As Mary Todd Lincoln prepared to move into the White House, she knew that despite her aristocratic background Washington society was expecting both she and her husband to be backwoods bumpkins.

 Vain and insecure, she was determined to show herself to be as stylish as any other lady in Washington. On the day after her husband’s inauguration, Mary was introduced to the woman who would help make that possible.

Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave in Dinwiddie County Virginia. Her mother was a seamstress and servant in the home of Lewis Burwell, who was Elizabeth’s father. At age 18 Elizabeth was living in Hillsborough North Carolina, where she was working for Robert Burwell, son of Lewis Burwell (and therefore Elizabeth’s half-brother). While in Hillsborough, Robert loaned or rented her to a man named Kirkland, who forced himself upon her. Elizabeth became pregnant and bore a son she named George Kirkland.

In 1847, when Elizabeth was 29 years old, she moved to St. Louis with one of the Burwell children. By then Elizabeth was a talented dressmaker and soon her dresses were highly sought after by wealthy St. Louis society women. As Elizabeth’s reputation grew, so did the amount she could charge for her services. She repeatedly requested that her owner free her and her son, but he refused to do so. Finally, due to Elizabeth’s persistence, he agreed that Elizabeth could buy their freedom for $1,200. Of course, Elizabeth didn’t have any money, but when her wealthy patrons learned of her situation, they loaned her the money and she bought their freedom.

Elizabeth continued to work in St. Louis until she had repaid the loan. In 1860 she enrolled George in Wilberforce University and she moved to Washington D.C. There Elizabeth became a prominent and successful businesswoman, with over 20 employees. The most sought-after dressmaker in the city, Elizabeth’s clients included the wives of Senator Jefferson Davis and Colonel Robert E. Lee. And when the Lincolns arrived in Washington, the wife of an army officer arranged an introduction to Mrs. Lincoln. Soon, Elizabeth Keckley was Mary Todd Lincoln’s personal modiste, confidant, and friend.

Much to her husband’s distress, Mary Lincoln was an incorrigible shopaholic and her desire for new and fashionable dresses kept Elizabeth busy. Mary soon drew Elizabeth into the family’s inner circle. They grew especially closer after 12-year-old Willie Lincoln died of typhoid fever. Mary Lincoln’s grief resonated with Elizabeth. Shortly after the Civil War broke out, her son George had dropped out of college, passed for white, and joined the Union army. He was killed in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in August 1861.

In 1868 Elizabeth published an autobiography titled Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Revealing intimate details of the Lincoln’s home life (such as Mary’s confession that she needed her husband to be re-elected so that he would have enough money to pay her shopping debts), the book shocked society women, who considered it a breach of confidence and a violation of the trust expected of a modiste. The book ruptured the relationship between Elizabeth and Mary Lincoln (who was already upset that Elizabeth had donated to Wilberforce University the clothes that Mary was wearing the night of her husband’s assassination), and Elizabeth’s reputation never recovered.

Elizabeth worked for a time as a sewing instructor at Wilberforce University, but in her old age her only income was the meager survivor’s benefit she received on account of George’s death. In 1907, at age 89, she died in Washington, D.C., while living in National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children, where she had been a resident since the 1890’s.

Although scandalous at the time, and damaging to her reputation during her lifetime, Elizabeth’s autobiography gave historians a glimpse not only into the Lincoln White House, but also a rare account of a remarkable woman who rose from slavery to become a successful and affluent businesswoman and a personal friend of the First Lady.