Mary
Ann Cary was
born in Wilmington, Delaware, on 9th October, 1823. The oldest of
13 children she moved to Canada after
the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act
in 1851.
While based in Toronto she published and edited the anti-slavery newspaper,
Provincial Freeman. The newspaper included several articles
illustrating the role played by women in the emancipation struggle
and argued against all forms of gender discrimination.
In 1869, at the age of forty-six, became the first woman student at
the Howard University Law School. While
studying for her degree Cary worked with Frederick
Douglass on the National Era
newspaper. Her articles often dealt with women's
suffrage and in 1871 Cary and sixty-three other women attempted
to register to vote in Washington. Cary was also the founder of the
Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association in 1880.
In her final years Cary campaigned for training programmes for equal
rights, an increase in the number of occupations open to women, co-operative
stores and local labour bureaus. Mary Ann Cary died on 5th June, 1893.
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