AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was born a slave in Natchez, then capital of the Territory of Mississippi, at an undetermined date before 1817. Some time afterwards, however, her mistress moved to Philadelphia and emancipated all her slaves, sending most of them (including young Elizabeth’s family) to the Liberia colony of the American Emancipation Society in 1831. But the youngest girl Elizabeth (named after her mistress) remained in Philadelphia.
Greenfield was sent to Clarkson Quaker school and, showing a talent for music, was also provided training in that area. In 1836 she returned to to care for Mrs. Greenfield, and was paid a wage for her services. When the mistress died in 1845, Elizabeth moved to Buffalo NY and established herself as a music teacher. With a vocal range encompassing tenor to soprano, her singing began to attract notice.   In 1851 she debuted as a singer with a concert in Buffalo, and (promoted by Col. J.H. Wood) toured the East Coast and Midwest for the next two years.
In all of these concerts, Wood allowed only whites in the audience; he was also accused of embezzling her concert earnings and keeping her isolated in mean conditions. Newspapers gave her the moniker "the Black Swan," but also circulated rumors she was a white woman in blackface. In 1853, she made her appearance in front of 4,000 at New York’s Metropolitan Hall; afterwards she apologized for keeping her "own people" from the concert and from that point arranged benefit concerts for "colored" causes.
Later that year, Harriet Beecher Stowe sponsored a concert series for Greenfield in London; it was so successful that she also performed by the command of Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace in 1854. Her patrons included the Duchesses of Sutherland, Argyle, and Norfolk. Her material included works by Stephen Foster as well as Mozart, Handel, and Rossini . She also studied under George Smart, the Chapel Royal organist.
Returning to Philadelphia, she established a studio to train voice students - especially young blacks. She became a member of the Shiloh Baptist Church. She also toured American cities. By the 1860s, her studio had trained enough colored students for her to form an opera troupe, which she directed. During the Civil War she gave concerts to benefit black Union soldiers.
Greenfield died in 1876.
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