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dimity-lawn · 3 months

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In honor of Juneteenth, this post is dedicated to Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907), activist and seamstress, an extraordinary figure who worked towards abolition and should be more well known.

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hobbs was born in 1818, an illegitimate daughter of Agnes “Aggy” Hobbs, who taught her dressmaking skills, and Colonel Armistead Burwell, the man who held them as his slaves.

At the age of 14, she was separated from her mother when the Burwells sent her to work for their son, Reverend Robert Burwell, and his wife, Margaret. They and a neighbor beat her without reason, and eventually sent her to work for store owner Alexander McKenzie Kirkland, who would repeatedly assault her over the course of the next few years. As a result of one of Kirkland’s assaults, in 1839 she gave birth to a son, who she named George, after her assumed father who had been taken away in her childhood.

After the death of Armistead Burwell, she and her son were inherited by Hugh A. Garland, the husband of her white half sister, Ann, and returned to the family that owned them. In 1847, the Garlands took Agnes, Elizabeth, and George Hobbs with them when they moved to St. Louis, where Hugh Garland continued to practice law (including serving as John Sanford’s defense attorney. John Sanford was the man who held Dred Scott as a slave). During this time, she became an accomplished seamstress, and she Garlands became increasingly dependent on her as a major source of income.

In 1850, she met and developed a relationship with James Keckley, a free African American man, who she refused to marry until she and her son were free as well. Hugh Garland initially refused to free her and her son, but eventually agreed to do so for the price of $1,200. With an end to her and her son’s slavery in sight, in 1852 she agreed to marry James Keckley.

Over the next three years, her attempts at saving the required sum were repeatedly foiled by the Garlands, and eventually she needed to seek help from another wealthy family in St. Louis who were more sympathetic to her plight, and gave her a loan, thus allowing her to finally purchase freedom for herself and her son in 1855. The $1,200 dollars she spent would be worth around $43,320 today.

By 1860 she was able to repay the family who had given her a loan, and she separated from her husband due to his alcohol abuse, which she claimed turned him into “a burden instead of helpmate”. She then moved to Washington D.C., and began to establish herself as a prominent dressmaker for the elite women in the area, especially the wives of politicians.

By 1861, her reputation was such that she was recommended to soon-to-be First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary received the first dress on the morning of her husband’s inauguration. Upon seeing Mary in the dress, Abraham Lincoln (who did not find his wife attractive) said "You look charming in that dress. Mrs. Keckly has met with great success”. Elizabeth would serve as Mary’s personal dressmaker for the next four years, and the two women grew closer after they both lost a son.

Along with her work as a seamstress, Elizabeth also helped others seeking freedom in Washington D.C.. In doing so, she founded the Contraband Relief Association, which helped the many groups of people who had escaped their enslavers, and met many famous abolitionists, including Fredrick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, including later arranging a 1864 meeting between Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln.

After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Elizabeth was an important source of comfort to Mary. However, in 1867, an unfortunate misunderstanding caused a rift in the friendship between the two women, and they fell out entirely in 1868, damaging Elizabeth’s and resulting in the loss of many clients. Despite this, she continued to work as a dressmaker until 1892, when she became the head of a department dedicated to the “Sewing and Domestic Science Arts” at a university in Ohio. Unfortunately, a year later she was forced to resign after suffering from a stroke, and spent the rest of her days at a foundation that helped destitute African American women and children which she had helped to found years earlier.

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leasaads · 1 year

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— BASICS

Name: Lea Saad Age / D.O.B.: 11 November 1988 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: CIS Female, She/her, Bisexual Hometown: Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York Affiliation: Civilian, various political ties. Job position: Corporate attorney on Wall Street. Education: NYU; Fordham School of Law. Relationship status: Divorced. Children: N/A. Positive traits: Determined, persuasive, adaptable, resilient, passionate. Negative traits: Impatient, smug, bitter, lacks empathy, occasionally unethical.

— BIOGRAPHY

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lea is raised by immigrant parents fleeing civil strife in Lebanon. Though the Saad family carries deep scars, they are a tight-knit unit, comprised of Amir Saad, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Mount Sinai Heart (b. 1962–2019), Alessandra (b. 1966) and their two children, Lea and Jude (b. 1990).

A daddy's girl, Lea excels in academics and attends NYU before graduating fifth in her class at Fordham School of Law.

Works for several years in Boston, where she meets her husband, politico Dexter Ellis. They are married for four years before disagreements over whether or not to have children devour the marriage. Ends bitterly.

At the end of her marriage and with the sudden death of her father, Lea moves back to New York and begins working for the NY District Attorney's Office. Sets her sights to bigger and brighter things and eventually climbs the ropes of Kirkland & Dessoukey LLC, a major law firm headquartered on Wall Street, as a junior partner/corporate attorney.

More to come!

— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

Coming soon!

#wb.intro #hello!!!

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quick-news · 4 years

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Family seeks $15 million from prominent Nashville couple following son’s drowning death in Dickson County

A prominent Nashville couple is being sued for wrongful death by the family of a Montgomery Bell Academy graduate who drowned at a Dickson County lake house.

19-year-old William Caver was found in the lake behind the Timber Ridge Road property on August 2, 2019, the morning after a party involving alcohol was held.

The medical examiner determined his death was an accidental drowning.

The teen’s father, Giles Caver, filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Circuit Court Friday against several people including Forrest and Stephanie Conner, claiming they were negligent in allowing underage drinking to take place at the party.

The Conners were indicted by a Dickson County Grand Jury in January for charges related to providing alcohol and allowing underage drinking on the property.

The Dickson County farm where the party was held is registered to Timber Ridge, LLC. Records show the Nashville-based business is owned by Forrest Conner.

The lawsuit, which seeks at least $15,000,000 dollars in damages also names several other defendants including William Lyell, Mary McGee Lyell, Miles Kirkland, William Cannon King, Catherine King and Timber Ridge, LLC.

According to the lawsuit, those attending the party were required to sign a liability waiver which stated in part, ‘Releasor shall waive all claims… arising out of any occurrence of all personal injury, disability, death, property damage, losses as a result of releasor’s participation in any activities or presence upon the property.’

The court document included the following statement, “Prior to attending the party, Defendants required Decedent to sign a document that purported to relieve them of all liability arising out of their intentional and/or illegal conduct.”

The suit also alleges that party attendees were given a list of house rules which prohibited party-goers from driving home until the following morning, prohibited sexual activities on the property, prohibited illegal use of drugs, but did not appear to prohibit underage consumption of alcohol.

In a statement to News 2 in January, Stephen G. Young, the attorney for Forrest Conner, said, “In response to the statement that Mr. Conner provided alcohol that evening, an important fact is that Mr. Conner did not provide alcohol that evening to the group, nor did he provide alcohol of any type to anyone under the age of 21 who attended, outside of his immediate family.”

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newsliverecord · 4 years