ELIZABETH KECKLEY - Seamstress in the White House

 On this date in history - March 4, 1861 - 

Elizabeth Keckley meets Mary Todd Lincoln on the day of Lincoln’s first Inauguration and ended up becoming Mrs. Lincoln’s dressmaker and companion.  Keckley was born a slave, owned by her father. She became a nursemaid to her master’s baby when she was 4 or 5. Her mother, a domestic servant and seamstress, was well liked by the family and was allowed to be taught to read and write. She taught these skills to her daughter Elizabeth.  

The white family had multiple financial problems and Elizabeth’s sewing skills were eventually used to make money for the family and their 17 children.  She offered to give all of her money to her owner in exchange for not hiring out Elizabeth’s aged mother for extra money as they were on the verge of bankruptcy.  Soon other white women were coming to her for their dresses. 

She found supporters who helped her buy her and her only son’s freedom, then moved to Washington DC. where she found it hard to set up a business unless she could find a white person to vouch that she was really free.  A client helped put her in touch with a few influential people, including Varna Davis, the wife of soon-to-be Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  Davis encouraged Elizabeth to come with her to the South “….as a war will soon be upon us.”  Elizabeth declined.  

The Lincolns soon arrived in DC to get ready for Lincoln’s inauguration.  A DC woman needed a dress made for a social meeting she had with the Lincolns,  but Elizabeth turned it down due to the late notice.  The customer told her “I have often heard you say that you would like to work for the ladies of the White House. Well, I have it in my power to obtain you this privilege. I know Mrs. Lincoln well, and you shall make a dress for her provided you finish mine in time to wear at dinner on Sunday.” 

The dress was made and Elizabeth was introduced to Mary Todd Lincoln.  They developed a strong business and personal relationship.  Elizabeth’s only son, George, a Union soldier, was killed in battle about six months before Willie Lincoln died.  Two mothers mourning the death of their sons bonded Elizabeth and Mary Lincoln even closer.  When Lincoln was shot, Mary Lincoln cried out for Elizabeth to be brought to her side for comfort. 

In 1868, Elizabeth wrote a book about her years in the White House, Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave, Four Years in the White House, believing it would  help “redeem her own character as well as Mrs. Lincoln’s.”  There had been great controversy about Mrs. Lincoln’s decision to try to sell some of her clothes to raise money and Elizabeth had helped with this project.

“By writing down the story of her enslavement, her intimate conversations with Washington’s elite women, and her relationship with Mary Lincoln, Keckly violated social norms of privacy, race, class, and gender.  Although other formerly enslaved people like Frederick Douglass wrote generally well received memoirs during the same time period…..” , the book by Elizabeth, a black woman, seemed to enrage the public, with some pointing this as a reason black women should not be educated.

Mrs. Lincoln felt “betrayed by the intimate details” and never spoke to Elizabeth again. Elizabeth’s customers began disappearing and she began training other seamstresses. “In 1892, she accepted a position as the head of Wilberforce University’s Dept of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts.”  She died May 26, 1907, at the age of 89, a t the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children.

March 16: First Black Owned Newspaper

On this date in History .... March 16, 1827

Freedom’s Journal became the first black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States, established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York state.  The paper’s primary purpose was to counter the other pro-slavery and racist papers already in publication. The editors began their first publication with the words, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the publick (sic) been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly."  

It not only provided local and national news but also published weddings, birth and death announcements, job postings for African Americans and profiled successful African-Americans such as Phyllis Wheatley (first published black poet). Its two-year existence helped over forty black-owned newspapers become established by the Civil War.  

All issues of the paper can be found at the Wisconsin Historical Society (this link): http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/aanp/freedom/

July 16: 2nd Confiscation Act

On this date in History ... July 16, 1862:

Congress passes the 2^nd Confiscation Act to clarify the vague issue of whether slaves were freed under the Confiscation Act of 1861.  

The Act called for any confederate who did not surrender within 60 days would have their slaves freed. There was no action stated for what to DO with the freed slaves, however. The 1862 Act declared that all slaves taking refuge behind the Union lines would be freed. 

The Act did provide a provision for voluntary colonization to a tropical country, but included a clause that required the freedmen to consent to the colonization, a clause that was passed after much controversy in Congress. 

The “emancipation gesture” applied only to rebelling states and any slave owner who could prove loyalty to the Union would get their slaves back.

June 18: Slave Owner Sues for Property

On this date in History ... June 18, 1825: 

Samuel Todd of Kentucky sued William Bulla and Bulla's father-in-law, Andrew Hoover,  both from Wayne County, Indiana, for $500.00 each for loss of property. Todd accused the men of helping his slave Peter escape. 

