A prominent anti-slavery educator and publicist, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, wasn’t afraid to critique established institutions, and neither is Kristin Moriah, striving to uplift 19th-century abolitionist thinkers.
Associate Professor of African American Literary Studies, Moriah strives to carry on the legacy of an important figure in Canadian history. Shadd Cary was a prominent Black female educator, publisher, lawyer, and abolitionist, and the first female newspaper editor in North America. In 1853, she established The Provincial Freeman, an abolitionist newspaper dedicated to the emancipation of Black folks across North America.
The first volume of scholarly essays on Shadd Cary Insensible of Boundaries: Studies in Mary Anne Shadd Cary (2025), came out this January, edited by Moriah. As a Black scholar herself, Moriah expressed her excitement about being able to contribute to the literature on Shadd Cary.
“It’s unique in that way and it feels very special that I was able to help to usher it through to publication,” Moriah said in an interview with The Journal.
Moriah earned her PhD in English Literature at the CUNY Graduate Centre and was a recipient of the Melvin Dixon Prize for the best dissertation in African American Studies. She was a visiting fellow at the Pennsylvania State University Centre for Black Digital Research, and the co director of the Black Studies Summer Institute.
Moriah expressed gratitude to the Black feminist scholars who came before her and mentored her in her work on Shadd Cary. Mentioning the help of Gabrielle Foreman, leader at the Centre for Black Digital Research.
As she continued studying 19th-century Black feminist thought, Moriah was increasingly impressed by the work of Shadd Cary.
“I’ve become aware of how special she is in of her position as someone who straddled the Canada and US border and her identity as a Black feminist intellectual in the 19th Century,” Moriah shared.
Originally from Delaware, Shadd Cary moved to Canada in 1851, established a school for refugees and later founded and edited The Provincial Freeman.
A vocal advocate for Black immigration to Canada, Shadd Cary made a pragmatic argument for the emigration of Black people familiar with agricultural labour, to move to Canada for the soil quality, as well as to escape the threat of slavery.
Criticisms of Shadd Cary were not usually well-founded. As a Black woman in the 19th century, Shadd Cary’s ideas weren’t often taken seriously, some newspapers in England based their criticism on the tone of her voice alone.
“People didn’t like the fact that she was trying to advocate out loud for abolition or emigration because she was a woman. When she spoke about politics in a public forum it was incredibly controversial,” Moriah said.
This pushback was what drove Shadd Cary to Canada in the first place—she was surprised and excited she was able to speak publicly about abolition in Canada. Even still, Shadd Cary anticipated descent about The Provincial Freeman choosing not to publish her name on the masthead, but when her co-editors left Windsor, Shadd Cary was forced to travel Southern Ontario promoting the newspaper as her own. Regardless of being forced to anonymize some of her work, Shadd Cary remains an important figure in abolitionist history.
Moriah spoke about the impact of Shadd Cary on Canadian print culture, mentioning that though we don’t have evidence of her interacting with Canadian figures such as John A. Macdonald, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t a figure in her own right.
Shadd Cary’s impact on the world as we know it was inevitable, due to her commentary on Canada’s role in the events of the mid-19th century.
Shadd Cary isn’t amongst the most recognizable Canadian historical figures, but she should be.
“We don’t think about her in that way, but she was right there at the centre of it all,” Moriah said.
It remains critically important to continue studying Black history to understand the effects people like Shadd Cary continue to have on the world today. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg to understand the lasting impact of Shadd Cary’s advocacy.
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