Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (February 1818 – May 1907)[1] (sometimes spelled Keckley) [2] was a former slave turned successful seamstress who is most notably known as being Mary Todd Lincoln's personal modiste and confidante, and the author of her autobiography, Behind the Scenes Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Mrs. Keckly utilized her intelligence, keen business savvy, and sewing and design skills to arrange and ultimately buy her freedom (and that of her son George as well), and later enjoyed regular business with the wives of the government elite as her base clientele. After several years in St. Louis, she moved to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1860, where she had the country's most elite women of the time requesting her services. Through shrewd networking and hard work, she ended up making gowns and dresses for more notable wives such as Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, and Mrs. Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee. Of all her clients, she had the closest and most long-standing relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln, devoting many of her days during Abraham Lincoln's administration to being available to her and the First Family in a myriad of ways. Elizabeth Keckly was born a slave in February 1818 in Dinwiddie County Court House, Dinwiddie, Virginia, just south of Petersburg. Her mother, Agnes, was a slave, owned by Armistead and Mary Burwell. 'Aggy' as she was called, was considered a 'privileged slave', learning to read and write despite the fact that it was illegal for slaves to do so. Her biological father, whose real identity was revealed to her later on in life, was Armistead Burwell.[3] In fact, Keckly didn't find out that Armistead Burwell was her father until her mother was on her death bed, and announced it to her.[4] The exact nature of the relationship between Agnes and Burwell is unknown. Agnes was later permitted to marry George Pleasant Hobbs. George Hobbs was also a literate slave, residing at the home of a neighbor during Elizabeth Keckly's early childhood. Hobbs was eventually estranged from his wife and stepdaughter when his owner moved far away. Keckly resided in the Burwell house with her mother, and began official duties at age five when it was decided that, because the Burwells had four other children under the age of ten, she would become the nursemaid for their infant daughter, Elizabeth Margaret.[5] Taking on the responsibility as a young child, she also came to understand the dynamics of a slave's existence early in her life. While looking after the baby one day, she accidentally tipped the cradle over too far, and the infant rolled onto the floor. This resulted in the beginning of many painful episodes of abuse that Keckly had to endure. In 1832, at age fourteen, Keckly was sent to live "on generous loan" with the eldest Burwell son, Robert, and his wife, Margaret Anna Robertson, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, near Petersburg.[6] Burwell's wife demonstrated particular contempt for Elizabeth, and made home life for the next four years most uncomfortable for her. Keckly mentioned that Mrs. Burwell seemed 'desirous to wreak vengeance'[7] upon her, and enlisted the help of their neighbor William J. Bingham to help subdue her "stubborn pride". Despite the hardships she endured, Keckly wrote many letters during her time there. When Keckly was eighteen, Bingham called her to his quarters for unexplained reasons and ordered her to undress so that he could beat her. Keckly immediately refused, citing that in addition to her being a fully developed woman, that he "shall not whip me unless you prove the stronger. Nobody has a right to whip me but my own master, and nobody shall do so if I can prevent it."[8] He proceeded to bind her hands and beat her, resulting in Elizabeth returning home with bleeding welts upon her back. One week later, Mr. Bingham attacked her again and flogged her until he was exhausted. During these beatings, Elizabeth refused to show great emotion, and suppressed her tears and voice with all of her will. The following week, after yet another attempt to "break her", Bingham had a change of heart, "burst[ing] into tears, and declar[ing] that it would be a sin" to beat her anymore.[9] He stopped beating her, asked for her forgiveness. Unfortunately, Robert Burwell began to beat her. Keckly refused to show emotion and after a few furious beatings he also declared that he would beat her no longer. Keckly claims that he kept his word. [10] Keckly then became the victim of sexual abuse while living in Hillsborough, North Carolina. For four years, a man by the name of Alexander M. Kirkland forced a sexual relationship upon Keckly, which she said caused "suffering and deep mortification"[11] She ended up bearing a son by Kirkland, naming the child George after her stepfather. [12] George was later killed in action on August 10, 1861, while serving as a soldier with the Union forces. After many difficulties in establishing her son's racial identity (George passed as white in order to serve in the Union Army), Keckly was able to procure a pension for an initial monthly amount of $8 (later raised to $12) for the remainder of her life. By early 1842, Armistead Burwell was deceased, and his mistress and her