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.
