Elizabeth Keckley

Common card · No. 248838

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (February 1818 – May 1907) was an American seamstress, activist, and writer who lived in Washington, D.C. She was the dressmaker (modiste) and confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. An African American, Keckley also started the Contraband Relief Association in August 1862, later called the Ladies’ Freedmen and Soldiers’ Relief Association, to help formerly enslaved people and the families of Black soldiers during the Civil War. Keckley was born enslaved to Armistead Burwell who had also fathered her. Keckley would later be bound to Armistead's daughter Anne Burwell Garland, the wife of Hugh A. Garland. She became a nursemaid to an infant when she was four years old. She received brutal treatment—including being raped and whipped to the point of bleeding welts—from Burwell's family members and a family friend. When she became a seamstress, the Garland family found that it was financially advantageous to have her make clothes for others. The money that she made...

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