Mary Ann Shadd Cary statue unveiled in Windsor
June 13, 2022
A statue honouring North America’s first Black female newspaper publisher was unveiled in Windsor.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary spent 11 years in Canada, two of them in Windsor, before returning to the United States during the Civil War in the 1860s to help recruit soldiers for the Union Army.
The life-sized bronze sculpture is located at the intersection of Chatham and Ferry Sts. on the grounds of Windsor Hall.
Robert Gordon, the University of Windsor’s seventh President & Vice-Chancellor, said the institution is proud to honour Shadd Cary’s legacy.
Robert Gordon (Photo contributed)
“The sculpture has Shadd Cary looking determined as she steps forward against the forces of discrimination which are symbolized by her skirt being pulled back,” he said. “Held close to her heart is ‘The Provincial Freeman’, a blueprint for Canadian ideology, equality and social justice. A truly inclusive future for the university begins with our actions today.”
Mary Ann Shadd Cary statue in Windsor (Photo contributed)
While on contract over two decades ago with the City of Windsor as an Art Director and Studio Co-ordinator, artist Donna Mayne learnt about Shadd.
As part of the Windsor Mosaic Project intended to recognize the Black community and their supporters role in the city’s development, she worked on a mural, ‘Reaching Out’.
It depicted Shadd, Alton Parker who in 1942 became Windsor’s first Black police officer, Bishop Clarence Morton who was the pastor at Mt. Zion Full Gospel Church from 1962 until his death in 2020, Walter Perry who organized Emancipation Day celebrations, Justin Jackson who was the first President of the Windsor West Indian Association in 1968 and Rev. James Wagner who founded the first Negro Mission in Canada and was the first resident pastor at St. Alphonsus Church.
“The more I read about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, I thought she deserved more recognition, not just because of her bravery and determination, but the ideals she stood for like equal rights and social justice,” said Mayne.
Switching to sculpting and starting her own business in 2013, she used a City of Windsor Arts, Culture & Heritage Fund grant to develop a sketch and bust and research Shadd Cary.
“I really wanted to know more about her and why she was courageous,” added Mayne who started working on the proposal five years ago. “I contacted a bunch of museums, including the Quakers in Toronto to find out more about her dress and what her attire was like. I then tracked down some descendants to get measurements. While shopping the idea around to do the sculpture of Shadd, I ran into someone from the University of Windsor who said they were thinking about doing something to commemorate the Underground Railroad. The timing was perfect. They liked my proposal.”
Often described as tenacious, resilient, resolute, contrarian and sometimes compassionate, Shadd Cary’s great great niece Shannon Prince said she and her family are honoured, humbled and proud of some of those attributes they have acquired from her.
“But with a simple pen and the fortitude to overcome the barriers of gender and race, she rewrote the Canadian tapestry by designing a community with people of colour intermingled to form a magnificent mosaic,” said the historian and curator who is this year’s Thomas Symons Award for Commitment to Conservation recipient. “She was not one that would be denied and deterred. As a strong woman and role model, she exemplified change, courage and the power of your voice. So I think she would be elated of the rich legacy that she has entrusted to all of us here today. She left to others to carry forward the torch that she has ignited.”
The Mary Ann Shadd Cary plaque (Photo contributed)
After attending the inaugural three-day North American Convention of Coloured Freedmen at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto in September 1851, Shadd Cary, encouraged her younger brother, Isaac ,who was in Buffalo at the time, to consider moving to Canada.
When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, compelling Americans to help capture runaway slaves, she and some family members fled to Canada.
“I have been here more than a week and like Canada and think if you are to come here or go west of this and work at it and buy land as fast as you made any money, you will do well,” Shadd Cary said in a letter to her sibling. “If you come, be particular about company, be polite to everybody and go to church as everybody does to be respected.”
Essex County Black Historical Research Society president Irene Moore Davis said the brief letter yields many important clues of the things that mattered to Shadd Cary.
“Her courage and her determination are evident,” noted the Executive Director of ‘The North Was Our Canaan’ that highlights the importance of Sandwich Town to the Underground Railroad of North America’s anti-slavery movement. “Her belief was that Canada West (Ontario) was the land of hope and possibility for people of African descent, whether those arriving as freed people or those arriving as self-emancipated formerly enslaved people.
“Her belief in hard work and the significance of purchasing property as a means to enfranchisement, having a voice in the affairs of this new found home, her insistence on living a life of dignity and encouraging others to do the same stand out. “As we see in this letter, she was a woman with no time to waste.”
Irene Moore Davis (Photo contributed)
Though Shadd Cary spent only two years in Windsor, her impact is lasting on the southwestern Ontario city.
She established a multiracial school and wrote a pamphlet, ‘A Plea for Emigration; or Notes of Canada West’, that provided potential Black immigrants with information they needed to seamlessly transition to their new homeland. It was published in Detroit.
Shadd Cary became the first Black woman to edit and publish a newspaper, ‘The Provincial Freeman’, on March 24, 1853.
She also taught freed slaves in Chatham before returning to the United States and becoming a civil war recruiter, a leader in the women suffrage movement and the first Black woman to complete a law degree at Howard University in 1870.
Shadd Cary won a lawsuit after the university held back her degree because of gender discrimination.
“Of all the things she did in the face of opposition, many of us would have found those things unbearable,” said Moore Davis who is a descendant of Shadd. “It is no wonder that Donna Mayne has sculptured her looking forward with determination on her face, buffeted by the winds that would resist her change. But she refused to stop and she refused to turn back. Looking to Mary Ann Shadd Cary and others like her for inspiration, let us all work to ensure that, indeed, courage does not skip our generation, There is still so much work to do.”
Shadd Cary’s legacy inspires many young people, including University of Windsor graduate student Willow Key who is pursuing History Studies.
“This was a woman of great intelligence, ingenuity and resilience,” she said. “She was a pioneer of the Black Press in North America, illuminating the 19th century Black experience. Though there were numerous attempts to silence her, she utilized the medium of print to disseminate her position on the politics of the anti-slavery movement, racial unity and integration. Her work provides historians with the necessary context for understanding Black social and cultural history in this region.
“The gradual recognition of Mary Ann Shadd Cary as a historic Black female figure reminds us of how there are many radical women of colour whose life’s work and experiences have long being omitted from the historical records, even when they have contributed immensely to our understanding of this history. The commemoration of Shadd Cary’s legacy as a revered abolitionist, feminist, educator and proponent of racial progress demonstrates the importance of Black Canadian activism and protest in the shaping of our nation.”
Designated a National Historic Person in 1994, a bronze bust of Shadd Cary sculpted by great great niece Artis Lane was installed in the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Freedom Park in Chatham in 2009.
In 2011, Heritage Toronto unveiled a plaque recognizing the trailblazer.
