Ann Bradford Stokes

Ann Bradford Stokes (1830–1903) was an American nurse. A former slave, Stokes eventually volunteered in the United States Navy as a nurse on the in 1863. She is the first American woman to receive a military pension for her own services and was one of the first African American women to serve as a nurse in the Navy.

Biography Stokes was born in 1830 into slavery as Ann Bradford in Rutherford County, Tennessee. In January 1863, she had escaped slavery and was taken aboard a ship. Stokes was assigned the rank of "first class boy" and was paid for her work. Stokes worked until October 1864 when she resigned due to exhaustion.

Stokes lived in Belknap, Illinois until she died in 1903.