Mary E. Bibb

Mary Elizabeth (née Miles) Bibb (1820–1877 or the early 1880s) was an American-born educator and abolitionist leader. She is considered by some to be the first female Black journalist in Canada. She began her studies at the Canterbury Female Boarding School, the first school for Black female teachers in the United States. After community opposition forced its closure in 1834, she studied at the Young Ladies' Domestic Seminary, in Clinton, New York. She continued at the Massachusetts State Normal School in Lexington (today Framingham State University), graduating in 1843. He encouraged her to join the anti-slavery movement.

In Cincinnati, she taught at Gilmore High School. Beyond reading and writing, Gilmore's curriculum included Latin, Greek, art, and music. It prepared students, regardless of race, for college educations. She became involved in anti-slavery activities and, in 1847, met Henry Bibb, an escaped slave and abolitionist. In his narrative, he described his first impression of Mary E. Miles,

She became Bibb's second wife in June 1848. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, which allowed slaveholders to capture Black former enslaved people and enslave legally free people. With the publication of his narrative and the high-profile position as an anti-slavery lecturer, Henry Bibb was an easy target to be captured. Like many other African Americans, the Bibbs moved to Canada West (Ontario). They settled first in Sandwich (later named Windsor). The couple frequently took fugitives into their home who had arrived in Windsor via the Underground Railroad.

Mary and Henry Bibb were leaders of the Refugee Home Society, which helped former slaves settle in Canada, providing them with land and building schools and churches. Mary taught school, educating both children and adults. In the late 1850s, Mary successfully opened up a school, then later opened a second school. She was a founding member of the Anti Slavery Society of Windsor. He was the brother-in-law of Mary Shadd Cary. They adopted a daughter, Forella Tucker. In 1880, Isaac N. Cary and his wife Mary E. Cary (whose parents were from Rhode Island) lived in Washington, D.C., with their adopted daughter Florilla Tucker.

Mary Bibb Cary died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1877, |name=death Isaac N. Cary died on October 10, 1884, in Washington, D.C. Twice married, he was a widower with four daughters, two of whom lived in Canada.

Legacy In 2005, Mary and Henry Bibb were declared Persons of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada.

In 2021, Sandwich Town Park is now Mary E. Bibb Park in celebration of Black History Month in Windsor, Ontario.