Start of Research

Elizabeth Keckley
DOB: ??/??/1818 or 1819
BirthPlace: Hillsborough, NC
Accomplishments: 1) Started a girls school for sewing and etiquette
                            2) Worked for Mrs. Lincoln as a seamstress
                            3) President and co founder of Black Contraband Relief Association


Improved Thesis:
 Elizabeth Keckley, the author of In Thirty Years a slave Four years in the White House, writes about the many obstacles that she has lived with both inside and out the home of President Lincoln. As an African American woman, the publication of this story was an achievement for her. In being a mulatto, the story she encounters many obstacles that affect her progression towards freedom as a mulatto woman, like sexual and racial oppression that replicate as thematic elements in her life. (I took some of the ideas you all gave me in class and I made changes to my thesis and made it more straightforward and understanding. )



     
    EDUCATION: Lizzie, as she was referred to, had no formal education. She received her outstanding skills as a seamstress from her mother, who not only sewed for the Colonel's family, but made extra money for the Colonel by sewing for his friends and acquaintances. Lizzie's skills as a seamstress eventually helped earn her freedom and that of her son.
   
     FAMILY BACKGROUND: Lizzie's parents were George and Agnes Hobbs. Her father had a different master from her and her mother, and lived 100 miles from Lizzie. Lizzie's father was allowed to visit only at Easter and Christmas. After age 7 or 8 Lizzie never saw her father again, as his master moved away, taking George with him. Lizzie was with her mother most of the time until her teenage years; then she was given to the Colonel's son and his bride as a wedding gift. Lizzie's skills as a seamstress were taught to her by her mother during her childhood.
   
     Lizzie's only child, George, was named after her father. George's father was a friend and neighbor of the Colonel's son. George was born through an unwanted and forced relationship. Lizzie married James Keckley in 1852 and within a few years found out he wasn't free and was an alcoholic. Lizzie's master had promised she could buy freedom for herself and her son after he died; but she did not have the money when he passed away. 
    Thanks to the generosity of one of her patrons, she was loaned the $1200 she needed for their freedom. In 1892, Keckley left Washington for Wilberforce University in Ohio, where she taught in the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts. In 1898, she returned to Washington to live in the Home for Destitute Women and Children, a modest boardinghouse. She died in 1907 at the age of 88, an historic seamstress and an amazing woman.


Thirty Years a slave; Four Years in the White House
The story relates to that of the many pieces we have read in class; Iola Leroy, Clotel, and Incidents of a Slave Girl just to name a few. The crisis moments in the story are that of the brutal beatings (whippings) she received while in the plantation of Alexander Kirkland. The punishments for her actions were harsh especially for a women. Along with the harsh beatings she received, Me Kirkland also committed sexual activities that were unwonted. These sexual assaults although common between owner and slave, were damaging to the women of this time as it remains today. Progressing Keckley gives birth to the son of Kirkland by the name of George, who like that of Iola Leroy is a mulatto since having black slave blood within him.
The life of Keckley in the story was exactly like that in real life. This was put out after the failed attempt to raise $1,200 for the freedom of her son. She wrote this story and released it to the general public, which caused a stir for the bad. The public now knew of what occurred inside the house of Lincoln and his first lady.


Some of the reoccurring themes in this story are:
Sexual oppression-
Inequality of race & sex
žSearch of freedom
žIrony of President Lincoln
žConnection between life and story

Story web of Thirty Years a Slave

žWhite= Helped  Red= Identity Green= Achievements  Blue= Goal

Quotes: 
1) "Stop your nonsense . . . Your husband is not the only slave that has been sold from his family.

There are plenty more men about here, and if you want a husband so badly, stop your crying and go and find 

another“ pg 24-25

*Mrs. Burwell thoughts on Keckley*


2) "never liked to see one of his slaves wear a sorrowful face, and those who offended in this particular way were 
always punished. Alas! the sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart“ pg 29


*Keckley thoughts on Colonel Burwell*


3) "The best ladies in St. Louis were my patrons . . . With my needle I kept bread in the mouths of seventeen 
persons for two years and five months" pg 45


*Keckley on herself*