Mary and Henry Bibb National Historic Persons

Mary and Henry Bibb (1820-1877) were designated national historic persons in 2002.

Historical importance: Influenced the development of the African Canadian community through their newspaper, "Voice of the Fugitive".

Commemorative plaque: 3277 Sandwich Street, between Brock Street and Mill Street^{Footnote 2}

Arriving as refugees from enslavement in the United States, Mary and Henry Bibb fought all their lives to improve the well-being of the African Canadian community. A year after they settled in Sandwich in 1850, they founded a militant abolitionist newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive. Facing discrimination in the public school system, they established their own schools to improve the education of Black children and adults. These achievements and their involvement in the organization of the North American Convention of Colored Freemen in 1851 made the Bibbs one of the colony’s most influential couples of African descent.

 

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