Lucy Higgs Nichols
Activist
After escaping slavery, Nichols, better known as "Aunt Lucy," became a much-loved Union Army nurse. After the Civil War, an organization of Union Army veterans known as the Grand Army of the Republic granted her honorary membership.
She was born into slavery in Hardeman County, Tennessee.
Her life became the subject of exhibits at both Indiana's Carnegie Center for Art & History and Kentucky's Frazier History Museum.
Tragically, both her first husband and her daughter, Mona, died as a result of the Civil War. In the years following the war and the Emancipation Proclamation, she settled in Indiana and married John Nichols.
She and Susie Taylor (Susie King Taylor) were both escaped slaves-turned-Union Army nurses.