Sarah Amanda Sanders Russell

Sarah Amanda Sanders Russell (August 31, 1844 – March 18, 1913) was an American political hostess, temperance activist, and farmer. She served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1897 to 1901 and was the first Republican First Lady to live in the North Carolina Executive Mansion. She and her husband supported emancipation of enslaved people and rights for African-Americans, which made them unpopular in the Democrat-majority state. She was a supporter of the temperance movement and women's suffrage, and was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After her husband retired from politics, they lived at Belleville, their plantation in Brunswick County. At Belleville, Russell grew rice and pine, for turpentine, and operated a dairy.