Elizabeth Keckley – Confidant of Mary Todd Lincoln
By
John C Abercrombie
Elizabeth Hobbs (or Hobbes in some places) was born into slavery in Dinwiddie County Virginia in the household of Colonel Armistead Burwell. Born Elizabeth she was called “Lizzie”. She was lent to his oldest son Robert when he married Margaret Anna Robertson. They moved to Hillsborough when Elizabeth was 17. She was their only slave.
Slaves were not treated as property and not as humans. Elizabeth was worked extremely hard doing the work that normally would be cone by 3 servants. In addition, she was scolded ad regarded with distrust. Keckley described Rev. Burwell as kind and good natured but Mrs. Burwell as morbidly sensitive and with a cold jealous hearted result, she was often beat by Rev. Burwell and a neighbor William Bingham.
After one of her beatings, she writes that Rev. Bingham cried and declared that it would be a sin to beat her anymore. She also writes that her suffering had subdued his hard heart. He asked for forgiveness and afterwards was an altered man.
Many uninformed people believe that the only pain inflicted on slaves was working from “can’t to can’t”, so dark in the morning that you can’t see until night when it was so dark you can’t see.” There was much more, there was limited food, clothing and the constant threat of physical beatings.
Elizabeth describes 2 beatings in particular, administered with encouragement from Mrs. Burwell. One such beating was so severe she was unable to get out of bed for 5 days. She writes “one morning he went to the wood-pile, took an oak broom, cut the handle off and with the heavy handle attempted to conquer me. He overpowered her but the sight of blood, she begged him to stop. The beatings stopped and with an air of penitence he promised that he would never strike her again and he kept his word.
Another horror of slavery was the forced “attention” of White men such as a local White man named Alexander Kirkland. This was bluntly stated: a rape. This resulted in a son named George Kirkland. Although bearing the name Kirkland there was absolutely no benefit for either George or his mother Elizabeth Keckley. In her own words:
The savage efforts to subdue my pride were not the only things that brought me suffering and deep mortification during my residence at Hillsboro. I was regarded as fair-looking for one of my race, and for four years a white man—I spare the world his name—had base designs on me. I do not care to dwell upon this subject, for it is one that is fraught with pain. Suffice it to say, that he persecuted me for four years, and I—I—became a mother. The child of whom he was the father was the only child that I ever brought into the world. If my poor boy ever suffered any humiliating pangs on account of birth, he could not blame his mother, for God knows that she did wish to give him life; he must blame the edicts of that society which deemed it no crime to undermine the virtue of girls in my then position.
Elizabeth Keckley
About 1842 Elizabeth and her son George went to the household of Rev. Burwell’s younger sister, Ann Burwell Garland and her husband Hugh. This family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1847 and Elizabeth married James Keckly a man who said he was free but was actually a runaway.
Slaves were nothing more than property, an asset and as such Elizabeth was hired out as a seamstress to prominent families in the area. Here work
In 1842, Elizabeth and her young son George returned to Virginia to the household of the Rev. Burwell’s younger sister, Ann Burwell Garland and her husband Hugh A. Garland. In 1847, the Garland family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Elizabeth Hobbes married James Keckly, a man who represented himself as free, when in reality, he was a runaway. The Garland’s hired Elizabeth out as a seamstress to provide income for the family. She gained the reputation as prompt, reliable, and skilled, and soon reached the level of modiste , a designer of the most intricate and well fit gowns. In 1855, Elizabeth’s patrons loaned her $1,200 to purchase her freedom and that of her son George Kirkland from the Garland family.
The emancipation of Elizabeth Keckly (notice both spellings Keckley and Keckly are associated with her, was signed on November 15, 1855. Of this monumental event she wrote, “Free! The earth wore a brighter look, and the very stars seemed to sing with joy. Yes, free! Free by the laws of man and the smile of God—and Heaven bless them who made me so.”
Elizabeth remained in St. Louis until 1860 to repay this loan to her patrons. This shows the gratitude and the commitment to honor the benefactors to her freedom. This is a true measure of character. She pledged to make good on her obligations and followed through.
Due to the high quality of her work for well-known ladies including the wife of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy Varina Davis she was hired by Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of United States of America’s 16th president Abraham Lincoln as her personal seamstress.
In this position, she had a view of the life of Lincoln in the White House. She saw concerns of the woes of freed slaves who poured into Washington, DC during the Civil War. In 1862, Keckley founded the Contraband Relief association to offer food, clothing and shelter to the most destitute African Americans.
