Mary Richards was born into slavery in Richmond, Virginia. Freed by the Van Lew family who owned her, she was sent to school in the North, in order to become a missionary. At age 15, she was sent to teach in Liberia, West Africa. But after four years, ill and miserable, she wrote to her […]
Gertrude Bell, Al Khatun: Queen of the Desert
British-born Gertrude Bell, also referred to as the female Lawrence of Arabia, was an adventurer, spy, archaeologist and powerful political force who travelled into the uncharted Arabian desert and was recruited by British Military Intelligence to help reshape the Middle East after World War I. She drew the borders of Iraq, helped install its first […]
