In this one-woman play, you will meet four women of African Descent who affected change in Canada: Marie-Joseph Angelique, a slave who was said to have burned down "half" of Montreal from whom we have the first slave narrative in North America; Rose Fortune, the first "policewoman" in North America who helped "freedom seekers" settle in Annapolis Royal Nova Scotia; Mary-Ann Shadd, the first North American woman to publish and edit a newspaper, amongst other things; and Viola Desmond who refused to give up a seat to segregation well before the celebrated Rosa Parks and who was recently named as the new face of the Canadian $10 bill. Experience how each of these women affected change in the Canada of their time and ours. Things My Fore-Sisters Saw  was formerly featured on Bravo Canada.

Marie-Joseph Angélique was an enslaved Black woman owned by Thérèse de Couagne de Francheville in Montréal. In 1734, she was charged with arson after a fire leveled Montréal’s merchants' quarter. It was alleged that Angélique committed the act while attempting to escape her enslavement. She was convicted, tortured and hanged.

Rose Fortune is best-known for her talent as a businesswoman at a time when neither women nor Black persons were encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Over time Fortune developed two lucrative businesses in the area. She began working as a baggage carrier. Later, she implemented a rudimentary "wake-up call" service in which she would alert people at nearby inns in danger of missing departing ships.

Viola Desmond built a career as a beautician and was a mentor to young Black women in Nova Scotia through her Desmond School of Beauty Culture. It is, however, the story of her courageous refusal to accept an act of racial discrimination that provided inspiration to a later generation of Black persons in Nova Scotia and in the rest of Canada.

The first Black female newspaper publisher in Canada, Mary Ann Shadd founded and edited The Provincial Freeman. Shadd also established a racially integrated school for Black refugees in Windsor, Canada West. In 1994, she was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Info from The Canadian Encyclopedia