Keckley, Elizabeth Hobbs

Impact on the world

Purchased her own and her son's freedom with her seamstress earnings in 1855, then built a dressmaking business serving the wives of major political figures including Mary Todd Lincoln, Varina Davis, and Mary Custis Lee, while also founding a relief organization for formerly enslaved people during the Civil War.

Life & background

Born into slavery and forced into a nonconsensual relationship that produced her only son, Keckley taught herself dressmaking and saved her wages to purchase her own and her son's freedom for $1,200 in 1855. She moved to Washington, D.C. and built a dressmaking business employing 20 seamstresses, becoming personal modiste and close confidante to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. In 1862 she founded the Contraband Relief Association to support formerly enslaved people and the families of Black soldiers, and in 1868 published a controversial autobiography, 'Behind the Scenes,' detailing her life and her time in the Lincoln White House.

Sources

1. National Women's History Museum; EBSCO Research Starters