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.”
