Insensible of Boundaries

Studies in Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Kristin Moriah

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781512826623
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The first collection of essays published on trailblazing nineteenth-century Black feminist, activist, journal, and educator, Mary Ann Shadd Cary Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–1893) was a trailblazing Black feminist, activist, journalist, and educator whose achievements can be traced across Canada and the United States. Born in a border state in the antebellum era, Shadd Cary taught in schools in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania before becoming a strong advocate for immigration to Canada in her early adulthood. Once she moved to Ontario in the mid-1850s, she dove headfirst into early Black Canadian debates. She fought to integrate schools in the States and Canada and became, as the editor of the Provincial Freeman, the first Black woman to edit a newspaper in North America.Despite her achievements and impact on Black life in North America, Shadd Cary is a relatively little-known figure outside of the continent. Insensible of Boundaries is the first collection of essays published on this thinker. With this volume, editor Kristin Moriah brings together eleven essays from a broad range of perspectives, including historical, literary, gender, ecological, bibliographical, visual, sound, and performance studies, on nineteenth-century Black feminist inquiry in North America.The volume focuses particularly on three main topics: Shadd Cary's relationship to immigration, nation, and colonization; the Black creative and nation-building work that Shadd Cary has inspired; and contemporary research methodologies like digital humanities as they can be used to better understand Shadd Cary's moment, impacts, and life. Through a multi- and interdisciplinary lens, the collection celebrates Shadd Cary's cultural significance and intellectual contributions, as well as their reverberations in her time and in ours. Contributors: R. J. Boutelle, Jim Casey, Rosalyn Green, Lauren Klein, Kirsten Lee, Brandi Locke, Demetra McBrayer, A. T. Moffett, Kristin Moriah, Dianna Ruberto, Lynnette Young Overby, Eunice Toh, Rinaldo Walcott, Marlas Yvonne Whitley, Jewon Woo.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Biographical Note
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction. “Who Am I Now?” Toward a Mary Ann Shadd Cary Renaissance
• Prelude
• Part I. “To Set Forth the Advantages of Residence in a Country”: Black Feminist Geographies
• Part II. “To Display Her Powers”: Black Theater, Sound, and Performance
• Part III. “Led as by Inspiration”: Black Feminist Activism
• Part IV. “Subjects Better Understood, and Within Her Sphere”: Black Digital Humanities
• List of Contributors
• Index