Today I would like to honor and share Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley( February 1818- May 1907)
Elizabeth Hoobs Keckley was a former slave who became a successful seamstress, civil activist, and author in Washington, DC. She was best known as the personal modiste and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, the First Lady. She moved to Washington in 1860 after buying her freedom for her and her son in St.Louis. She created an independent business in the capital based on clients who were wives of the government elite. Among the elite were Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis; and Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E.Lee.
After the civil war she wrote and published an autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House in the year 1868. It was both a slave narrative and a portrait of the First Family, especially Mary Todd Lincoln, and it is considered to controversial for breaking privacy about them. It was also her claim as a businesswoman to be part of the new mixed-race educated middle class that was visible among the leadership of the black community.
She was the founder of the Contraband Relief Association( August 1862). She received donations from both Lincolns as well as other white patrons and well to do free blacks. In July 1864 she changed the name to the Ladies Freedom and Solider's Relief Association. She wanted to reflect it's expanded mission after blacks served in the US Colored Troops. Her organization provided food, shelter, clothing and emotional support to recently freed slaves and/ or sick and wounded soldiers. Her organization was based in Washington, DC but the funds distributed and the services provided helped families in larger regions.
Fun Fact: In 1867, Mrs Lincoln was deeply in debt becasue of her extravagant spending. She asked for help by disposing of articles and old clothes. She was criticized for selling clothes and other items associated with her husband's presidency. When Elizabeth donated her Lincoln memorabilia to Wilberforce College for its sale in fundraising to rebuild after a fire in 1865. Mrs. Lincoln was angry with her action.
In 1868 Elizabeth published Behind the Scenes , to "attempt to place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before the world" and to explain the motives that guided her decisions regarding what became known as the "old clothes scandal". Elizabeth good friend Frederick Douglas helped her edit and publish her book. Her book received negative publicity so she wrote numerous letters to newspaper editors to defend her serious intentions.
Elizabeth continued to attempt to earn money by sewing and teaching young women her techniques even tho her white clientele stopped calling she eventually was in a great need of money. In the year 1890 she sold the Lincoln articles which she kept for thirty-five years. She sold twenty-six articles for $250 but it still remains a mystery how much she really received.
In 1892 she was offered a faculty position at Wilberforce University as head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts and she moved to Ohio. Within a year of her at the university she organized a dress exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair. By the late 1890's she returned back to Washington, DC and in May 1907 she died.
Her legacy lives on throughout many museums. The dress she designed for Mary Todd Lincoln to wear at the husband second inauguration is held by the Smithsonian's American History Museum. Also a quilt made of scraps of materials left over from dresses she made for Mrs. Lincoln is being held by the Kent State University Museum.
With the first day of Black History Month I would like to honor Elizabeth Keckley for her bravery and her amazing skill of dressmaking.
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