1869

A highly skilled seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley bought freedom for her and her son and went on to build a profitable business which led to her close relationship with First-Lady Mary Lincoln, co-founding of the Contraband Relief Association, directing the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts at Wilberforce University, and organizing a dress reform exhibit for the University at the Chicago World's Fair. Keckley published her controversial autobiography in 1868.