Resilience, optimism, and unconditional love. These are traits that are shared by three mothers who played an important role in our country’s history and who helped shape America’s future through their love for their families.

Julia Dent Grant may be best known as the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant, but she held another equally important title: mother. Julia met Ulysses in 1844, and they were married four years later. Their first child, Frederick Dent Grant, was born in 1850, followed by Ulysses S. “Buck” Grant Jr. in 1852, Ellen Wrenshall “Nellie” Grant in 1855, and Jesse Root Grant in 1858. 

In the 1800’s, nearly half of the babies born in the United States did not live to see their fifth birthday. However, all four of the Grants’ children lived into adulthood. Julia and Ulysses were incredibly devoted to their children and were known to be “permissive” parents. They taught their offspring to ride horses from the time they were small, and they allowed them to be noisy, playful, happy children.

Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved woman whose determination to free herself, her husband, and her daughters changed the course of African American history.   

Harriet was born into slavery sometime around 1815.  Her enslaver brought her to Fort Snelling (in present-day Minnesota) in the 1830’s, where she met and married the enslaved Dred Scott. Their enslaver subsequently moved them between free and slave-holding territories frequently while leasing them out as hired hands.  Their residence in free areas would become the centerpiece of the couple’s claim to freedom. 

Harriet and Dred eventually wound up in St. Louis with their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie.  It was here that the couple began to explore their chances of gaining their freedom. Harriet in particular was highly motivated to see her daughters become free.  After a failed attempt to purchase their way out of slavery, she encouraged Dred to sue for their freedom in the courts.

She and Dred endured five trials over the course of 11 years to fight for their family’s freedom, and it was her love for her children that kept her going through those hard times. Though the infamous Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott Case denied them their freedom, the son of Dred’s original enslaver finally freed the family a few months after the verdict.

Former President Bill Clinton’s mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley, was known for her optimism and enthusiasm for life.  Bill Clinton was quoted as saying that, to his mother, “every day was a good day.”

Clinton’s father, William Jefferson Blythe II, died in a car accident when his wife Virginia was pregnant. Suddenly alone, she had to figure out a way to support herself and her newborn son in little Hope, Arkansas. With the support of her parents, Virginia was able to attend nursing school. She later married Roger Clinton Sr., who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. Despite the many hardships she faced over the course of her life, Virginia was wholeheartedly devoted to Bill and later to his little brother, Roger Jr. She believed that it was her responsibility to support herself and create a good life for her children, regardless of their circumstances.  Although she died in 1994, she luckily lived long enough to see Bill become the 42^nd president of the United States the previous year.