When we look back at the past, whose achievements make it into the history books, there are important stories and contributions that have long been overlooked because the people responsible belonged to marginalized groups.
But even the stories of well-known figures can be incomplete when told in popular narratives: many famous historical figures had disabilities, yet this part of their identities is often omitted from discussions of their lives.
The historical contributions of people with disabilities are often presented as “overcoming obstacles” stories. Many argue this is objectifying and harmful. Instead, we should seek to understand how their experiences of disability have influenced their lives, work and activism.
My doctoral research examines the lives and treatment of disabled enslaved men in the antebellum American South, whose disabilities affected their sense of self, work roles, and status in their communities.
Although these men were often viewed as economically less valuable by slaveowners, they frequently performed valuable labor for their communities through tasks such as caring for children and providing food for field workers.
Learning about the experiences of people with disabilities throughout history can help us better understand society at a particular time. Here are four people who made important contributions to history, but whose disabilities are often omitted from stories.
Dorothea Lange
Photographer Dorothea Lange. GRANGER – Historical Photo Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Born in New Jersey in 1895, Dorothea Lange was an influential photographer and photojournalist. Working for the Farm Security Administration, a government agency created to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression, she turned her camera on people suffering from the depression’s severe economic effects.
Lange’s photographs built relationships between people regardless of religion, class, gender or race, building a sense of empathy in tense times.
Dorothea contracted polio at the age of seven, which weakened her legs and left her with a permanent limp. Lange described her disability as “the most important thing that ever happened to me. It has shaped me, guided me, taught me, helped me and humiliated me – all at the same time. I have never recovered from it, and I know its power and its might.”
Rosa Mae Billinghurst
British suffragette Rosa May Billinghurst was born in Lewisham, London in 1875. She contracted polio as a child and was partially paralyzed. She used a tricycle wheelchair to help her get around throughout her life.
As young women, she and her sister Alice developed an interest in social work and worked at the Greenwich and Deptford Union Workhouses, an experience she later described as a major influence in her decision to join the women’s suffrage movement.
“It pained me,” she said in 1913, “and I felt that if women’s voices were heard in the running of the country, then happier and better conditions would be afforded to these women, who lead such hard-working, toilsome lives.”
She was active in the Women’s Liberal Association and founded a branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1907. Her first arrest as an activist was in 1911 for obstructing police at a demonstration in Parliament Square: she was using crutches to get in the way of the officers on her tricycle.
Sojourner Truth
Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery in Swartkill, New York, probably between 1797 and 1800, and took the name Sojourner Truth in 1843. The abolitionist traveled the northern United States preaching about the evils of slavery.
Truth’s slave owner, John Dumont, had promised her freedom a year before the final day of emancipation in New York state. He later claimed he would not free her because an injury to her hand had reduced her productivity. Scholars argue that Truth concealed her disability to project an image of strength.
Abolitionist Sojourner Truth. IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo
Truth was the first black woman in U.S. history to win a court case against a white man. After learning that her five-year-old son had been illegally resold to Alabama by Dumont, Truth sued her son’s new slave master in the New York State Supreme Court.
She is also remembered for her “Am I not a Woman?” speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention, in which she highlighted the unequal treatment of black men and women in the United States.
Claudius, Roman Emperor
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the fourth Roman Emperor, ruled from 41 to 54 AD. Claudius is said to have suffered from various physical disabilities and illnesses throughout his life, including trembling hands, a limp, and a stutter.
Statue of Emperor Claudius as Jupiter in the Vatican Museums. Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock
Claudius was interested in history and wrote books on the history of Carthage, the Roman Republic, and many other subjects.
He is best known for expanding the Roman Empire and improving the Roman justice system, including issuing a decree that enslaved people who had become ill be set free rather than being taken back by their masters if they recovered.
Some scholars have argued that Claudius harbored negative assumptions about his ability to govern, linked to a bias that placed as much importance on appearances and attitude as on policy and initiative.
Though Claudius lived thousands of years ago, the prejudice he likely experienced is reminiscent of the ableist attitudes some people have towards people with disabilities today. We hope that by sharing more of these hidden stories from history, this perception will continue to change.