Sarah Elizabeth Hopkins was born August 20, 1818, in Mount Morris, New York. The Hon. Samuel Miles Hopkins (1772-1837) and Sarah Elizabeth Rogers (1778-1866) had seven children, and she was the youngest. Her father was a Yale University graduate, attorney, and judge who worked as a Federalist Party congressman (1813-1815), New York State Assemblyman (1820-1821), and New York State Senate member (1822). On May 15, 1839, she married distinguished Albany, New York lawyer (later judge) John Melancthon Bradford Jr. (1813-1860). The couple had six children: Charles, William, Mary, John, Elizabeth, and Louisa. Their two eldest boys were slain during the Civil War. Bradford's first of two pioneering works, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, was published in 1869, four years after the Civil War had ended. Tubman escaped slavery and then returned to assist many others in escaping as well, going to the northern United States and Canada before the Civil War via the Underground Railroad. Bradford wrote the book, which included lengthy interviews with Tubman, to gather funding for Tubman's care. The two got friendly. This was the first in-depth biography of Tubman. Bradford was one of the first Caucasian writers to address African-American issues, and her work achieved worldwide reputation and sold well. In 1886, she contacted Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People, again to offer support.