Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckley was born into slavery in Virginia, moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she earned enough money to free herself and her son, and then moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a seamstress and dressmaker for prominent Washington women, including Mary Todd Lincoln. Sadly, she spent her final years in the Home for Destitute Women and Children, which she had helped to establish.

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