"Rhodes provides a well—researched, balanced, clearly written assessment of the extraordinary life of this trailblazing African American feminist and reformer. Born into Delaware's small free black elite, Shadd Cary was an educated, articulate woman ahead of her time in many ways as an advocate for abolitionism, black nationalism, women's rights, and temperance. Disillusioned with the racial climate in the US, she emigrated to western Canada in the early 1850s to teach the children of fugitive slaves. There she founded the Provincial Freeman, the first newspaper in North America to be published and edited by a black woman. Besides using the newspaper to advocate black liberation, she recruited blacks for the Union army and struggled tirelessly to improve conditions for people at society's margins. She also struggled with black male dominance, the account of which reveals a good deal about gender politics, class, and color in 19th—century Northern black communities. Rhodes includes 46 pages of notes that reflect extensive research in US, Canadian, and English sources, a 17—page bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and photographs. Recommended highly for libraries with strong collections in African American and Canadian history. Upper—division undergraduates and above. —R. Detweiler, California Polytechnic State Universit"—San Luis Obispo , , Choice, April 1999
