Elizabeth Keckley (February 1818-May 1907) was the personal modiste and confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln during the 1860s.
Biography[]
Elizabeth Keckley was born in Dinwiddie, Virginia in 1818, the daughter of Colonel Armistead Burwell and his house slave Agnes. She began official slave duties at age 4, and she worked as a nursemaid for the Burwells' young daughter; when the infant rolled onto the floor after Keckley accidentally tipped the cradle too far, Keckley was severely beaten. She worked as a slave for decades until she was able to purchase her and her son's freedom in St. Louis, and she moved to Washington DC in 1860. She created a business catering to the wives of the government elite, including the wives of future Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. She later became the personal modiste and confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. After the American Civil War, she wrote a slave narrative and a portrait of the first family, and her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln endured over time. She became a businesswoman in the new mixed-race middle class that was visible among the leadership of the black community, and she died in Washington in 1907 at the age of 89.
Gallery[]
