Elizabeth Keckley

Hi Cody Dixon here this week, in our research class,

we have been looking over the african americans of our

past, There have been so many wonderful, influential african americans

that have come from our past.

Historically. I am going to dive into real quickly.

A lady named Elizabeth quickly.

Um I'll go ahead and just jump right in quickly.

I'm going to read this right off the screen because

I just love it.

She lived an extraordinary life.

Her life is depicted in her memoir.

Behind the scenes.

This is the book title or the big book cover

right here in the middle and this is a portrait

of her um telling her story how she was raised

as a slave.

She paid for her own freedom and made her way

into the first ladies life.

She was her personal confident, she would confident her personal

dressmaker and she just became a really close friend too,

the Lincolns.

So to not waste any time Elizabeth, chemically also known

as the slave.

So, she was born into slavery in 18 18.

She was born into this family.

Her mother was a house slave, her mother could read,

she could ride, she made clothes um, for 82 people

that lived on this um, on this farm, this house.

So her owner was Armistead Burwell and Kathleen was abused

by him sexually, physically, mentally.

I'm sure just all the different ways that a person

could be mistreated.

She learned to sew from her mother.

She had been a nurse maid.

She, like I said, was sexually abused and her son

was a product of that sexual abuse.

She had been passed around from owner to owner, not

really bought and sold, but more as a, I'm going

to let you borrow.

One person even said it was on a generous loan.

Um, She lived anywhere in Virginia, lived in several places

in north Carolina.

So she, her value was seen very early on and

I think maybe that had planted some seeds that she

was eventually going to become more than she was.

So when she was an adult, she had met her

future husband in ST louis but had refused to marry

him until she and her son were set free.

She did not want to have another kid born into

slavery. So when she had asked her current owner Hugh

a garland to free them and he refused, she worked

for two years to persuade him agreeing to purchase her

freedom. So in 18 52 he agreed to release her

and her son for $1200 which is equivalent to over

33,000 in today's day and age, His wife and put

a, put the conditions in writing.

Um, Lizzie, one of her patrons took up a collection

among her friends to loan to quickly and then was

able to, eventually, by her own freedom.

She stayed, she repaid the $1200 loan after she, which

intended to leave ST louis and to marry James, so

we'll just bounce right out of that.

That is her, her very quick life in slavery.

So how did she make it into being the first

lady's dressmaker and family friend?

So she had moved to Washington to be a seamstress,

but she couldn't really afford um the required licensed for

a free black to remain in the city for more

than 10-30 days.

So one of her patrons, she was a woman named

Miss Ringgold petition the mayor for a licence for chemically

and he granted her free of charge.

So she Elizabeth quickly really had all these colleagues come

together in her favorite in her favor.

Um So she had created a dress for the wife

of robert e lee to wear to dinner for the

prince of Wales.

And just her work started to be seen and known.

So um this purple dress right here was address of

MS Lincoln's.

This dress is actually in the american history Museum in

Washington, D.

C. I've seen it in person and it is just,

it's exquisite.

And then this is another one of her dresses, I

believe. The one the white dress is actually in a

museum in Chicago, but I'm not 1,000% certain for that.

Um so quickly met mary Todd Lincoln on the day

of Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration.

Their life just really quickly um became close knit real

after that, real quickly after that she would visit the

Lincolns living quarters and she attended private dinners, she was

in on family conversations.

Um, she was actually the one who introduced some Sojourner

Truth to Abraham Lincoln.

So she has always had she always had a little

hand in their life.

It's just really need.

So Elizabeth Kepley, also known as the storyteller.

So she printed this, she wrote her book 1st.

Let me talk about this quilt right here.

There's not a lot of living and breathing examples of

Elizabeth's work.

Only because it was later sold or she had broken

it down and turned into other garments or dresses or

quilts like this one right here, which was made from

other Dresses of hers.

So like I said on the previous slide, this is

the front cover of her book and the title is

behind the scenes, or 30 years of slave, 30 years

a slave in four years in the White House.

She had several motives for writing this book.

She wanted to improve Lincoln's reputation and wanted to provide

financial support after the assassination.

You know, mary Todd is known for I don't want

to use the word lunatic, but she she had the

reputation of kind of being a little, a little kooky

and crazy, somewhat even have called her.

So after she published the book, the Lincoln family was

not not thrilled.

They wanted the book pulled from publishing.

They didn't want it printed anymore.

And this didn't necessarily send out send chemically down into

a spiral, a downward type spiral, but it definitely didn't

have the effect that she was hoping for.

She wanted to clear up rumors.

She wanted to show what life was like with the

Lincolns. But in reality, I think the Lincolns just kind

of saw it as a as her being a traitor

to the family.

You know, we shared these secrets with you and now

you're telling the world that you were actually a part

of our family and I think they just saw it.

Maybe it's a little deceptive.

So that is a real quick flyover of her book.

And then last but not least is Elizabeth, quickly also

known as the Advocate.

So as slaves were being freed and men and women

were just flocking to several different places where they thought

they would be safe and be able to create a

live. Several were very disappointed in their newfound freedom.

They were just kind of nomads really wondering what they

were going to do and what their next step was.

So quickly founded the Ladies Freedom and Soldiers Relief Association.

It was eventually the name was eventually changed.

Um, it started out as Contraband Relief Association.

That's what the slaves who were afraid we're called was

contraband. So she started this um this association association to

just kind of really give support to these people who

needed help.

They needed help finding employment that didn't really consider them

slaves. They needed a place to worship, they needed a

church, they needed school.

So her association really kind of helped get several other

associations started in helping the freed people back onto their

feet. They distributed clothing, food provided shelter.

Had even provided financially for them.

Just several different ways to help these people get back

on their feet.

So that is a very very quick um slide show

of Elizabeth quickly.

I think she is just so fascinating.

Her book behind the scenes is really interesting.

She is a fantastic lady.

She's got a great story to tell.

Um I hope next time I am in D.

C. I believe she was buried in D.

C. The Forward in her book.

That was just another publication of it.

Has a really great forward in it and I believe

she's buried.

She died in Washington, D.

C. And she is at the Colombian Harmony um cemetery

and her remains were sent to Maryland.

But anyway, I just think it would be such a

neat, neat side to see and just kind of put

some tangible experience on her life.

So that is Elizabeth quickly.

I hope you enjoy.

Elizabeth Keckley

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