Elizabeth Greenfield

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1817 – March 31, 1876), dubbed "The Black Swan" (a play on Jenny Lind's sobriquet, "The Swedish Nightingale" and Catherine Hayes (soprano)'s "The Irish Swan"), was an American singer considered the best-known Black concert artist of her time. She was lauded by James M. Trotter for her "remarkably sweet tones and wide vocal compass". Early life Greenfield was born into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi sometime between 1808 and 1826. to Anna Greenfield and a man whose name may have been "Taylor." According to an 1854 article in The Tri-Weekly Commercial, "her mother was of Indian descent, her father an African." In the early 1820s, Greenfield's mistress, Elizabeth H. Greenfield, a former plantation owner, moved to Philadelphia after divorcing her second husband and emancipated her slaves. E.H. Greenfield worked with the American Emancipation Society to send 18 formerly enslaved residents of the Greenfield plantation, including Anna Greenfield and two of her daughters, to Liberia on August 2, 1831, aboard the brig Criterion. Greenfield remained in Philadelphia, becoming well acquainted with her upper-class white neighbors. She lived with E.H. Greenfield until she was about eight years old, then attending Clarkson School, a private, Quaker school, probably living with relatives. She studied music as a child, encouraged by E.H. Greenfield, although musical education was not generally provided by the Quakers with whom she associated. (While some sources state that E.H. Greenfield was herself a Quaker, others state only that she attended Quaker meetings "occasionally" and supported the Society of Friends financially.) She returned to live with E.H. Greenfield in 1836 to take care of her. This may have been a situation of indentured service, though E.H. Greenfield paid her wages, which was uncommon in these situations. After E.H. Greenfield's death in 1845, Greenfield was shut out of her inheritance. She established herself as a music teacher in Philadelphia before moving to Buffalo in 1851, where she had relatives and friends. According to one biographical account, she was discovered when compelled to sing on the boat ride to Buffalo.