Keckley, Elizabeth, 1818-1907

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was a former slave who became a seamstress, civil activist, and author in Washington, D.C. Keckley was a prominent figure in D.C.’s free black community. Keckley helped to found and served as president of the Contraband Relief Association, which later became the Ladies’ Freedmen and Soldier’s Relief Association.

Elizabeth Hobbs was born into slavery on the Col. Armistead Burwell farm in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1818. She later purchased her freedom in 1855, in St. Louis. In 1860, Keckley relocated to Washington, D.C., where she built a successful dressmaking career and eventually employed 20 seamstresses. Her clients included Mary Lincoln, which she wrote about in 'Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House' (1868). Her memoir included details about the Lincolns and, after its publication, she lost a number of dressmaking clients. In the 1890s, she briefly held a teaching position at Wilberforce University. In the late 1890s, she returned to Washington, where she lived in the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children, which she helped found.