Human Rights A Day

The Provincial Freeman first published by Mary Ann Shad. Mary Ann Shadd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the oldest of 13 children to Harriet and Abraham Shadd. Both her parents were leaders in the Underground Railroad, which helped black slaves reach freedom in Canada. Her parents sent her to a Quaker school, and her love of learning led her to open a school for black children, then to continue teaching for years. When the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, forcing authorities in all states to send black slaves back to captivity in the south, Shadd and her brother Isaac moved to Canada. On March 24, 1853, Shadd and Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward edited and published The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to the ideals of freedom and educating black people in Canada and the United States. In this process, Shadd became the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. The paper was first published in Windsor, then Toronto and then Chatham, Ont