Cooperative Living May 2018 - 7

HistoryMystery
The theme for this
Our February 2018 History Mystery subject
year's column is
" Famous People
Born in Virginia. " You
are invited to submit
your guess as to the
identity of the person
pictured in each issue
and submit it in
writing, along with
your name, address and
phone number, via mail
to History Mystery, c/o Cooperative Living, P.O.
Box 2340, Glen Allen, VA 23058-2340 or guess online
at www.co-opliving.com under " Contests. " The
deadline for this issue's entries is May 18, 2018.
Correct entries will be placed in a drawing and the
winner announced in the July 2018 issue.
The winner will receive a check for $25. n
 DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?
was Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907). Born into
slavery in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth endured
much cruelty during her early life. In 1847, the
family that she served moved to Missouri, where
she was able to purchase her freedom in 1852, and
her son's freedom in 1855. Moving to Washington,
D.C., in 1860, Keckley became a popular society
dressmaker after completing a gown for Robert E.
Lee's wife. By the time of Abraham Lincoln's 1861
inauguration, Mary Todd Lincoln had chosen
Keckley as her personal seamstress. She also
became the First Lady's confidante during the
Civil War, and founded a relief association to
provide food, shelter, clothing and emotional support to recently
freed slaves and/or sick and wounded soldiers. In 1868, she published
her autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and
Four Years in the White House. Many of her clients dropped away in
response to this controversial book. Later in life, Keckley joined the
faculty of Wilburforce University in Ohio and organized a dress exhibit
at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. She returned to the Washington,
D.C., area shortly before her death. Keckley's grave can be found at
National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland. Reader
Laura Janas of Zuni was our $25 winner. Congratulations, Laura!
returned to Boston. He had seen enough
to write several books, including Typee
and Omoo, before his masterpiece.
As for the book's first sentence,
" Call me Ishmael, " when Melville
wrote it, he had roamed all over the
globe. He might have referred to himself
as a wanderer, an Ishmael, and realized
what a great opening sentence it was.
- Brenda Seabrooke
Chesapeake
OUR GOVERNMENT IS
DESIGNED FOR COMPROMISE
This is in response to David Drachsler's
letter in the February issue.
He is correct on some level. It is
human nature that causes problems
and it is because of human nature our
founding fathers designed the
government as it is.
However, regarding the complaint of
having five presidents not elected by
popular vote: I, for one, am glad our
presidents are not elected by popular
vote. Our government is not designed
to be ruled by majorities or minorities.
It is designed for compromise.
George Washington warned, in his
final address, that we risk becoming a
dictatorship by party. I'm sure some
only blame one political party. In reality,
both are vying for that dictatorship.
The very definition of dictatorship by
party is believing only one party can
solve your problems.
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It is human nature not to
compromise, and that is the source of
today's problems. Ben Franklin was
asked what type of government had
formed. His reply: " a republic, if you can
keep it. "
Our founding fathers feared human
nature would destroy the nation they
worked so hard to create. It seems the
people of this nation, me and you,
majorities and minorities, Republicans
and Democrats, are well on the way
to succeeding.
- Jessica Moore
Jonesville
MORE ON OUR 'PERFECTIBLE'
FORM OF GOVERNMENT
I would like to take this opportunity
to respond to David Drachsler's letter
in the February issue of Cooperative
Living about our " perfectible " but not
perfect form of self-governance. Now
I am not arguing that Mr. Drachsler
did not make any valid points in his
letter, when in fact he did.
Our country was and is the first of
its kind to be formed where the people
govern themselves, so it is to be
May 2018 | Cooperative Living | 5
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Cooperative Living May 2018

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