JOHN RUSSWURM

John Russwurm was an African American abolitionist and Liberian government official. He arrived in New York from Africa where he founded the first black newspaper in America, Freedom’s Journal. The basic theme of the newspaper was to vocalize demands to end slavery in the South and gain equal rights in the North. In 1829, despaired over the hopelessness for blacks in America, he shocked the black community by resigning from the paper to take a post in Liberia. This stance was a forerunner to Pan-Africanism. As the first black governor of the Maryland section of Liberia, he established positive relations with neighboring nations, encouraged arrival of African Americans, and worked diplomatically with whites. His administration supported and enhanced agriculture and trade. John Russwurm died there in 1851.

ELIZABETH KECKLEY

Elizabeth Keckley she was a dressmakerand personal maid to President Abraham Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd. In 1862, Keckley established the Contraband Relief Organization, an organization of black women who assisted former slaves seeking refuge in Washington D.C. In addition to moral support, Mary Todd Lincoln donated $200 to the organization; donations were also received from Frederick Douglass and Wendell Phillips. When President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, Keckley consoled Todd. In 1867, in order to raise money for the First Lady, Keckley helped her to auction off her clothing in New York, which later led to scandal. In another attempt to generate funds for Todd as well as her, Keckley published her diaries in 1868. Keckley recognized that this publication would invite criticism. However, she did not anticipate that the betrayal of her knowledge of the private lives and personal opinions of the Lincolns would elicit condemnation from Mary Todd Lincoln and great disapproval from the African American community. She died in 1907.