Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley 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.

Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave in February 1818 in Dinwiddie County Court House, Dinwiddie, Virginia, just south of Petersburg. Her mother Agnes was a house slave owned by Armistead and Mary Burwell. Aggy was a privileged slave, as she had learned to read and write although this was illegal for slaves. Agnes did not tell Keckley her fathers true identity until on her own deathbed, although it was obvious by Elizabeths appearance that he was white. Elizabeths biological father, revealed to her late in life, was Agnes master Armistead Burwell, a planter and colonel in the War of 1812.

Source: Wikipedia