Beating of Elizabeth Keckley, circa 1822-1823

Title: Beating of Elizabeth Keckley, circa 1822-1823
Description: Around 1823 at four years old, while living on the campus of Hampden-Sydney College in the household of Col. Armistead Burwell, Elizabeth Keckley was tasked with taking care of the infant Elizabeth Burwell. Keckley rocked the cradle “most industriously” and the baby fell out. Keckley seized a fire-shovel to scoop up the baby, her mistress Mrs. Burwell told her to leave the child alone and “then ordered that I be taken out and lashed for my carelessness. The blows were not administered with a light hand, I assure you, and doubtless the severity of the lashing has made me remember it so well.”
Event Type: See all items with this value Violence: Physical assault
Action Status: See all items with this value Completed
Date: 1822 – 1823
Date Certainty: Approximate
Location: See all items with this value Hampden-Sydney College
Source: See all items with this value Elizabeth Keckley. Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and four years in the White House. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. p. 19-21
Primary Participant: Elizabeth Keckley
Freedom Status: See all items with this value Enslaved
Enslaver: See all items with this value Armistead Burwell
Age: 4
Author: Elizabeth Keckley
Additional Participant: See all items with this value Mary Cole Burwell
Organization: See all items with this value Hampden-Sydney College

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Title	Class
Hampden-Sydney College	Agent