Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907) was a dressmaker, civil rights activist, and entrepreneur who escaped a life of slavery to become the close confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. She is best remembered for her memoir, Behind the Scenes:Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Fours Years in the White House.
Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) was an American author. Born into slavery in North Carolina, she escaped in 1835, and spent seven years hiding in her grandmother’s attic before fleeing to the North. In 1861, she published her memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Jacobs spent the Civil War and Reconstruction periods traveling the country, advocating on behalf of the rights of freed slaves.
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) was a civil and women’s rights activist. She was raised in Dutch-speaking Ulster County, New York, and was bought and sold into slavery four times. In 1827, Truth ran away with her child and found refuge with an abolitionist family. Once freed, Truth moved to New York City, where she became an itinerant preacher and worked with other abolitionists to spread the word on antislavery and women’s rights. In her later years, she became involved with the Freedmen’s Bureau in Washington, DC, lobbying against the Civil War and segregation.