Hidden Figures: Elizabeth Keckley #BlackHERstoryMonth 7/29 (Patreon)

Hidden Figures: Elizabeth Keckley #BlackHERstoryMonth 7/29

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born into slavery in February 1818, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, to Agnes Hobbs and George Pleasant. She was given to her owner's daughter, Ann Garland, who she moved with to St. Louis. In St. Louis, Hobbs became a dressmaker, amassing a large clientele, working to buy her freedom from Garland, and marrying a man named James Keckley in 1852. Three years later, she purchased the freedom of herself and her son, and in 1860 moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a seamstress for a dressmaker before setting up her own dressmaking shop. In Washington, Keckley’s attention to detail, draping skills, and exquisite fit made her the go-to dressmaker for the wives of influential politicians and socialites. Beckley was friendly and sociable, making friends with well-connected movers and shakers in D.C., and growing a clientele network via word of mouth referrals. Keckley was also considered a Black American socialite, and was regularly covered by ‘The Washington Bee,’ the local Black-owned newspaper of the time. In 1862, Keckley founded the Contraband Relief Association, or CRA which provided food, shelter, clothing, and emotional support to recently freed slaves and/or sick and wounded soldiers. In 1864, the CRA was renamed the Ladies Freedmen and Soldier’s Relief Association. The association collected funds from both whites and blacks to distribute aid and services to Black families in the larger Washington, DC area, and used independent black churches for meetings and events. The organization also held fundraisers, concerts, speeches, dramatic readings, and festivals to raise money and encourage intra-ethnic bonds among Black Americans. After Keckley dressed a high ranking captains wife for a reception with the King of Wales, she was approached about becoming the primary dresser for Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady of the United States. Keckley became the dressmaker, stylist, and close friend of Mary Lincoln, often traveling with the First Lady and serving as her confidante. After the assassination of President Lincoln, Keckley wrote and published a memoir entitled ‘Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House,’ which included the story of her own life along with personal details about the Lincoln family. She included personal correspondence between herself and Mary Lincoln, who was grief-stricken after her husbands death, along with criticism of the American government for it’s treatment of the Former First Lady. While the book is considered an important work today for it's anecdotes about President Lincoln, details on life in the White House as a domestic, and information about Keckley’s life from a former slave in Virginia to a Black professional in the 1800s, at the time of publication Keckley faced intense criticism for publishing details about the White House private life and was forced out of Washington in 1892. She moved to Ohio to teach domestic skills as head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts at Wilberforce University, but returned to D.C. in poor health several years later. Keckley spent her last years at the Home for Destitute Women and Children, a shelter she had helped to establish on Euclid St through the Ladies Freedmen and Soldier’s Relief Association. After a stroke in 1907, she died there. #HiddenFigures #ElizabethKeckley ****************** Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! https://www.teepublic.com/user/sssseren Follow me on social media! Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu Personal Tumblr: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com Tumblr for my work: https://sssseren.tumblr.com Snapchat: sssseren GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/tc5wh7q Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seren_sensei ****************** Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture' Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6 Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6 Digital download (e-book): https://gumroad.com/l/IkUa ****************** Links: Employees and Staff - Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907): http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/employees-and-staff/employees-staff-elizabeth-keckley-1818-1907/ 'The Story of Elizabeth Keckley, Former-Slave-Turned-Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker:' https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-of-elizabeth-keckley-former-slave-turned-mrs-lincolns-dressmaker-41112782/ Elizabeth Keckley, ca. 1818-1907: https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/keckley/summary.html Elizabeth Beckley: http://loc.gov/exhibits/civil-war-in-america/biographies/elizabeth-keckley.html Elizabeth Beckley: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/elizabeth-keckley Elizabeth Beckley (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley