Sojourner Truth is best known for her extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.

Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist, author and speaker who was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and social activist best known for her popular anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Pioneering African-American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts Black Boy and Native Son.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves.

William Seward was a New York governor and U.S. senator before serving as secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

Julia Ward Howe was a women's rights activist, abolitionist and writer who penned the poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Famed 19th-century author and orator Frederick Douglass was an eminent human rights leader in the anti-slavery movement and the first African-American citizen to hold a high U.S. government rank.

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. He was also the eldest son of President John Adams, the second U.S. president.

Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, prompting a bloody conflict over Kansas' slavery status.

Escaped slave and minister Josiah Henson became involved in the Underground Railroad, leading slaves to freedom and developing his own Afro-Canadian community.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a military leader who worked with Toussaint L'Ouverture and gave the country of Haiti its name.

Edwin Stanton served as secretary of war under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He later served under President Andrew Johnson.

Solomon Northup was an African-American farmer and musician who was taken hostage and sold into slavery in 1841; his story is told in the film 12 Years a Slave.

Simon Cameron was a Pennsylvania senator who later served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war.

William Lloyd Garrison was an American journalistic crusader who helped lead the successful abolitionist campaign against slavery in the United States.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was an author and one of the leading figures in the women's rights and suffrage movement that began in the mid-1800s.

John Greenleaf Whittier was an American poet and abolitionist who, in the latter part of his life, was a household name in both England and the United States.

Grace Greenwood was a 19th century poet, journalist and activist who championed many progressive causes while creating a path for women in news media.

Gideon Welles was a 19th century journalist and politician who served as secretary of the U.S. Navy under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

Montgomery Blair was a 19th century lawyer and politician who represented Dred Scott and served as Abraham Lincoln's postmaster general.

Edward Bates was a 19th century politician and lawyer who served as U.S. attorney general under President Abraham Lincoln.

William Wilberforce was a British politician who spent his life fighting to end slavery in the UK and abroad.

In 1829, African-American abolitionist David Walker wrote an incendiary pamphlet that argued for the end of slavery and discrimination in the United States.