Mothers whose purpose did not end in motherhood but rather was strengthened by it.
Woven throughout the history of America is a woman who became a mother and turned her compassion into action for the rights of all Americans. They were writers, abolitionists, scientists, and spies, all fighting for those with fewer rights than themselves. America was built by our Founding Fathers, true, but nothing can be built without our founding mothers as well.
From the front lines of the Revolution to the halls of NASA, these women prove that motherhood and greatness are not competing callings but complementary ones. Here are 8 American mothers who made history.
Abigail Adams: Founding Mother and Voice of the Revolution
Abigail Adams was the wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams. She was a crucial figure during the Revolutionary War, advocating for women’s rights, property rights, and the abolition of slavery. She famously wrote to her husband during the forming of our nation, urging him to “Remember the Ladies” while creating the new legal code.
While she worked to run the household and serve as John Adams’ unofficial advisor throughout the Revolution, she also diligently raised her five children. Abigail Adams valued motherhood, education, and the importance of raising children with character.
Abigail Adams believed in the immense responsibility of raising children with moral virtues and that the health of a nation begins in the home.
Read Next: Women Helping Women: 8 Powerful Pro-Life Leaders
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones: Champion of the Forgotten
Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland before her family fled to America to escape the Great Famine. Once here, she worked as a schoolteacher and dressmaker before meeting her husband, George Jones, and having four children together.
In 1867, Mary Harris Jones faced one devastation after another, losing her husband and all four children to yellow fever, then losing her business and possessions in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. With determination, grit, and a grief that only a mother knows, Mary eventually focused her efforts on fighting for the rights of the American working class.
While organizing the United Mine Workers of America, workers began affectionately calling her “Mother Jones.” But it was not her gentle nature that earned her the title. It was her fearless spirit and her determination to fight for those with no one else in their corner.
We couldn’t think of a better way to describe a mother.
Lucretia Mott: Abolitionist, Activist, and Devoted Mother of Six
Abolitionist. Women’s Rights Activist. Minister. Devoted mother of six. Lucretia Mott did it all while keeping her home and family life grounded. She is best remembered for co-founding the American women’s rights movement alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She helped form the American Anti-Slavery Society, and she and her husband used their Philadelphia home as a major station on the Underground Railroad.
After the Civil War, Lucretia Mott served as the first president of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866. Though vigilant in her political activism, she also considered herself a traditional homemaker and an active presence in her children’s lives, proving that women could do both.
Her children grew up to be suffragists and strong activists themselves. The values she lived by at home, she lived by in the world.
Read Next: 7 Miraculous Births in the Bible That Reveal God’s Purpose for Every Life
Sacagawea: The Ultimate Working Mother
Sacagawea may be the ultimate icon for working mothers. She gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, just weeks before her famous expedition with Lewis and Clark.
She bravely guided the two men across thousands of miles of wilderness with her baby son strapped to her back. Just a teenager at the time, Sacagawea is an incredible example of the courage, determination, and strength that all mothers carry inside of themselves, long before the world ever asks them to prove it.
Harriet Tubman: Mother to Many, Freedom for All
Harriet Tubman is a name synonymous with freedom and the bravery to cross every barrier to save one life. She became one of the most celebrated conductors of the Underground Railroad, risking her life again and again to lead men, women, and children from slavery in the South to freedom in the North.
Tubman never had biological children of her own, but she adopted her daughter Gertie with her second husband in 1874. In many ways, Harriet Tubman was a mother to all, taking in orphans, offering shelter, and running her farm as a haven for those who had nowhere else to go.
Tubman stands today as a profound inspiration, driven by the deep conviction that every life has inherent value and an unalienable right to freedom. At Save the Storks, we believe the same.
Read Next: A Vessel of Divine Deliverance
Sarah Bradlee Fulton: Mother of the Boston Tea Party
Famously nicknamed the “Mother of the Boston Tea Party,” Sarah Bradlee Fulton was a hero of the American Revolution and a mother of ten.
Fulton was the mastermind behind the idea to disguise the Sons of Liberty as Mohawk Native Americans to protect their identities from the British military. She mobilized a group of local women to establish a field hospital following the Battle of Bunker Hill. And in the cover of night, she volunteered to cross enemy lines to deliver secret messages to George Washington.
Sarah Bradlee Fulton managed a household full of children and toddlers, all while making history as one of the fierce mothers of the Revolutionary War.
Katherine Johnson: Mathematician, Pioneer, and Mother of Three
Katherine Johnson is a legend in mathematics whose calculations for NASA made America’s first human spaceflights possible. She was brought to the screen in the film Hidden Figures, which tells the story of how she overcame barriers built by both racism and sexism to achieve her dreams and make history.
Katherine Johnson’s dedication to her work never diminished her commitment to her other dream: motherhood. In 1940, she chose to temporarily leave her graduate program to focus on starting a family. She had three daughters during those years, then returned to her career. In 1956, her first husband passed away, leaving her as a single mother and the sole breadwinner of her family for several years.
Katherine never let the weight of work overshadow her presence at home. She played math games with her daughters in the evenings, then returned to her equations after they went to bed. Her grit, joy, and determination prove that mothers really can do it all, and that the courage it takes to raise children is the same courage it takes to change the world.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Philosopher, Suffragist, and Mother of Seven
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a philosopher, writer, and major leader of the American women’s rights movement. She authored the Declaration of Sentiments, a formal demand for women’s right to vote that echoed the language of the Declaration of Independence itself.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the proud mother of seven children.
With the help of her close friend and fellow activist Susan B. Anthony, she maintained her status as a prominent leader in the suffrage movement while raising her family. Stanton deeply valued motherhood and pushed back against societal norms that treated pregnancy and childbirth as something to be hidden, famously celebrating the birth of her seventh child by hanging a flag outside her home.
Stanton took a strong pro-life stance rooted in her feminist values, viewing abortion as a tragic result of women’s poverty, oppression, and lack of legal rights, not a solution to them.
The Legacy of American Mothers
These eight women lived in different centuries, fought different battles, and left behind different legacies. But they share something special: they were mothers who took strength from their journeys to make history in our country.
They fought for the voiceless. They protected the vulnerable. And they believed that every life, no matter how small or overlooked, deserved a chance.
Double Your Gift Today
At Save the Storks, we carry that same conviction every day. We believe every woman deserves the chance to embrace motherhood with confidence, not fear.
Through our Save the Storks Mobile Medical Clinics, our partner pregnancy clinics, and our digital platform, we come alongside women facing unplanned pregnancies, walking with them from that first unexpected moment through the earliest days of motherhood, so they know they are never alone.
Right now, every gift to Save the Storks is being matched dollar for dollar through September 30. Your gift today goes twice as far in helping empower women facing unplanned pregnancies to choose life for their babies, so the next generation does not have to experience the loss of abortion.
