Elizabeth Keckley's image on the left is a portrait of her, an engraving from Elizabeth Keckley's autobiography.
Image: left is a portrait of her, an engraving from Elizabeth Keckley's autobiography.
Right side is:
The Keckly Quilt/ The White House Historical Assoc.
This mosaic quilt is attributed to Elizabeth Keckly and was made between 1862 – 1880.
This quilt style was popular during the Civil War period. It’s composed of scrap silks that have been embroidered and appliqued, some possibly left-over scraps from Mrs. Lincoln’s dresses.
Gift of Ross Trump in memory of his mother, Helen Watts Trump, KSUM 1994.79.1; Photo courtesy of the Kent State University Museum, photography by JoAnn Arnett.
You can visit the White House Historical virtual gallery to see more photos of Elizabeth Keckley.
Glamour and Innovation: Elizabeth Keckly : https://www.whitehousehistory.org/.../elizabeth-keckly...
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NOTE: Here's some information about the autobiography-slave narrative that Elizabeth Keckley wrote and published.
-End Note-
Behind the Scenes: or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House-Autobiography
By Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley
The Autobiography of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (sometimes spelled Keckly); was born in February 1818 – died in May 1907 at age 89, 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. Keckley had moved to Washington in 1860 after buying her freedom and that of her son in St. Louis.
She created an independent business in the capital based on clients who were the wives of the government elite. Among them were Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis; and Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee.
After the American Civil War, Keckley wrote and published an autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868).
It was both a slave narrative and a portrait of the First Family, especially Mary Todd Lincoln, and is considered controversial for breaking privacy about them. It was also her claim as a businesswoman to be part of the new mixed-race, middle-class that was visible among the leadership of the black community.
Keckley's relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln, the President's wife, was notable for its personal quality and intimacy, as well as its endurance over time
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 Burwells had twelve children and ran an academy for girls. She writes about the horrid mistreatment and violence against her by Rev. and Mrs. Burwell, and the sexual harassment and eventual rapes by one of the towns white citizens. He did these things and the Burwells knew about it and did not stop him.
After Keckley gave birth to a son, she and her baby were sent to live with Burwells sister.
Born into slavery, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley endured untold hardships at the hands of her master and half-brother Robert Burwell in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
She eventually purchased freedom for herself and that of her son in the 1850s and is now remembered as an entrepreneur, fashion designer, abolitionist, educator, writer, and community activist.
Being enslaved she learned to be self-reliant and was educated. Keckley used her dressmaking skills to set up a successful business in the pre-Civil War Washington D.C., where she became the modiste of choice for many of the most fashionable women in the nation s capital.
Her talents and enterprising nature eventually led her to become seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln and confidante to both Mary and Abraham Lincoln.
After the assassination of President Lincoln, Keckley's friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln eventually shifted into one of caretaker, as the former first lady s financial troubles mounted and her mental health declined.
In an effort to buoy their financial fortunes and to balance Lincoln s battered public image, Keckley wrote Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the While House.
It is considered both a slave narrative and, in the words of historian Williams Andrews, the first major text to represent the interests and aims of this nascent African American leadership class the postwar era.