Mary Ann Shadd Cary Essential Writings of a Nineteenth-Century Black Radical Feminist

by Dennie, Nneka D.

• ISBN13: 9780197609460
• ISBN10: 0197609465
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-10-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume compiles writings by and about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a nineteenth-century Black radical feminist, an abolitionist, suffragist, and one of the first Black woman newspaper editors in North America.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary includes letters, newspaper articles, organizational records, and never-before-published handwritten notes and essay drafts that illustrate how Shadd Cary participated in major Africana philosophical debates during the nineteenth century. Racial uplift, women's rights, and emigration first emerged as central themes in Shadd Cary's intellectual thought during the 1850s as she grappled with slavery's effects on African Americans. She was frequently mired in controversy during this era, both for her ideas and for outspokenness as a woman. Shadd Cary's support for emigration dissipated in the 1860s. During and after Reconstruction, she advocated for citizenship and economic self-determination for Black people in general and Black women in particular. By the 1880s, Shadd Cary's writings and activism prioritized Black women's needs.

Shadd Cary shaped Black radical theory and praxis throughout her lifetime. She is one of many nineteenth-century Black women theorists whose intellectual contributions are often overlooked. By interrogating Shadd Cary's Black radical ethic of care, this book reveals the philosophies that have shaped Black women's centuries-long struggle for rights and freedom.

Author Biography

Nneka D. Dennie is Assistant Professor of History, core faculty in Africana Studies, and affiliate faculty in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington and Lee University. She is also co-founder and president of the Black Women's Studies Association. Dr. Dennie's research examines Black feminism and Black intellectual thought with an emphasis on nineteenth-century African American women thinkers. Her work has been published in Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International; Feminist Studies; Atlantic Studies: Global Currents; The Routledge Companion to Black Women's Social and Cultural Histories; The Oxford Handbook of W.E.B. Du Bois, and more.

Table of Contents

A Note on the Cover Illustration
Acknowledgments

Introduction - “We Should Do More, and Talk Less”

0.1 Life and Context
0.2 Reading Shadd Cary's Radicalism
0.3 Two-Faced Archive
0.4 Chapters and Sources

Chapter 1 - “Our Women Must Speak Out; The Boys Must Have Trades”: Visions of Racial Uplift

1.1 Letter to Frederick Douglass, North Star, March 23, 1849
1.2 Letter to George Whipple, November 27, 1851
1.3 “The Colored People in Canada - Do They Need Help?” Liberator, March 4, 1853
1.4 A Good Boarding House Greatly Needed by the Colored Citizens of Canada,” Provincial Freeman, December 6, 1856
1.5 “For the attention of all Temperance reformers, Legislators, Ministers of religion &c,” Provincial Freeman, March 25, 1857
1.6 “Meetings at Philadelphia,” Provincial Freeman, April 18, 1857
1.7 “School for ALL!!” Provincial Freeman, June 13, 1857
1.8 “An Unmitigated Falsehood,” Weekly Anglo-African, February 15, 1862
1.9 “Editorial- by M. A. S. Cary (Editor),” Provincial Freeman, Spring Edition 1866
1.10 “Letter from Baltimore,” New National Era, August 10, 1871
1.11 “Letter from Wilmington, DE,” New National Era, August 31, 1871
1.12 “Letters to the People - No. 1 Trade for Our Boys!” New National Era, March 21, 1872
1.13 “Letters to the People - No. 2 Trade for Our Boys!” New National Era, April 11, 1872
1.14 “Should We Economise?”, n.d.
1.15 *“Diversified Industries a National Necessity,” n.d.*

Chapter 2 - “Our Leaders Do Not Take the Women into Consideration”: Empowering Black Women

