by Adrianna Kandeel

Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s involvement in the 19th-century African American print sphere produced new thoughts on emigration, black nationalism, and women’s rights. Shadd Cary consistently forged models that aimed to secure autonomy and enfranchisement within the black community that differed from the methods she observed in the mainstream abolitionist movement. In January 1849, she penned her response to a request, published in Frederick Douglass’s North Star, for suggestions on how to improve the quality of life for liberated northern African Americans. In her letter, she voiced her concerns and criticisms of the abolitionist movement, explaining “we have been holding conventions for years — we have been assembling together and whining over our difficulties and afflictions, passing resolutions on resolutions to any extent,” and later asserting, “we should do more, and talk less” (The Black Press 21).  Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s presence in the African American print sphere was controversial. She deployed direct, ambitious, and compelling language that was effective but divisive.

Shadd Cary’s central difference was rooted in her vision of a better life for African Americans in Canada West (present-day Ontario). Her pamphlet A plea for emigration, or, Notes of Canada West: in its moral, social, and political aspect; with suggestions respecting Mexico, West Indies, and Vancouver’s Island, for the information of colored emigrants, recognized the inhumane oppression African Americans endure while in a system of slavery, and subsequently, urged for mass emigration to foster racial unity, enfranchisement, and cultural progress. On one hand, Mary Ann Shadd Cary was not the only black emigrationist who received backlash. After Congress passed the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, numerous abolitionist camps sought futures for black people abroad (The Black Press 27). However, regardless of those competitive camps, Shadd Cary’s pamphlet produced a distinct alternative to who black nationalists were and what issues they prioritized. Her navigation as a woman in the abolitionist movement consistently challenged male authority by defying the expectations and assumptions of black womanhood. In defiance of slavery and sexism, Mary Ann Shadd Cary conceptualized a collective identity for the African American community with Notes of Canada West.

Notes of Canada West and its Motives

Notes of Canada West asserted emigration as a practical means to self-fashion black identity and develop successful communities. First, Shadd Cary positioned emigration as a response to the “odious” Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 explaining that “[there is no] home … in the Southern States, [that] is desirable under present circumstances, [so] the inquiry is made respecting Canada” (Notes of Canada West 8).  Shadd Cary saw it necessary for the African American population to view themselves as a distinct entity that could mobilize itself and relocate. In addition to raising the national consciousness of black Americans, Shadd Cary developed a style of rhetoric that complements the quantitative data throughout the pamphlet. As a result, she established her pamphlet as a model of credible and academic information. Lastly, Shadd Cary designates moments throughout Notes of Canada West to serve as a site for discourse between herself and her fellow abolitionists. In this discussion, she illustrates how relocation is a practical alternative with realistic chances of achieving suffrage and enfranchisement and asserts why Canada West is the superior choice compared to other proposed areas, like Africa or South America. Ultimately, Notes of Canada West exclusively speaks to issues central to abolition and African American life.

