![]() ![]() When George’s owner decided to move West, George was forced to leave he only had two hours to say goodbye to his family. ![]() However, the family’s unification was short lived. At some point, George was permitted live with his wife and daughter on the Burwell plantation. Unlike many enslaved people at the time, Keckley was allowed to learn to read and write. As a form of resistance to enslavement, Aggy gave Keckley George’s last name.Īs early as age four, Keckley assisted her mother with chores in the Burwell household including cleaning, sewing, and watching over the Burwell’s young children (Keckley’s half-siblings). Keckley, likewise, regarded George as her father. George was devoted to Keckley and regarded her as his daughter. Aggy’s husband, George Pleasant Hobbs, was an enslaved man on a nearby plantation. The Burwells never recognized Keckley’s parentage and frequently beat her as a child. Burwell and Hobbs’s relationship was non-consensual. Burwell was also Keckley’s biological father, and it is likely Col. Her mother, Agnes (Aggy) Hobbs, was an enslaved woman on Colonel Armistead Burwell’s plantation. ![]() As an African American businesswoman and philanthropist, Keckley defied stereotypes and redefined what an African American woman could accomplish in the Nineteenth Century.Įlizabeth Hobbs Keckley (also spelled Keckly) was born in February 1818 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. Born into slavery, Elizabeth Keckley’s story is one of perseverance and ingenuity in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. ![]()
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