Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in the White House

Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was an African-American seamstress, activist, and writer who lived in Washington, D.C. She was the personal dressmaker and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. She wrote an autobiography. Elizabeth also started the Contraband Relief Association in August 1862, later called the Ladies’ Freedmen and Soldiers’ Relief Association, to help formerly enslaved people and the families of Black soldiers during the Civil War.