Setting a Standard

To sway public opinion, Shadd Cary produced a romanticized representation of black life in Canada West.  For example, she sensationalized the economic advantages of emigrating by highlighting, “land [as] cheap, [and] business increasing … [with] no lack of employment at fair prices, and no complexional or other qualification in existence” (Notes of Canada West 22). In addition to better economic opportunities, she implied a healthier lifestyle, stating “epidemics are not of such frequency as in the United States, … and local diseases are unknown” (Notes of Canada West 22). In short, Shadd Cary sensationalized some aspects of Afro-Canadian life to promote her unique vision of life across borders. Furthermore, she evaded the reality of Canada’s racial discrimination by swiftly diminishing its presence and effect. In a section titled, “The French and Foreign Population” Shadd Cary explained the attitude of Canada West’s local white population towards emigration as, “friendly as could be looked for under the circumstances” (Notes of Canada West 34).  While Shadd Cary admits that in “some parts” the English have a “contemptible prejudice,” she suggests their hostility is rendered “powerless beyond the individual entertaining it” (Notes of Canada West 34).   Furthermore, she asserts that the predominantly French population has a “benevolence and a sense of justice” towards African Americans. She reiterates that the social milieu of Canada West was “not averse to truth” with a “prevailing hostility to chattel slavery and an honest representation of the colored people” (Notes of Canada West 34). However, contemporaneous accounts in Canada West’s white print sphere reveal the presence of white racial hostility towards black refugees. Toronto’s Colonist released an editorial, one year before Notes of Canada West, that affirmed these racialized views reporting, “people may talk of the horrors of slavery as much as they choose; but fugitive slaves are by no means a desirable class of immigrants for Canada, especially when they come in large numbers” (Fagan 100). Arguably, Shadd Cary’s stylistic choice to accentuate the truth only accentuates her vision of Canada West as the site for black prosperity. Historian, Dr. Carolyn Calloway-Thomas argues that Shadd Cary’s overt use of sensationalism in Notes of Canada West served as a rhetorical device that urges African American emigration while simultaneously inspiring the pre-existing Afro-Canadian community of the regions’ social, political, and economic possibilities (242). In some instances, the pamphlet read as a farmer’s almanac, detailed with numeric precision on crop yields and soil levels (Notes of Canada West 7). Dr. Calloway-Thomas situates this presentation of scientific data as a transformative blend of quantitative and philosophical knowledge that renders itself a standard of academic quality for the future production and dissemination of information in the abolitionist movement (242).

Shadd Cary’s scientific and quantitative approach was uniquely transformative to the racial discourses of the 1850s. Moreover, the precision of her research reveals her dedication to disseminating knowledge and fostering new understandings, such as her findings in the relationship between ecological factors and social-economic developments. By using a collection of rigorous and comprehensive data, Shadd Cary expressed that both philosophical and scientific approaches were essential to abolition and African American life. However, despite Shadd Cary’s scholarship, she still received backlash for her stance on emigration.

A Debate on Emigration

Most understood how emigration would be antithetical to abolition as it assisted white colonization efforts by deporting and separating black families. Opponent Frederick Douglass vocalized his denunciation of the emigration movement, explaining “it is idle-worse than idle, ever to think of our expatriation, or removal. We are here, and here we are likely to be… this is our country” (The Black Press 28).  Douglass warned the abolitionist community against emigration, explaining “our enemies will see in this movement a cause for rejoice” (The Black Press 86). Nonetheless, Douglass and other anti-emigrationists saw the need for collective consciousness. His editorial “To Our Oppressed Country Men” echoes Shadd Cary’s black nationalist ideology stating, “remember that we are one, that our cause is one, that we must help each other, … what you suffer, we suffer; what you endure, we endure. We are indissolubly united, and must fall or flourish together” (2).  As much as Douglass incorporated similar nationalist values espoused by Shadd Cary, he was no emigrationist.

