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Heritage Matters 30 Black women actively participated in the suffrage movement. In the 1850s, Mary Ann Shadd Cary used her newspaper, The Provincial Freeman, as a transnational platform to discuss women's rights, including women's participation in political meetings, and the right to vote. Shadd also used the weekly newspaper to inform readers of suffrage meetings held in Canada and the United States. In August 1854, Shadd published her observation of a meeting of voters in Chatham. She noted that she "[a]ttended the meeting held by the voters, last night, at Chatham, at which I saw quite a large number of females. I like that new feature in political gatherings, and you will agree with me, that much of the asperity of such assemblies will be softened by their presence." During the mid-19th century, the struggle for the abolition of enslavement in America and full civil rights for those once enslaved encompassed the right to vote. Some women of African descent fought to ensure that the franchise was extended to them as well. This political advocacy extended to female freedom seekers who migrated to Canada. At the height of the women's suffrage movement at the turn of the 20th century, Black women were actively involved in agitating for women's right to vote. Similar to white women, the level of engagement by Black women in the movement to secure the franchise tended to be influenced by their socio-economic background. Black women involved in such mobilization efforts tended to live in urban centres, were more often educated and financially secure. It is important to note that Black women's struggle for the franchise was largely along racial lines. The wider women's suffrage Rene Livingstone speaks at the Ontario Black History Society's Black History Month event in February 2018 about her mother, Kay Livingstone, who founded the Congress of Black Women of Canada.