Samantha, known as "Mantha" or "Manthy," was born in 1819 in Monroe County Alabama, the daughter of Richard and Sarah Fowler. In 1827, Richard Fowler moved his family north to Snow Hill, Wilcox County Alabama. The Fowlers settled a few miles north of the village, on a tract of land bisected by the Dallas/Wilcox County line and adjoining the farm of Addison Scarborough. On 5 November 1837, Mantha Fowler married her neighbor, Noah Scarborough, the son of Addison Scarborough. Mantha and Noah farmed at Snow Hill for the first decade of their married lives, presumably working one of their parents' farms. They also undoubtedly attended, and perhaps joined, the Bethsaida Primitive Baptist Church, since both of their parents are known to have belonged to the church.

In 1847, a prolonged drought probably prompted Mantha and Noah Scarborough to join the exodus of Snow Hil families to the west side of the Mississippi. Along with other members of Bethsaida Church, they headed west and settled in Union Parish Louisiana on Bayou d'Loutre, some seven miles northeast of Farmerville. Mantha and Noah probably helped found Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church, along with the family of her sister, Sarah Ann Albritton, and Martin B. Lee, formerly a deacon back at Bethsaida Church at Snow Hill.

Mantha and Noah Scarborough obtained a farm about one mile from Liberty Hill Church, and they worked it and raised their children for the remainder of their married lives. Mantha and Sarah Ann's parents followed them to Louisiana in late 1850, with the Fowlers obtaining a farm that adjoined those of their daughters. The Scarboroughs lived a quiet life, and after accumulating a 400-acre farm, he did not make any additional land transactions. They also chose to not own slaves, but Noah worked his land himself. In the 1870s, the husband of their daughter, Samantha Elvyann Scarborough Ham, became an alcoholic and abandoned his family, and Mantha and Noah took in two of their grandchildren to raise.

Noah Scarborough died in 1881 in his early seventies. After his death, Samantha continued to manage her farm in the 1880s, undoubtedly with the help of her children, most of whom lived nearby. By the early 1890s, the value of Samantha's livestock had diminished considerably, and by 1895 she no longer paid taxes on any animals, just her land. Since Samantha's children all owned their own farms nearby, she probably lived with them and leased her own farm. Samantha and her family sold her old farm to her nephew, John Fowler Albritton, on 18 July 1901.

In 1900, Samantha lived near Marion with the family of her youngest daughter, Emma. Samantha's great-granddaughters, Ruth and Reita Hudson, born in 1897 and 1900, recalled in the 1950s and 1960s the frequent visits that Samantha Scarborough made to their home when they were young girls. While staying with them, Ruth and Reita said that their great-grandmother would "play dolls with us." Samantha withdrew from the Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church in her later years and joined the Ward's Chapel Church of Christ. Samantha Fowler Scarborough died on 28 November 1905 in Union Parish at the age of eighty-six, and she is buried in the Taylor/Liberty Hill Cemetery up the hill from her church.