Elizabeth Keckley also recruited support for the association from people such as Frederick Douglass the well know abolitionist , Wendell Phillips, abolitionist and pro Native American rights advocate, as well as President and First Lady Lincoln.
Elizabeth Keckley was literate and wrote a memoir “”Behind the Scenes, or Thirty years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House” in 1868. The book was intended to offer a view of Mary Todd Lincoln but was not received by the public as it was believed that it violated the privacy of the former First Lady.
It should be pointed out that they had a close relationship as they shared much in common including the loss of a son, among others.
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Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley
was a former slave who became a successful seamstress, civil activist, and author in Washington, DC. She was best known as the personal modiste and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, the First Lady.
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Behind the Scenes:
Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House Behind the Scenes: or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House was first published in 1868 and is considered one of the most candid and poignant slave narratives. Author Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley writes about her teenage years, working as a slave for the Rev. Robert Burwell in Hillsborough, NC. He is thought by many historians to have been Keckley s half-brother. The Burwell’s had twelve children and ran an academy for girls. She writes about mistreatment and violence visited upon her by Rev. and Mrs. Burwell, and the unwelcome sexual advances and eventual rape by one of the town s white citizens. After Keckley gave birth to a son, she and her baby were sent to live with Burwell s sister.
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Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly:
The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave “I consider you my best living friend,” Mary Lincoln wrote to Elizabeth Keckly in 1867, and indeed theirs was a close, if tumultuous, relationship. Born into slavery, mulatto Elizabeth Keckly was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, confidante, and mainstay during the difficult years that the Lincolns occupied the White House and the early years of Mary’s widowhood. But she was a fascinating woman in her own right, Lizzy had bought her freedom in 1855 and come to Washington determined to make a life for herself. She was independent and already well-established as the dressmaker to the Washington elite when she was first hired by Mary Lincoln upon her arrival in the nation’s capital. Mary Lincoln hired Lizzy in part because she was considered a “high society” seamstress and Mary, as an outsider in Washington’s social circles, was desperate for social cachet. With her husband struggling to keep the nation together, Mary turned increasingly to her seamstress for companionship, support, and advice—and over the course of those trying years, Lizzy Keckly became her confidante and closest friend.
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The Bond Between Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Seamstress
The connection between first lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her African-American seamstress Elizabeth Keckley was a remarkably strong one, forged out of a common sense that they were both outsiders in Washington, DC.
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An American Marriage:
The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd An enlightening narrative exploring an oft-overlooked aspect of the sixteenth president’s life, An American Marriage reveals the tragic story of Abraham Lincoln’s marriage to Mary Todd. Abraham Lincoln was apparently one of those men who regarded “connubial bliss” as an untenable fantasy. During the Civil War, he pardoned a Union soldier who had deserted the army to return home to wed his sweetheart. As the president signed a document sparing the soldier’s life, Lincoln said: “I want to punish the young man—probably in less than a year he will wish I had withheld the pardon.”
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Reuben Channels Elizabeth Keckley
in ‘Lincoln’ Gloria Reuben plays a Washington seamstress who becomes a confidante to the first lady in Steven Spielberg’s, ‘Lincoln.’ (Nov. 16)
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Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington, D.C. A story most Americans don’t know. *Slaves built the Capitol, White House, and other important Washington structures *The National Mall sits on the site of the city’s once-bustling slave market *The grounds that are now Arlington National Cemetery were once a self-sustaining village for former slaves Millions of people visit the National Mall, the White House, and the U.S. Capitol each year. If they only hear the standard story, a big question remains: Where’s the black history? Packed with new information and archival photos, Black Men Built the Capitol answers this question.
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Elizabeth Keckly/
Great American Photographer In this segment from the Our State television show, meet enslaved person Elizabeth Keckly. She was forced to re-locate to Hillsborough, NC as a teenager. Learn how these circumstances led her to buy her freedom and settle in Washington, DC, as dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln.
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Slave in the White House:
Paul Jennings and the Madison’s Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolly Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolly Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War. Based on correspondence, legal documents, and journal entries rarely seen before, this amazing portrait reveals the mores and attitudes toward slavery in the 19th century, and sheds new light on famous characters such as James Madison, French General Lafayette, Dolly Madison, and many other long-forgotten slaves, abolitionists, and civil rights activists.
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Walk in Lincoln’s Final Footsteps:
Elizabeth Keckley Elizabeth Keckley was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker. Born in slavery in Dinwiddie County, Keckley would buy her freedom before moving to Washington D.C. and working for Mrs. Lincoln. She would return to the area near where she was born when the President and his family visited the Tri-Cities in the waning days of the Civil War.
