Anna Minerva Henderson

Anna Minerva Henderson was the daughter of a Kingsclear schoolteacher and an African American Civil War veteran-turned-barber. Raised in Saint John, she grew up to become a trailblazing civil servant and literary pioneer. According to Black Canadian author George Elliott Clarke, she was “the first Black woman in English in Canada to dare to publish a chapbook of verse.”

Her 1967 book, Citadel, is a poetic love letter to Saint John, celebrating places like King’s Square, Market Slip, and the Loyalist Burial Ground. But beneath the lyrical surface is a subtle reckoning with the city’s hidden history—one built, in part, on the backs of Black slaves and labourers whose contributions were unrecognized.

Henderson was shaped by a family who deeply valued education. Her mother, Henrietta Leake, was a trained teacher; her father, a Union soldier from Maine, earned the nickname “Professor” while working as a barber. After he died in an accident in 1893, Henrietta raised their three daughters alone.

Anna stood out early. She was the only Black graduate of Saint John High School in 1905, but despite earning her teaching certificate, racial discrimination barred her from teaching in major cities. Instead, she taught in Black Nova Scotian communities, then took the civil service exam—scoring third highest in all of Canada in 1912.  

She moved to Ottawa, where she rose through the ranks of the Department of Mines and Forests, eventually becoming principal clerk. She also penned a regular column, The Colymn, in the Ottawa Citizen.

Returning to Saint John in 1945, she worked for a local law firm and, at age 80, self-published Citadel. Her poems hint at her identity and quiet resistance, imagining a Saint John shaped by both dreamers and the marginalized. In “Market Slip,” she envisions the city’s port as a gateway to hope and ambition. In “The Old Burying Ground,” she reflects on unmarked graves—possibly of Black Loyalists—tucked beside their former masters.

Though race is not always explicit in her writing, her message was bold: “I am here. I matter. I led the way”.

Even in her 80s, Henderson was still learning, enrolling in a UNB creative writing class in 1974, undeterred by the age gap. She hoped to publish a second edition of Citadel, but it never materialized. The book is now out of print, but can still be found in New Brunswick libraries.

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