Mary Ann Shadd Cary, born in Delaware in 1823, was a teacher, a writer, an abolitionist, a suffragist, and a lawyer, and is considered to be the first Black woman to publish and edit a newspaper in North America, The Provincial Freeman. When abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked readers of his newspaper in 1848 for suggestions on how to improve life for African Americans, Shadd Cary answered: “We should do more and talk less,” and she spent her life following that motto in both the United States and in Canada, despite the challenges she faced both as an African American and as a woman.
To help us understand more, I’m joined by Dr. Jane Rhodes and Dr. Kristin Moriah. Dr. Rhodes is a Professor of Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago and author of Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. Dr. Moriah is Assistant Professor of African American Literary Studies at Queen's University and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Black Digital Research (CBDR) at Penn State where her projects include digitizing Mary Ann Shadd Cary's papers.
Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The image is the only known photograph of Mary Ann Shadd Cary; the photographer is unknown.

Additional Selected Sources:

“Overlooked No More: How Mary Ann Shadd Cary Shook Up the Abolitionist Movement,” by Megan Specia, The New York Times, June 6, 2018.

“Mary Ann Shadd Cary: History,” by Adrienne Shadd, Library and Archives Canada, November 1, 2019.

“Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Lawyer, Educator, Suffragist,” by Jennifer Davis, Library of Congress, February 28, 2019.


Black Women's Organizing Project, Center for Black Digital Research, Penn State

“Mary Ann Shadd Cary: In the Here and Now (Day 1) [video],” Recorded on October 1, 2021.

“Mary Ann Shadd Cary: In the Here and Now (Day 2) [video],” Recorded on October 2, 2021

“Mary Ann Shadd Cary Event Series: The Power of Black Art [video],” Recorded on October 9, 2021.


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