However, Shadd Cary was the only abolitionist who favored relocation. Martin Delany shared similar views on emigration and forming a collective identity but differed on the site of where to emigrate and the idea of a black hegemony. Like Shadd Cary, Delany saw emigration as a solution to the despairing effects of the Fugitive Slave Act. Within the same year as Notes of Canada West, Delany produced an emigration pamphlet of his own that suggested movements to South America and Africa. Within The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Delany objects to settling in Canada West stating, “the Canadians are descended from the same common parentage as the Americans on this side of the Lakes and there is a manifest tendency on the part of the Canadians generally, to Americanism” (Delany, “XIX: The Canadas”). Although Shadd Cary shared the same viewpoint as Delany (and Douglass) in that emigration could produce effects that were antithetical to abolition. She believed that settling in South America or Africa would support slavery. She wrote in her pamphlet that, “the policy of the dominant party in the United States, is to drive free colored people out of the country, and to send them to Africa, only, and at the same time, to give the fullest guaranty to slaveholders, for the continuance of their system” (Notes of Canada West 37). Regarding Latin America, Shadd Cary believed that African Americans would be exploited in the sugar fields, as was done historically (The Black Press 86).   These differences in location illustrate the foresight both Shadd Cary and Delany had in addressing the complexities of emigration.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary distinctly believed that Canada West’s British government would offer the most protection of rights to African Americans and was against creating a separate nation-state. Overall, she sought to constitute a black national identity within a pre-existent government. However, Delany sought to establish a government of black people for black people within an exclusive nation-state.  Within The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, he related the situation of enslaved Africans to the Jewish communities, expelled out of Egypt and scattered throughout Europe, in search of a sovereign state, commenting, “in high hopes of seeing the day when they may return to their former national position of self-government and independence, let that be in whatever part of the habitable world it may” (Delany, “I: Conditions of Many Classes in Europe Considered”). This idea of a black hegemony caused friction between Shadd Cary and Delany’s vision for what black nationalism ought to achieve (Kenny 162; Shelby 681).  In Shadd Cary’s newspaper, The Provincial Freeman, she questioned exclusionists, “who would wish to be apart of an exclusive nation,” while reiterating, “you cannot be a whole African Nation brethren, but you can be part of the British Colored Nation’’ (“A Word About, and to Emigrationists’’).  Shadd Cary believed that British rule would “position the colored man’s increase of character, wealth, influence, education… where his manhood would be recognized, would afford opportunities to aid to a far greater extent than could be done under present circumstances’’ (“Interesting Discussion on Emigration to Canada”). Despite the essential differences in destination and hegemony, Shadd Cary and Delany demonstrated an alliance in their conjoined ideologies of emigration and nationalism, and yet, both saw validity in anti-emigration reasoning that argued emigration would weaken the presence of African American resistance in the states, aide white colonization efforts, and enliven slavery. Their discourse on the possible consequences illustrates a level of expertise and dedication to the dynamic relationship between emigration, abolition, self-hood, and nationhood. Both manifestos illustrate a time of heightened awareness in the African American print community of the pertinent need for a communal discussion on the legitimacy of emigration.

A Gendered Rivalry

Note that not all of Shadd Cary’s disputes surrounding emigration were as cooperative as they were with Delany. Scholar, Jane Rhodes typified Henry Bibb and Shadd Cary’s rivalry as bitter and contentious (The Black Press 41). Regardless that both had agreed on Canada West as a future site to emigrate to, Shadd Cary espoused a set of ideas that directly attacked Bibb. Above all, their confrontation reveals Shadd Cary’s determination to challenge authority and male ideology.

Notes of Canada West directly implicated Henry Bibb for fragmenting the black community by attacking his administered organization, the Refugee Home Society (Notes of Canada West 31). The Refugee Home Society exclusively served self-emancipated African Americans and thus barring African Americans born free from slavery (Notes of Canada West 42). Shadd Cary exposed how this exclusion halted the formation of a collective national identity, explaining:

…this [Refugee Home] Society is designed to appropriate fifty thousand pieces of land for fugitives from slavery, only, It is well known that the Fugitive Bill makes insecure every northern colored man—those free are alike at the risk of being sent south…, [or] they arrive in Canada destitute… but may not settle on the land of the Refugees’ Home, from the accident of nominal freedom,  Thus, discord among members of the same family, is engendered ( Notes of Canada West 24-25).

However, Henry Bibb did not let these attacks go without response. Using his paper, The Voice of the Fugitive, Bibb dismissed and discredited any assertions Shadd Cary made with gendered attacks. He insisted “Mary Ann Shadd Cary has said and writes many things we think will add nothing to her credit as a lady” (“Gender Ideology” 622). In private correspondence, Shadd Cary revealed her similar distaste for Bibb, accusing him of being a “dishonest man” who caused “a vast amount of mischief” (“Finding a Place” 7). While Shadd Cary and Bibb had a complex relationship, Bibb still retained professionalism, embodied the spirit of the African American print movement, and provided Shadd Cary a platform to promote her pamphlet. The Voice of the Fugitive reported the price of the pamphlet, at twelve and a half cents per copy, and gave an address for future orders and correspondences (“Race, Money, Politics” 4). Although Despite Bibb’s willingness to advertise Notes of Canada West, Shadd Cary was at a distinct disadvantage in establishing herself as a prominent voice of the Afro-Canadian experience without her newspaper.

