Mary Frances Vashon (1818 – September 1854) also known as Mary Frances Colder, and by her

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Fanny Homewood, was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

journalist and an abolitionist in the 19th century. She is one of the earliest African-American female journalists.

Biography

She was born in 1818 in Virginia, to parents Anne (née Smith) and John Bathan Vashon. In 1822, they moved to

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

, where her father opened a saloon and livery stable and her brother,

George Boyer Vashon George Boyer Vashon (July 25, 1824 – October 5, 1878) was an African American scholar, poet, lawyer, and abolitionist. Biography George Boyer Vashon was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the third child and only son of an abolitionist, John Be ...

, would be born two years later, in 1824. In 1829, her father moved the family to Pittsburgh, where he became a successful barber. This success led him to become a wealthy landowner and allowed him to open Pittsburgh's first bathhouse which he used as a stop on Pittsburgh's

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

. Her father, at that point the wealthiest black man in Pittsburgh, spared no expense on her education. Because Pittsburgh did not provide public education for black children at the time, her father began a school, the Pittsburgh African Education, in the basement of an

AME church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

, where Mary Frances may have received some of her early schooling alongside her brother George and Martin Delaney. She was sent to Philadelphia to study at the private school, Female Academy of Miss Sarah M. Douglass, and went on to take out ads in Martin Delaney's newspaper, ''The Mystery'', advertising raised embroidery lessons.

Career

An avid abolitionist herself, Mary Frances Vashon took her knowledge into the field of journalism, writing for anti-slavery newspapers, including

William Howard Day William Howard Day (October 16, 1825December 3, 1900) was a Black people, black Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, editor, educator and minister. After his father died when he was four, Day went to live with J. P. Williston and his w ...

's '' The Alienated American'' and

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

's "Frederick Douglass' Paper", under the name of "Fanny Homewood", "Fanny" being the name of her maternal grandmother. This made her one of the pioneering black women journalists in the U.S. Mary Francis married Benjamin F. Colder and had four children, a boy and three girls, with him. On December 29, 1853, her father suffered a heart attack and died in a Pittsburgh train station. In September 1854, Mary, age 36, and her mother, Anne, followed him in death as a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

epidemic swept through Pittsburgh. Her brother, George, would go on to take charge of her four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vashon, Mary Frances 1818 births 1854 deaths African-American journalists African-American abolitionists African-American history in Pittsburgh Writers from Pittsburgh Deaths from cholera African-American women journalists Journalists from Pennsylvania 19th-century African-American women writers 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women journalists 19th-century African-American writers Journalists from Virginia