Mary Todd Lincoln Was Close Friends With a Formerly Enslaved Woman Turned Dressmaker Named Elizabeth Keckley Who Was Born A House Slave As A Result Of Her Father, Colonel Armistad Burwell, Raping A Slave Named Agnes. After Decades Of Abuse And Bloody Beatings, Elizabeth Keckley Bought Her Freedom. Keckley Lived In What Is Now Called "The Burwell School," Located Less Than Half A Mile From My Home In Hillsborough, North Carolina

 Mary Todd Lincoln Was Close Friends With Elizabeth Keckley, a Formerly Enslaved Woman Turned Dressmaker

Credit: Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Born into slavery in Virginia, Elizabeth Keckley (also spelled Keckly) used her sewing talents to become a dressmaker to some of the most powerful women in the nation’s capital, including the incoming First Lady in 1861. Their relationship quickly progressed from professional to personal, with one observer describing the seamstress as "the only person in Washington who could get along with Mrs. Lincoln." The widow pleaded with Keckley to move with her to Chicago after leaving the White House, and she later enlisted her confidant's help in an ill-fated attempt to sell off personal possessions. However, their relationship came to an end after Keckley revealed too many private details in her 1868 memoir, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.     

                  

Alan: Here is a freely accessible link to an online edition of Elizabeth Keckley's autobiography.                                https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/keckley/keckley.html                        

And here is Elizabeth Keckley's Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley 

Purple velvet dress made by Elizabeth Keckley for Mary Lincoln, ca. 1861–1862. Division of Political and Military History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution