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.
Career
In about 1851, Greenfield began to sing at private parties, debuting at the Buffalo Musical Association under the patronage of Electa and Herman B. Potter. After her initial success in Buffalo and Rochester, she may have been briefly managed by two African American men from Philadelphia, but in 1851, she took on agent Colonel J. H. Wood, a P. T. Barnum-style promoter and supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, who would not allow Black patrons into her concerts. According to an 1853 exposé by Martin Delany, Wood took advantage of Greenfield professionally, handling her money and keeping her in a state of near slavery and isolation.
Greenfield toured up and down the East Coast and in the Midwest from 1851 to 1853. In 1852, she toured in Canada, where she was likely the first Black woman to sing art music professionally. She was held up by abolitionists as an example of the success that former slaves might realize. However, she was also followed by racist and pro-slavery news coverage. Some news outlets accused of her being a minstrel performer in blackface, which led to incidents of laughter and comic portrayal at her serious performances. Minstrel acts went on to use her as inspiration, with minstrel "Black Swan"s being staged through the 1870s. Following the tour, Greenfield lived briefly with Hiram E. Howard's family in Buffalo, helping raise their son who was later nicknamed "Greenfield" in her honor (particularly unique for a white child).
In 1853, Greenfield debuted at Metropolitan Hall in New York City, which held an audience of 4,000 white patrons only. Before the concert, there were rumors that there would be white supremacist riots and a threat of arson. Following this concert, Greenfield was greatly criticized not realizing her social importance. After the concert, Greenfield apologized to her own people for their exclusion from the performance and gave a concert to benefit the Home of Aged Colored Persons and the Colored Orphan Asylum.