary ran The Provincial Freeman, an anti-slavery newspaper, from her new home in Windsor, Ontario. She also established another school, though this time it was racially integrated. Thanks to her work with The Provincial Freeman, Shadd became the first female editor in North America. Her brother Isaac managed the business end of the newspaper, while Mary frequently traveled, giving abolitionist lectures in both Canada and the United States. She often urged African-Americans to emigrate to Canada, making her a controversial figure in the black community.

Later in life, Mary Ann Shadd returned to the United States. There, she acted as a recruiter for the Union Army and, after the war, taught in several schools. She gained her law degree from Howard University in 1883, aged sixty. She continued to write for numerous other papers, including the National Era and The People’s Advocate.