Conclusion

Early strands of Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s feminist thought were modeled throughout her interactions with Henry Bib. These feminist notions strengthened with the publication of her newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. Published one year after Notes of Canada West, The Provincial Freeman, symbolized Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s subversion from Canada West’s male authority (The Black Press xiii). In her paper, she sought to represent Canada West’s black population as an independent and autonomous “freeman” rather than oppressed and dependent “fugitives,” as she saw portrayed by the Voice of the Fugitive (The Black Press 74). Black Feminist historian, Dr. Nneka D. Dennie situates The Provincial Freeman as a blend of both women’s rights and labor rights that works in tandem to create early notions of black feminist nationalism (Dennie 484). The Provincial Freeman reprinted universal reflections on labor and women’s suffrage to highlight the exclusion of black men and women from both movements, and to resituate any findings that could serve the collective black community (Dennie 478-80).

Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s form of protest was not solely anchored to emigration but more so tied to the surrounding issues of selfhood that could speak to establishing a black national identity. Her way of introducing controversial ideas to the public illustrated that her activism was more than just abolition. Mary Ann Shadd Cary fought to heighten African American life, articulate ideas of black nationalism, and influence social change for women.

Works Cited

Calloway-Thomas, Carolyn. “Mary Ann Shadd Cary: Crafting Black Culture Through Empirical and Moral Arguments.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 24, no. 3, July 2013, pp. 239–256. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10646175.2013.805978.

Delany, Martin. “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.” The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, And Destiny Of The Colored People of the United States, by MARTIN ROBISON DELANY., 2005, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17154/17154-h/17154-h.htm.

Dennie, Nneka D.  (2021) “Leave that slavery-cursed republic”: Mary Ann Shadd Cary and Black feminist nationalism, 1852–1874, Atlantic Studies, 18:4, 478-493, DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2020.1799707

Douglass, Frederick. “To Our Oppressed Country Men .” North Star, 2 Jan. 1841, pp. 1–7.

Fagan, Benjamin. The Black Newspaper and the Chosen Nation. University of Georgia Press, 2016.

Kenny, Gale. L. “Manliness and Manifest Racial Destiny: Jamaica and African American Emigration in the 1850s.” Journal of the Civil War Era, vol. 2, no. 2, University of North Carolina Press, 2012, pp. 151–78, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26070221.

Rhodes, Jane. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. Indiana University Press, 1999.

Rhodes, Jane. “Race, Money, Politics and the Antebellum Black Press.” Journalism History 20.3-4 (1994): 95. ProQuest. Web. 27 Nov. 2021.

Shadd Cary, Mary Ann. “A Plea for Emigration, or, Notes of Canada West : In Its Moral, Social, and Political Aspect; with Suggestions Respecting Mexico, West Indies, and Vancouver’s Island, for the Information of Colored Emigrants.” Canadiana, 1852, www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.47542/2

Shadd Cary, Mary Ann. “A Word About, and to Emigrationists ” Provincial Freeman, April 15 1854. Black Abolitionist Archive, https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=397&item_id=451. Accessed 5 Dec. 2021.

Shelby, Tommie. “Two Conceptions of Black Nationalism: Martin Delany on the Meaning of Black Political Solidarity.” Political Theory, vol. 31, no. 5, Sage Publications, Inc., 2003, pp. 664–92, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3595691.

Yee, Shirley J. “Finding a Place: Mary Ann Shadd Cary and the Dilemmas of Black Migration to Canada, 1850-1870.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, University of Nebraska Press, 1997, pp. 1–16, https://doi.org/10.2307/3347171.

Yee, Shirley J. “Gender Ideology and Black Women as Community-Builders in Ontario, 1850–70.” The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 102, no. s3, 2021, pp. s615–s631, https://doi.org/10.3138/chr-102-s3-005.