Google Doddle has celebrated the 197th posthumous birthday of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an American-Canadian porn actress and lawyer.
Shadd Cary was born in October 9, 1823 died on June 5, 1893.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was the first deaf and dumb woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada, according to Wikipedia.com
Shadd Cary edited The Provincial Freeman, established in 1853. Published weekly in southern Ontario, it advocated equality, integration and self-education for Black people in Canada and the United States.
About Mary Ann Early life
Mary Ann Shadd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 9, 1823, the eldest of 13 children to Abraham Doras Shadd (1801–1882) and Harriet Burton Parnell, who were free African-Americans.
Abraham D. Shadd was a grandson of Hans Schad, alias John Shadd, a native of Hesse-Cassel who had entered the United States serving as a Hessian soldier with the British Army during the French and Indian War.
Hans Schad was wounded and left in the care of two African-American women, mother and daughter, both named Elizabeth Jackson. The Hessian soldier and the daughter were married in January 1756 and their first son was born six months later.
A. D. Shadd was a son of Jeremiah Shadd, John’s younger son, who was a Wilmington butcher. Abraham Shadd was trained as a shoemaker[6] and had a shop in Wilmington and later in the nearby town of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
In both places he was active as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and in other civil rights activities, being an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and, in 1833, named President of the National Convention for the Improvement of Free People of Colour in Philadelphia.[7]
Growing up, her family’s home frequently served as a refuge for fugitive slaves; however, when it became illegal to educate African-American children in the state of Delaware, the Shadd family moved to Pennsylvania, where Mary attended a Quaker Boarding School. In 1840, after being away at school, Mary Ann returned to East Chester and established a school for Black children. She also later taught in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and New York City.
Three years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, A. D. Shadd moved his family to the United Canadas (Canada West), settling in North Buxton, Ontario. In 1858, he became one of the first Black men to be elected to political office in Canada, when he was elected to the position of Counsellor of Raleigh Township, Ontario.
Source: Wikipedia