slaves went back to Virginia to live with her daughter, Anne, and son-in-law, Hugh A. Garland. Due to financial difficulties in the Garland family, several decisions were made in order to support the large family and slave inventory. Some of the slave children were sold, and some were hired out, but Keckly and her mother remained with their mistress. After many moves, in 1847 the Garlands moved to St. Louis. Anne relied heavily upon Agnes and Elizabeth to help with the care of her children, and to do all of the family sewing. Keckly would eventually create opportunities for herself in St. Louis. Working for nearly twelve years in St. Louis afforded her the opportunities to mingle with a rather large free black population as well as establish connections that she would use to become a dressmaker for the town's white upperclass women.[13] Keckly met her future husband, James, but refused to marry him until she and her son were free. With marriage in mind, she began her campaign for freedom. She approached Hugh Garland and asked if she could manumit herself and her son. Garland flatly refused. Determined to not let the subject rest, she kept trying to get permission for two years. In 1852, Garland agreed to release them for $1,200.[14]. Steadfast in her quest to raise the money needed, she began to entertain the idea of going to New York to "appeal to the benevolence of the people."[15] One of her patrons, Mrs. Le Bourgois, didn't want Keckly to travel "to New York to beg for money" to buy her freedom, stating that she had given the matter some thought and that "it would be a shame to allow you to go North to beg for what we should give you."[16] With the help of her patrons, she was able to gather the money to buy her and her son's freedom, and was emancipated in November 1855.[17] Keckly kept her promise to repay her patrons, choosing to remain in St. Louis until this was accomplished. During her final years in St. Louis, Keckly worked very hard at making progress in her business as well as personal life. Keckly began to look beyond life in St. Louis. She enrolled her son in the newly established Wilberforce University. She also proceeded to make formal plans to leave St. Louis, leaving her husband after almost eight years of marriage.[18] Her departure from St. Louis in early 1860 took her to Baltimore, MD, where she had hoped to form "classes of young colored women" to teach them her system of cutting and fitting dresses. She said that her "scheme was not successful, for after six weeks of labor and vexation, I left Baltimore with scarcely money enough to pay my fare to Washington."[19] At the time, Maryland was passing many strict and repressive laws in order to control the free blacks within the state. In her autobiography, she did not go into detail as to the reasons for her lack of success but a combination of racism, sexism, and class prejudices most likely played a role. In mid-1860, after finding herself unsuccessful in establishing her school in Baltimore, Keckly planned to go to Washington, D.C. to start a new life. She intended to work as a seamstress as she had done in St. Louis, yet, there was a troublesome obstacle in her way. Almost destitute from her time spent in Maryland, she lacked the money to be able to purchase a license for her to be able to remain in the city for more than thirty days. Always resourceful, Keckly found a way through one of her patrons. A Ms. Ringold used her connection to Mayor James G. Berret to petition for a license for Elizabeth; upon her request Berrett not only granted her the license, but granted it free of charge.[20] With her new license, she was able to concentrate more closely on networking and supporting herself. Commissions for dresses were steadily coming in, but the dress that she completed for Mrs. Robert E. Lee sparked her business' rapid growth. Keckly found most of her work with the women of society by word-of-mouth recommendations; after completing several dresses, she came upon a commission that she almost let go. Mrs. Margaret McLean of Maryland, who was introduced by way of Mrs. Varina Davis, approached Keckly with a demand to have a dress made. Keckly attempted to politely decline the work, because of her already heavy order commitments. However, Mrs. McLean would not accept no for an answer. She also stressed she needed to complete the dress urgently, all the while reminding her that she had the means to introduce Keckly to 'the people in the White House'.[21] After working tirelessly, Keckly finished the dress for Mrs. McLean, and the following week Mrs. McLean called for Keckly and instructed her to go to the Lincolns' suite, where her presence had been requested by Mrs. Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckly was introduced to Mary Todd Lincoln on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration. Mrs. Lincoln, in the midst of preparing for the day's festivities, instructed Keckly to return to the White House the following morning for her interview. Upon arrival, she was briefly disappointed to find other women there who were waiting for a chance to sell themselves. After a few minutes, however, Mrs. Lincoln decisively declared that Keckly was to be her personal modiste. Upon leaving the White House that day, Keckly left with the first of many dresses that Mrs. Lincoln would require that she work on.