Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893)
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born in 1823 to parents dedicated to the abolition of slavery. Her parents taught her much about fighting for equality and often provided shelter for fugitive slaves. Cary moved to Canada with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 where she founded an antislavery newspaper in Canada. Widowed during the Civil War, Cary moved to Washington, D.C., where she taught at public schools and lectured around the country on women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement. She studied law at Howard University and graduated in 1883 as one of the first black female lawyers in the country.