2.1 “Woman's Rights,” Provincial Freeman, May 6, 1854
2.2 “To our Readers West,” Provincial Freeman, June 9, 1855
2.3 “Adieu,” Provincial Freeman, June 30, 1855
2.4 “Editorial Cor. for the Provincial Freeman,” Provincial Freeman, April 26, 1856
2.5 Sermon, April 6, 1858
2.6 “Report on Woman's Labor,” Proceedings of the Colored National Labor Convention, 1870
2.7 “A First Vote, Almost,” 1871
2.8 “Would Woman Suffrage Have a Tendency to Elevate the Moral Tone of Politics,” n.d.
2.9 “Speech to the Judiciary Committee Re: The Rights of Women to Vote,” January 21, 1874
2.10 “The Last Day of the 43 Congress,” circa March 1875
2.11 “Petition of Mary Shadd Cary, a citizen of Washington, District of Columbia, praying for the removal of her political disabilities,” Petitions and Memorials, 45th Congress, circa 1878
2.12 Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association Minutes, February 9, 1880
2.13 Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association Statement of Purpose, circa February 1880
2.14 “Advancement of Women,” New York Age, November 11, 1887

Chapter 3 - “The Men Who Love Liberty Too Well to Remain in the States”: Enabling Emigration

3.1 Letter to Isaac Shadd, September 16, 1851
3.2 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
3.2.1 Introductory Remarks
3.2.2 A Plea for Emigration
3.2.2.1 British America
3.2.2.2 The Canadas - Climate, etc.
3.2.2.3 Soil,-Timber,-Clearing Lands.
3.2.2.4 Grains, Potatoes, Turnips, &C.
3.2.2.5 Garden Vegetables, &C.
3.2.2.6 Fruits-Vines-Berries.
3.2.2.7 Domestic Animals-Fowls-Game.
3.2.2.8 Prices of Land in The Country-City Property, &C.
3.2.2.9 Labor-Trades.
3.2.2.10 Churches-Schools.
3.2.2.11 Settlements,-Dawn,-Elgin,-Institution,-Fugitive Home.
3.2.2.12 By-laws.
3.2.2.13 Political Rights-Election Law-Oath-Currency.
3.2.2.14 Articles Exempt from Duty.
3.2.2.15 Currency of Canada.
3.2.2.16 Abstract of Law of Succession in Upper Canada
3.2.2.17 The Thirty Thousand Colored Freemen of Canada.
3.2.2.18 The French and Foreign Population.
3.2.2.19 Recapitulation.
3.2.2.20 The British West Indies-Mexico-South America-Africa.
3.2.2.21 Mexico.
3.2.2.22 Vancouver's Island-Concluding Remarks.
3.3 “Our Free Colored Emigrants,” Provincial Freeman, May 20, 1854
3.4 “The Emigration Convention,” Provincial Freeman, July 5, 1856
3.5 “The Things Most Needed,” Provincial Freeman, April 25, 1857
3.6 “Haytian Emigration,” Weekly Anglo-African, September 28, 1861

Chapter 4 - Contextualizing Shadd Cary

4.1 “Miss Shadd's Pamphlet,” North Star, June 8, 1849 - Excerpt of “Hints to the Colored People of the North”
4.2 “Schools in Canada,” Voice of the Fugitive, July 15, 1852
4.3 “For Frederick Douglass' Paper,” Frederick Douglass' Paper, January 4, 1855
4.4 “From Our Philadelphia Correspondent,” Provincial Freeman, December 1, 1855
4.5 “For the Provincial Freeman,” Provincial Freeman, December 22, 1855
4.6 “Anti-Slavery Lectures,” Provincial Freeman, March 29, 1856
4.7 “Meeting of Colored Canadians,” Pine and Palm, April 3, 1862
4.8 Letter from Martin Delany, February 24, 1864
4.9 Letter from Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1871
4.10 “Mrs. Mary A. S. Cary,” New National Era, July 13, 1871
4.11 “Teachers Assignment. 'One by One the Roses Fall.'”, September 20, 1884
4.12 Attorney General Endorsement, Washington Bee, September 27, 1884
4.13 “Mrs. Carey in Mississippi,” New York Freeman, April 11, 1885
4.14 “Locals,” Washington Bee, June 10, 1893

Conclusion - “Why Not Go Farther?”

Recommended Reading List

Bibliography

Index