pamphlet that extolled the virtues of Canada West and attacked the RHS.11 Further escalating the confronta- tion was Mary Ann’s announcement to publish a newspaper that would compete with T e Voice of the Fugitive. Mary Ann acknowledged herself as its business agent, but hid the truth that she was also its publisher and editor. Being the fi rst black female editor in North America, she feared that the public would not accept her or a newspaper edited by a black woman.12 Called the Provincial Freeman, Mary Ann located its offi ces in Toronto and published its fi rst issue on March 24, 1853. It proclaimed the paper’s goal “[to] represent the 40,000 Negroes, freedmen, fugi- tives, wealthy and poor, recently arrived in Canada ….”13
Featured
on the front page was an attack on the Refugee Home Society and its “begging” philosophy.
THE ONLY VOICE IN CANADA WEST
T e second issue of the Provincial Freeman was long in coming. T e explanation was that “the proprietors” were attempting to determine if public support warranted further editions. When fi re destroyed the offi ce of the Voice of the Fugitive on October 9, 1853, it left a void, and on March 25, 1854, the Freeman resumed publica- tion. Five months later, it no longer had to concern itself with Bibb, who had tried to resume publication of his
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newspaper but without success, and who died suddenly at his home in Windsor on August 1, 1854. T e only mention of his passing by the Freeman was a brief death notice in the August 12 issue. It became increasingly evident
that Mary Ann was the editor of the Freeman, and on October 28, she stopped hiding it. She admonished readers not to send any more letters to the editor that began, “Dear Sir.”14 Like her school, the newspaper was in constant fi nancial diffi culty, and Mary Ann began travelling through-
as the Rev. Cyrus Foote and Hiram Wilson for misuse of funds as it had criticized Henry Bibb. No one was immune to Mary Ann’s barbs. Black abolitionists Josiah Henson and even Frederick Douglass, who supported her throughout her career, were the source of her emnity. After a year in Toronto, it was
IT BECAME INCREASINGLY EVIDENT THAT MARY ANN WAS THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMAN, AND SHE STOPPED HIDING IT. SHE ADMONISHED READERS NOT TO SEND ANY MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THAT BEGAN, “DEAR SIR.”
decided to move the newspaper to Chatham, a village with a prosperous and educated black community. Some months later, in January 1856, Mary Ann married T omas Cary, a black barber from Toronto. Nevertheless, she quickly returned to her fundraising eff orts, and she and Cary lived separately, something that continued through- out their marriage. T ey would have two children, in addition to the three Cary had by a previous marriage. Shortly after the
birth of her fi rst child in August 1857, publication of the Freeman ceased. From that point forward, its publication would
out Canada West and in the U.S. to appeal for funding. While she did this, her sister Amelia served as editor. T e Freeman published informa-
tion about fi sh dinners, bazaars, fi re company parades, school graduations, meetings of literary societies, church services, and other Canadian news. T ere also were many descriptions of antislavery activities in the U.S. with William Still, the Philadelphia abolitionist, a regular contributor.15 also criticized white abolitionists such
It
be sporadic through 1860. However, 1858 was an exciting year. She was involved in a dramatic rescue that year of young Sylvanus Demarest, who was being taking into slavery by a slave catcher, W. R. Merwin, and whose train stopped in Chatham on the way to Detroit. Along the route in London, the man and the boy were observed by citizens who telegraphed their concern to Chatham. When the train arrived, it was greeted by an armed group of at least 100 citizens,
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