Author. She was born a slave in the pre-American Civil War era, and later wrote about her experiences of working as a seamstress to purchase her and her son George's freedom from slavery at the cost of $1,200. According to her accounts, her biological parents were Agnes Hobbs, a slave, and Colonel Armistead Burwell, the owner of Agnes. Unlike most slaves Agnes Hobbs could read and write. While in North Carolina working for Burwell's brother, she was raped several times, resulting in her son's birth in 1839. Burwell's daughter, Anne, became the wife of attorney Hugh A. Garland. After returning to Armistead Burwell's household from North Carolina, she was among the slaves, who were inherited by Garland in Burwell's will. She traveled west to St. Louis, Missouri with the Garland family. In St. Louis she married James Keckly, who was part of her life for a short time. On November 13, 1855, the widowed Anne Garland signed her emancipation papers after receiving $1,200. After obtaining her freedom, she made dresses for many prominent women in Washington, D.C., including First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. While working in the White House, she made more than a dozen beautiful gowns, becoming the First Lady's confidante. At the beginning of the American Civil War, her son, George, enlisted in the Union Army and was killed on August 10, 1861 at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri. In August of 1862 with solicited funds, she founded the Contraband Relief Association, which provided a camp with food and clothing for the former enslaved refugees from the South. In September of 1866 after the war and the assassination of President Lincoln, the former First Lady planned a private sale in New York City of the gowns made by Keckley to allay the Lincoln family's debts. The private sale failed, thus turned public with the newspapers being critical of the event. This negative publicity put a strain on their relationship. In 1868 she wrote a book entitled "Behind the Scenes: or Thirty Years as a Slave and Four Years in the White House" about her life and her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln, which received criticism in print, claiming she violated her employer's trust, stepping over the line of class and race. This book is still in print in the 21st century. After the publication of the book, she lost many prominent clients. At that point, she turned with much success to teaching former slaves how to become a seamstress. In 1892, she accepted a position of Department Head of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts at Wilberforce University, a private university for Black students in Ohio. After suffering from a stroke, she returned to Washington D.C., dying at age 89.