Homelands of Mary Ann Shadd

Abstract This portrait of Mary Ann Shadd (1823–1893) is a photographic image of a bronze bust commemorating her life. The bust was created by Artis Lane, an artist and descendant of the Shadd family, and can be found in the BME (British Methodist Episcopal) Freedom Park of Chatham, Ontario, where generations of the Shadd family have lived. Mary Ann Shadd was a Black abolitionist who moved between the United States and British colonies to the north during the nineteenth century, including Chatham. The transatlantic slave trade was abolished during her lifetime. Before and after abolition, she and other African diasporic peoples crossed borders erected by states and empires in search of a homeland, safe from the oppression they faced. Shadd believed Chatham was one such homeland, although her community would not escape racial oppression there. The author of the chapter portraying Shadd’s life took this photograph during a pilgrimage to Chatham—as the author is herself an African descendant whose ancestors were enslaved in the British Caribbean, and she is inspired by Mary Ann Shadd’s contributions to a long-lasting, transnational Black radical tradition.