Document Record

Creator

Cary, Mary Ann Shadd, 1823-1893, publisher, editor

Title

Provincial freeman

Published

Toronto, Canada West (Ont.) : [M.A. Shadd], [1853-1855]

Identifier

oocihm.N_00107
N_00107

Subject

Freed persons -- Ontario -- Newspapers
Black people -- Ontario -- Newspapers
Personnes affranchies -- Ontario -- Journaux
Personnes noires -- Ontario -- Journaux
Toronto (Ont.) -- Newspapers
Toronto (Ont.) -- Journaux

Document source

Electronic resource:

Notes

Caption title.
"Devoted to anti-slavery, temperance, and general literature."
'"Self-Reliance is the True Road to Independence."'
Began publishing in Toronto with the second issue.
"... To promote emigration to Canada, [Mary Ann] Shadd publicized the successes of Black persons living in freedom in Canada through The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper first printed on 24 March 1853. This made Shadd the first Black woman in North America to publish a newspaper, and one of the first female journalists in Canada ... Co-edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward, a well-known public speaker and escaped enslaved person living in Toronto, the paper was published from Windsor (1853-1854), Toronto (1854-1855) and Chatham (1855-1857). While Ward was listed as editor on the paper's masthead, Shadd did not list her own name, or take any credit for articles written by her, thus concealing the paper's female editorship. By 1860, the paper had succumbed to financial pressure and folded." Cf. Online, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Mary Ann Shadd article, viewed October 21, 2025.
Issues reproduced: March 24, 1853; March 25, 1854; April 15, 1854-September 23, 1854; October 14, 1854-November 25, 1854; December 9, 1854-January 27, 1855; February 17, 1855.
1 online resource
Began publication with Vol. I, No. 1 (March 24, 1853); ceased in February 1855.
Suspended between March 24, 1853 and March 25, 1854.

Collection

Newspapers
Serials: Periodicals, Annuals and Newspapers

Language

English

Persistent URL

https://n2t.net/ark:/69429/s0ns0ks6k692