Elizabeth Keckly
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly was born in February 1818. She was born in slavery in Dinwiddie Country. Whenever her mom was about to died, she made a confession the guy who she though was her father wasn’t even her father. Elizabeth real father was Colonel Armistead Burwell, her master. Later on Elizabeth was given to the ownership of Colonel’s son Robert. A white man got her pregnant against her will and she gave birth in 1939 to her son, George. Later on she left Robert and she moved with Roberts’s sister. She then got married but it wasn’t for long. In that time she learned the dressmaking trade, with the money that she would earn working enabled her to purchase her own freedom for $1,200 in November 1855.
She moved to Washington D.C., and she stablished her own dressmaking business. She became Mrs. Lincoln dressmaker, best known as the personal modest and confidante of Marry Todd Lincoln. Keckly son’s died in war in August 1861. Keckly also wrote a memoir in part to salvage the former lady’s reputation after the war, Mrs. Lincoln feeling betrayed she cut off contact with Keckly.
Keckly lost most of her clients and ran out of money. She then started working in Ohio’s W. University in 1892 but her health prevented her from continuing. She later died in May 1907. Her story has been revived in plays and books.
WORKS CITED:
"Elizabeth Keckley." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley
"The Story of Elizabeth Keckley, Former-Slave-Turned-Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker." Smithsonian. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-of-elizabeth-keckley-former-slave-turned-mrs-lincolns-dressmaker-41112782/?no-ist
"Virginia Historical Society." Elizabeth Keckley. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-history-explorer/elizabeth-keckley