Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction.

Yates, Josephine A. Silone, 1852-1912

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Walker, C. J., Madam, 1867-1919

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6301w37 (person)

Madam C.J. Walker was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America; her fortune came by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for black women through the business she founded, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She was born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana; she was the first child in her family born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was sign...

Washington, Margaret James Murray, 1865-1925

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vj6c9z (person)

Margaret Murray Washington (March 9, 1865 - June 4, 1925) was the principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Tuskegee University. She was the third wife of Booker T. Washington. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1972. Margaret Murray was born on March 9 in Macon, Mississippi, in the early 1860s. Her birth year is unknown; her tombstone says she was born in 1865, but the 1870 census lists her birth year as 1861. She was one of ten children...

Coppin, Fanny Jackson, 1837-1913

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Fanny Jackson Coppin (January 8, 1837 – January 21, 1913) was an American educator and missionary and a lifelong advocate for female higher education. Born a slave in Washington, D.C., her freedom was purchased by an aunt as a child. Another aunt took the little girl in, but Fanny had to go out and work as a domestic, getting schooling whenever she could. By age fourteen, she was supporting herself in Newport, Rhode Island, and struggling for education. “It was in me,” she wrote years later, ...

Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre, 1842-1924

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qp6x5x (person)

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (August 31, 1842 – March 13, 1924) was an African-American publisher, journalist, civil rights leader, suffragist, and editor of Woman's Era, the first national newspaper published by and for African-American women. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she attended public schools in Charlestown and Salem, and a private school in New York City because of her parents' objections to the segregated schools in Boston. She completed her studies at the Bowdoin School after segr...

Reid, Margaret Elizabeth, Mrs., 1846-1923

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Wheatley, Phillis, c. 1753-1784

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Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784), first Black woman poet in America, was brought as an African slave in about 1761 to Boston, Mass., where she was purchased by John Wheatley. Educated in the Wheatley household, first by Wheatley's wife Susannah and later by his daughter Mary, Phillis Wheatley began writing poems in her early teens. It was through her published poetry that she became a member of Boston's literati and travelled briefly to England, returning in 1773 during Mrs. Wheatley's final illn...

McDonald, Hannah, Mrs., 1810-

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Baldwin, Maria Louise, 1856-1922.

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Adams, Agnes Jones, 1858-1923

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Steward, Susan McKinney

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Smith, Elizabeth N.

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Garnett, Sarah J. S., 1831-1911

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Chiles, Marietta, 1862-1921

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Mossell, Mary Ella, 1853-1886

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63598bp (person)

Baltimore, Anne E., 1836-1922

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk8689 (person)

Andrews-Hill, Caroline Sherman, 1829-1914

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Matthews, Victoria Earle

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Lee, Sarah Gould, 1818-1905

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Jones, Sarah Gibson, Mrs., 1845-1938

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Allen, Sara, 1764-1849

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Fox, Eliza P.

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Keckley, Elizabeth, 1818-1907

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63p2sd9 (person)

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was a former slave who became a seamstress, civil activist, and author in Washington, D.C. Keckley was a prominent figure in D.C.’s free black community. Keckley helped to found and served as president of the Contraband Relief Association, which later became the Ladies’ Freedmen and Soldier’s Relief Association. Elizabeth Hobbs was born into slavery on the Col. Armistead Burwell farm in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1818. She later purchased her freedom in 1855, in St...

Ray, H. Cordelia, 1849-1916

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gc2t2j (person)

Vashon, Susan Paul, 1838-1912

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g26pvm (person)

Roberts, Jane, Mrs., 1809-

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Brown, Laura A., 1874-1924

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Ferguson, Catherine, 1779-1854

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Dunbar, Matilda

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Patterson, Mary Jane, 1840-1894

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Thurman, Lucy S., 1849-1918

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Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, 1825-1911

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ps03kt (person)

Frances Harper was born September 24, 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland to free parents. Her writing career began in 1839 for anti-slavery publications. She published two books of poetry (1845, 1854). In 1859, Harper published the short story "The Two Offers" in Anglo-African Magazine, making her the first Black woman to publish a short story. She also wrote 3 serialized novels for magazines in 1868-1888, and another novel in 1892. Starting in 1850, Harper moved to Ohio and began work as the first...

Putnam, Georgiana Frances, 1839-1914

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b95z5r (person)

MacHenry Pyles, Charlotta Gordon, 1806-1880

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sk28hm (person)

Shorter, Susan I., 1859-1912

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68q6pgc (person)

Frazier, Susan Elizabeth, 1864-1924

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Windsor, Mary Catherine, 1830-1914

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Cary, Mary Ann Shadd, 1823-1893

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v706t7 (person)

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (b. Oct. 9, 1823, Wilmington, DE–d. June 5, 1893, Washington, D.C.) was the eldest of 13 children to Abraham Doras Shadd (1801–1882) and Harriet Burton Parnell, who were free African-Americans. Her father was a conductor in the Underground Railroad and Mary Ann grew up with many freedom-seekers in her house. The family moved to Pennsylvania and she attended a Quaker Boarding School before relocating to Ontario, Canada. While in Windsor, Ontario, Mary Ann founded a racially i...

Gross, Elizabeth West, 1817-

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Tanner, Sarah Elizabeth, Mrs., 1804-1914

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Simpson, Lucretia Harper, 1820-

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Gardner, Eliza Ann, 1831-1922

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Eliza Ann Gardner (May 28, 1831 – January 4, 1922) was an African-American abolitionist and religious leader from Boston, Massachusetts. She founded the missionary society of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), and was a strong advocate for women's equality within the church. Early life Eliza Ann Gardner was born in New York City to James and Eliza Gardner. As a child she moved with her family to Boston, where her father had a successful career as a ship contractor. Their West En...

Talbert, Mary Burnett, 1866-1923

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Smith, Amanda, 1837-1915

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Hackley, E. Azalia (Emma Azalia), 1867-1922

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Truth, Sojourner, 1799-1883

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Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree, c. 1797, Swartekill, New York-died November 26, 1883), African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist best-known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?", delivered extemporaneously in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She devoted her life to the abolitionist cause and helped to recruit black troops for the Union Army. Although Truth ...

Fayerweather, Sarah Ann Harris, d. 1878.

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Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz44ht (person)

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; b. ca. 1822–d. March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Har...

Delany, Catherine A., Mrs., 1822-1894

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Cox, Dinah, 1804-1909

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Hudlun, Anna Elizabeth, 1840-1914

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Scroggins, Eliza Anna, Mrs., 1820-1912

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Payne, Martha, ca. 1790-ca. 1820

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Brown, Frances Jane, Mrs., 1819-1914

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wb604d (person)