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Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War For decades after its founding, America was really two nations – one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the “united” states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights at all. By awakening Northerners to the true nature of slavery, and by enraging Southerners who demanded the return of their human “property”, fugitive slaves forced the nation to confront the truth about itself.
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Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth KECKLEY
read by Various | Full Audio Book Read by: Laura Victoria, Beverly Scott, Becky Cook, ashleighjane, Ruth Kidson, Jill Preston, Edith van der Have-Raats, Linda Velwest, Guero, Bridget Gaige, Michelle Day in English Chapters: 00:00:00 – 00 – Preface 00:08:58 – 01 – Ch. 1 – Where I was Born 00:29:03 – 02 – Ch. 2 – Girlhood and its Sorrows 00:41:04 – 03 – Ch. 3 – How I Gained My Freedom 01:00:41 – 04 – Ch. 4 – In the Family of Senator Jefferson Davis 01:14:22 – 05 – Ch. 5 – My Introduction to Mrs. Lincoln 01:29:11 – 06 – Ch. 6 – Willie Lincoln’s Death-Bed 01:47:03 – 07 – Ch. 7 – Washington 1862-3 02:01:27 – 08 – Ch. 8 – Candid Opinions 02:15:39 – 09 – Ch. 9 – Behind the Scenes 02:29:03 – 10 – Ch. 10 – The Second Inauguration 02:51:22 – 11 – Ch. 11 – The Assassination of President Lincoln 03:20:52 – 12 – Ch. 12 – Mrs. Lincoln Leaves the White House 03:48:10 – 13 – Ch. 13 – Origin of the Rivalry btwn. Mr. Douglas Mr. Lincoln 04:00:30 – 14 – Ch. 14 – Old Friends 04:26:57 – 15 – Ch. 15 Part 1 – Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln’s Wardrobe in New York 05:00:22 – 16 – Ch. 15 Part 2 – Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln’s Wardrobe in New York 05:29:03 – 17 – Appendix – Letters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley This is the autobiography of Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her freedom with the money she earned as a seamstress. She eventually worked for Mary Lincoln. It is a fascinating book, filled with many recollections of her own life and her interactions with the Lincolns and other members of the government elite. (summary by Guero)
Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth KECKLEY read by Various | Full Audio Book
Read by: Laura Victoria, Beverly Scott, Becky Cook, ashleighjane, Ruth Kidson, Jill Preston, Edith van der Have-Raats, Linda Velwest, Guero, Bridget Gaige, Michelle Day in English
Chapters:
00:00:00 – 00 – Preface
00:08:58 – 01 – Ch. 1 – Where I was Born
00:29:03 – 02 – Ch. 2 – Girlhood and its Sorrows
00:41:04 – 03 – Ch. 3 – How I Gained My Freedom
01:00:41 – 04 – Ch. 4 – In the Family of Senator Jefferson Davis
01:14:22 – 05 – Ch. 5 – My Introduction to Mrs. Lincoln
01:29:11 – 06 – Ch. 6 – Willie Lincoln’s Death-Bed
01:47:03 – 07 – Ch. 7 – Washington 1862-3
02:01:27 – 08 – Ch. 8 – Candid Opinions
02:15:39 – 09 – Ch. 9 – Behind the Scenes
02:29:03 – 10 – Ch. 10 – The Second Inauguration
02:51:22 – 11 – Ch. 11 – The Assassination of President Lincoln
03:20:52 – 12 – Ch. 12 – Mrs. Lincoln Leaves the White House
03:48:10 – 13 – Ch. 13 – Origin of the Rivalry btwn. Mr. Douglas Mr. Lincoln
04:00:30 – 14 – Ch. 14 – Old Friends
04:26:57 – 15 – Ch. 15 Part 1 – Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln’s Wardrobe in New York
05:00:22 – 16 – Ch. 15 Part 2 – Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln’s Wardrobe in New York
05:29:03 – 17 – Appendix – Letters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley
This is the autobiography of Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her freedom with the money she earned as a seamstress. She eventually worked for Mary Lincoln. It is a fascinating book, filled with many recollections of her own life and her interactions with the Lincolns and other members of the government elite. (summary by Guero
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The image of Blacks painted by the exclusion of positive images leaves most with the image of people who have no soul. Who have made no contribution to civilization. This highly inaccurate picture leaves in place the tireless efforts of others to paint a caricature of a people who are less than. Of course, as a regular reader of these posts, you have come to realize. This allows people to justify the treatment of Blacks who have been responsible for over 50% of the entire GNP during the years of slavers. Vestiges of which linger today. Failure to speak out is taken by many as consent. It is now time to voice opposition to the status quo.