Contraband rapid city1/9/2024 ![]() We held a mass meeting at the Colored Baptist Church, Rev. Wendell Phillips, and other Boston philanthropists, who gave me all the assistance in their power. Lincoln, who wished to visit her son Robert, attending college in that city. I circulated among the colored people, and got them thoroughly interested in the subject, when I was called to Boston by Mrs. Lincoln of my project and she immediately headed my list with a subscription of $200. Lincoln had secured accommodations for me. Armed with credentials, I took the train for New York, and went to the Metropolitan, where Mrs. I was glad of the opportunity to do so, for I thought that in New York I would be able to do something in the interests of our society. Lincoln left Washington for New York, and requested me to follow her in a few days, and join her at the Metropolitan Hotel. The idea proved popular, and in two weeks “the Contraband Relief Association” was organized, with forty working members. The thought was ever present with me, and the next Sunday I made a suggestion in the colored church, that a society of colored people be formed to labor for the benefit of the unfortunate freedmen. If the white people can give festivals to raise funds for the relief of suffering soldiers, why should not the well-to-do colored people go to work to do something for the benefit of the suffering blacks? I could not rest. He told us that it was a festival given for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers in the city. We approached the sentinel on duty at the gate, and asked what was going on. The yard was brilliantly lighted, ladies and gentlemen were moving about, and the band was playing some of its sweetest airs. We quickened our steps, and discovered that it came from the house of Mrs. We wondered what it could mean, and curiosity prompted us to find out its meaning. One fair summer evening I was walking the streets of Washington, accompanied by a friend, when a band of music was heard in the distance. Reason should have prompted kinder thoughts. Poor dusky children of slavery, men and women of my own race-the transition from slavery to freedom was too sudden for you! The bright dreams were too rudely dispelled you were not prepared for the new life that opened before you, and the great masses of the North learned to look upon your helplessness with indifference-learned to speak of you as an idle, dependent race. Instead of flowery paths, days of perpetual sunshine, and bowers hanging with golden fruit, the road was rugged and full of thorns, the sunshine was eclipsed by shadows, and the mute appeals for help too often were answered by cold neglect. ![]() For one kind word spoken, two harsh ones were uttered there was something repelling in the atmosphere, and the bright joyous dreams of freedom to the slave faded-were sadly altered, in the presence of that stern, practical mother, reality. Many good friends reached forth kind hands, but the North is not warm and impulsive. Fresh from the bonds of slavery, fresh from the benighted regions of the plantation, they came to the Capital looking for liberty, and many of them not knowing it when they found it. They came with a great hope in their hearts, and with all their worldly goods on their backs. In the summer of 1862, freedmen began to flock into Washington from Maryland and Virginia. Her dressmaking business declined, and she died in poverty in 1907 at the Home for Destitute Women and Children in Washington, one of the institutions she had helped to found. The book included revelations about Mary Lincoln’s private life, and, feeling betrayed, the former First Lady shunned Keckley. Keckley’s memoir Behind the Scenes was published in 1868. Yet, as her rather condescending remarks make clear, Keckley felt superior to the people she helped. The Contraband Relief Association, which Keckley founded and headed, gathered funds and clothing for the poor former slaves. Keckley sympathized with the former slaves, or “contraband,” as they were called, who fled to the relative safety of Washington during the Civil War. In 1862 she was living in Washington DC and working as a skilled dressmaker her principal client was Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the president. Former Slave Elizabeth Keckley and the “Contraband” of Washington DC, 1862.Įlizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in slavery in Virginia around 1818 and purchased her freedom in 1855.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |