Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins) Bradford

Born in Mount Morris, New York, in 1818, Sarah Hopkins Bradford became an American writer and historian whose work ranged from children's fiction to popular history. Some of her early books appeared under the pen name "Cousin Cicely," and she built a career writing for younger readers as well as general audiences.

She is most remembered today for her two books on Harriet Tubman, based on direct contact with Tubman and written in part to support her financially. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman was one of the earliest published accounts of Tubman's life, and its later follow-up, Harriet, the Moses of Her People, helped secure Bradford's lasting place in American literary and Black history.

Bradford died in Rochester, New York, in 1912. Her reputation now rests on the way she brought Harriet Tubman's story to print for a wide readership, while also leaving behind a broader body of 19th-century writing for children and families.