Think you know history?
Here are the answers to this week's questions, found on page 2 of This Week.
Questions and answers are supplied by the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, from their 2002 publication, "Celebrating Achievers: A Quiz on New Brunswick Women's History'.
6. In 1785, a slave woman known simply as Nancy was brought from Maryland to New Brunswick by her owner. In the late 18th century, popular sentiment in Britain, New England and British North America increasingly favoured the abolition of slavery.
However, some of New Brunswick's social leaders, including some Supreme Court judges, still owned slaves. Nancy pled her case for freedom before the Supreme Court of N.B. in 1800, represented by two lawyers who volunteered their services. Nancy's lawyers argued that since slavery was not recognized or legalized in New Brunswick, she must be freed.
Because of a deadlock ruling among the four judges, Nancy remained a slave. However, one of the judges who was a slave owner himself subsequently released all of his slaves.
7. Muriel McQueen Fergusson was born in Shédiac in 1899. Following her graduation from Mount Allison University in 1921, she studied law at Dalhousie University. Muriel was admitted to the Bar in 1925, after articling in her father's office. She was appointed Judge of Probate in Grand Falls in 1935.
Following the death of her husband in 1942, she took over his practice. In 1947, Muriel became the first Regional Director of Family Allowances in N.B., a position she had to fight for when men only were invited to apply. She also went on to become the director of the Old Age Security programs in N.B.
She was the first woman elected to the Fredericton City Council in 1951 and the first female deputy mayor of the city in 1953. Appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1953, Muriel became the Senate's first female Speaker in 1972. Muriel retired from the Senate in 1975 and lived an active life for another 22 years.
8. The first black woman to attend a university in New Brunswick, Mary Matilda Winslow of Woodstock, entered the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in 1901. She graduated in 1905 with a Bachelor of Arts, and the Montgomery Campbell Prize for excellence in classics.
Like Arthur Richardson, the first black man to graduate from UNB in 1886, Mary Matilda was unable to get a teaching position in New Brunswick. She went on to teach in Halifax, but eventually moved to the United States. She married there and became a music teacher and sometime dean of the Normal Department at Central College in Alabama.
9. Minnie Bell Sharp was born in Woodstock in 1865. An accomplished pianist and singer, she ran the Woodstock School of Music for many years, and followed in her father's footsteps as a horticulturalist in the family orchards and nurseries. Minnie also operated a conservatory of music in Victoria, B.C. in the 1890's.
She was the first New Brunswick woman to file nomination papers to run in a federal election, entering the 1919 race for the Victoria-Carleton riding. However, her name did not appear on the ballot. She suspected that her nomination papers were lost on purpose. She ran again for that federal seat in 1925, but was not elected.
10. Born in Newcastle in 1888, Frances Fish earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick and a doctorate of philosophy from Chicago University. Although she taught high school for a time, she had always wanted to be a lawyer, so completed a law degree in 1918 at Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, the first woman to do so.
Frances was also the first woman admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar. She worked in a Halifax law firm before returning to Newcastle to establish her own law practice. She ran unsuccessfully in the 1935 provincial election in Newcastle, the first woman to seek election to the N.B. Legislature.
Frances went on to be appointed deputy magistrate for the County of Northumberland in 1947, the first woman to hold such a position in the province.
The complete document is available online at www.acswcccf.nb.ca.
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