Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau (1801?-1881), better known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is one of the most mysterious figures in American history. Almost all the facts of her life are shrouded in legend and confusion, beginning with the date of her birth (popular sources often cite 1794, but the records indicate 1801). All we can really be sure of is that ...
Esther
The Book of Esther is a subversive feminist tract masquerading as a Bible story. Okay, that probably isn't true, but by golly, it feels true. Esther, the eponymous heroine, is a courageous young Jewish girl who becomes the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (a total schmuck, in more ways than one) and risks her own life to save her people from ...
Bessie Coleman
Aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license. The child of sharecroppers in Texas, she overcame incredible odds---poverty, racism, sexism---to pursue her dream of flight. Inspired by the exploits of World War I's flying aces, she set her sights on becoming a pilot herself. She ...
Madam Walker
Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was America's first great female entrepreneur. Her rags-to-riches story still mesmerizes: born Sarah Breedlove, the daughter of slaves, she built a business empire by developing and marketing a line of hair care products for African American women. (She did not invent the hot comb or chemical straighteners, as is ...
Nzinga
Nzinga (1582-1663) was the queen of Ndongo and Matamba, historical states in what is now Angola. This altogether remarkable woman seized the throne and held it for 40 years, successfully resisting Portuguese colonialism. She also created a crack army, waged war and fomented rebellion, played the European powers off against each other, kept male ...
Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba (ca. 950 BCE?) is claimed by both Ethiopia and Yemen. It’s not impossible that both are right; the ancient realm of Saba (Sheba) may have spanned the Red Sea. Or perhaps she was really the Queen of Meroë, and the name "Sheba" referred to something else entirely. The chronology is also rather difficult...but then again, ...
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was one of America's greatest heroines. Born into slavery in New York, she became a powerful voice for abolition and women's rights. Her most famous speech---“Ain't I A Woman?”---was delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851. For the next 30 years she remained a key participant in the ...
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut (ca. 1508-1458 BCE) was an extremely successful pharaoh whose reign was full of accomplishments: important trade missions, gorgeous architecture, a booming economy. But the thing she's most famous for, at least nowadays, is that she had herself depicted as male on her monuments. There she is, King Hatshepsut, striding across the ...
Phillis Wheatley
Some people are just born geniuses. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was kidnapped from Senegal and sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight, eventually landing up with the Wheatley family of Boston. Within 16 months she had mastered English and was reading the most difficult passages in the King James Bible. Next she tackled Greek and Latin, ...
Lasiren
Lasiren, also spelled La Sirène, is the Haitian mermaid goddess of the sea. Her mythological pedigree is impressive: African slaves brought with them the memory of a great female water spirit, combined it with existing Taino legends about a sea creature, and added European mermaid imagery. The result was La Sirène, the reigning queen of the ...
