Elizabeth Keckley

Gertrude Jekyll could turn her hand to anything; deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts movement, she mastered dozens of specialties in her quest to explore the relationship between human lives and their environments. As her eyesight failed, she turned to large scale endeavors, ...  Show more

In this revisit from 2019, we wonder: was Annie Londonderry a flim-flam artist or a true pioneer? Maybe both? Her trip around the world on a bicycle may have been controversial - but she was always up for both an adventure and a tall tale. For information and to register for the ...  Show more

This week we explore the incredible story of Elizabeth Keckly, an enslaved woman who bought her freedom and went on to become the premiere dressmaker in Washington D.C. during the Civil War era. Her best friend and client? Mary Todd Lincoln.  Learn more about your ad-choices a ...  Show more

This 2011 episode from previous hosts Sarah and Deblina covers the life of Mary-Elizabeth Bowser, who was released from enslavement by Elizabeth Van Lew, then went on to become an agent in Van Lew's "Richmond Ring" of Civil War spies.

We're revisiting this 2013 topic in honor of Juneteenth. Most people are familiar with Tubman's involvement with the Underground Railroad, but she was also a spy for the Union during the Civil War, among many other things. Untangling the truth from the myth is the trickiest part ...  Show more

Born into slavery during the early 1800s in Maryland, she survived a tragic, violent childhood before ultimately escaping and gaining her own freedom. Unsatisfied, Harriet Tubman embarked on a mission of liberation, freeing slaves and shepherding them to the North via the Undergr ...  Show more