Greenfield, Elizabeth Taylor

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Greenfield, Elizabeth Taylor

Greenfield, Elizabeth Taylor, pioneering black American singer; b. Natchez, Miss., c. 1819; d. Philadelphia, March 31, 1876. She was born a slave but was freed in childhood and taken to Philadelphia, where she received her education thanks to the sponsorship of a Quaker widow. She taught herself to play the piano, guitar, and harp, and accompanied herself as a singer. After giving concerts in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. (1851), she appeared in England (1853). She then sang in Mich. (1855), Wise. (1857), and Montreal (1863), and thereafter was active as a singer and teacher in Philadelphia.

Bibliography

A. LaBrew, The Black Swan: E.T. G., Songstress (Detroit, 1969).

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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