Peter fled Kentucky in August of 1821 and came to Indiana. He was found in 1825 just north of Richmond, a town on the Indiana/Ohio state line, and had changed his name to George Stellow. While the slave hunter went to the Justice of the Peace, asking him to approve Peter’s removal back to Kentucky, a group of people broke Peter out of jail with “bodily force and violence”.  

With Peter was gone, Todd had no other recourse and he sued Bulla and Hoover, who he believed to be responsible for the loss of property. The judge ordered both men to pay the plaintiff to recover his own debt and costs, a total of $1,500.00.  The lawsuit was handled in federal court because of "Diversity of Citizenship", that is when a person from one state sued a person in another state, the issues was moved to a federal court so that one's own state wouldn't have a biased ruling.

While the information does not specify exactly where "north of Richmond" might be, we might speculate that it could be a tiny town of Newport (today named "Fountain City"), Indiana.  In 1826, Levi Coffin and his wife Catherine moved to Newport and built their home and business.  Coffin would eventually become known as the Grand Master Conductor of the Underground Railroad.  For Peter to live a number of years in this Quaker, abolitionist area is not surprising.

However, William Hoover is reported to have lived near the "middle fork" of the Whitewater RIver less than two miles north of Richmond.  Today, Richmond's water is supplied by the Middlefork Reservoir.

Source for this article: http://www.in.gov

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March 4: Robert Smalls

On this date in History .... 1875:

Robert Smalls joins the House of Representatives from South Carolina’s 5^th District. A former slave, he was the last Republican to represent the district until 2010.

 

“As a politician, Smalls authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States, and founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. He is notable as the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until 2010.”

The first ten years of his life were relatively easy.  It is rumored that his master, Henry McKee, was his father. Smalls was taken around town by McKee and he was permitted to play with other children, black and white.  This bothered his slave-mother who made sure he saw and understood the horrors of the life of slavery.  She made him sleep on the earthen floor, not on a cot. She made him work in the fields, pick cotton, and wear tattered clothes like other slaves. She even took him to watch the activities at the whipping post so he could truly understand what it was like to be a slave.

As a 12-year old slave, his master sent him to Charleston to be hired out on ships where he gained a high level of knowledge about ships and the Charleston harbor.  While on the USS Planter, he planned and executed a daring escape, disguising himself as the ship’s captain and even stopping to pick up his family. He used the correct Confederate signals to get past the Confederate ships.  He then raised a white sheet as a flag and headed straight for the Union fleet.  He turned the ship and its contents, which included a copy of the Confederate code book and locations of mines in the harbor, over to the Union Army.

Congress passed a bill, signed by Lincoln, enabling Smalls and his other “Negro crew members” to receive the prize money for turning over the Confederate ship (about $1500).  He met Lincoln himself just a couple of weeks later.  Because of the debate on allowing African Americans to join the military, Smalls served in the Union Army as a civilian.

"In December 1863, Smalls became the first black captain of a vessel in the service of the United States. On December 1, 1863, the Planter had been caught in a crossfire between Union and Confederate forces. The ship's commander, Captain Nickerson, decided to surrender. Smalls refused, fearing that the black crewmen would not be treated as prisoners of war and might be summarily killed. Taking command, Smalls piloted the ship out of range of the Confederate guns. For his bravery, Smalls was named to replace Nickerson as the Planter's captain. Smalls returned with the Planter to Charleston harbor in April 1865 for the ceremonial raising of the American flag upon Ft. Sumter."  (Quote Source: Wikipedia)


After the war, he returned to the South and purchased his former master’s house.  His mother lived with him for the rest of her life and he even permitted his previous master’s wife to live with them in the house prior to  her death.  The home as been designated as a National Historic Landmark.

December 6: 13th Amendment

On this date in History.... 1865:

The 13^th Amendment is ratified to the U.S. Constitution, officially ending slavery in the United States. It came eight months after the war and is tagged as the greatest change to come out of the Civil War. The Senate passed the amendment in April 1864. 

 

Republicans wanted to ban slavery entirely but Democrats wanted to restore the states’ rights to decide, keeping alive the possibility that slavery could still exist.  A Republican victory in the upcoming election would almost guarantee the passage.  Lincoln’s overwhelming victory pushed the amendment forward and the House passed it in January 1865.  It was sent to the states for ratification and when Georgia ratified it on Dec 6, slavery was officially abolished.

 

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