An autobiographical narrative, Behind the Scenes traces Elizabeth Keckley’s life from her enslavement in Virginia and North Carolina to her time as a seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House during Abraham Lincoln’s administration. It was a controversial book at the time of its release – an uncompromising work that transgressed Victorian boundaries between public and private life, and lines of race, gender, and society.
Keckley’s first 30 years were spent as a slave. The cruelties and injustices of her life are related clearly and succinctly. This enlightening memoir recounts:
- the harsh treatment she endured while enslaved;
- how she became a dressmaker to support her master and his family;
- how she was determined to purchase freedom for herself and her son;
- how her friends in St. Louis came to her aid;
- how she became Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker and close friend; and
- her perspectives and experiences from her inside view of Lincoln’s White House.
Keckley emerges as a calm and confident person who speaks of a very tumultuous period of American history.
Description
An autobiographical narrative, Behind the Scenes traces Elizabeth Keckley’s life from her enslavement in Virginia and North Carolina to her time as a seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House during Abraham Lincoln’s administration. It was a controversial book at the time of its release – an uncompromising work that transgressed Victorian boundaries between public and private life, and lines of race, gender, and society.
Keckley’s first 30 years were spent as a slave. The cruelties and injustices of her life are related clearly and succinctly. This enlightening memoir recounts:
- the harsh treatment she endured while enslaved;
- how she became a dressmaker to support her master and his family;
- how she was determined to purchase freedom for herself and her son;
- how her friends in St. Louis came to her aid;
- how she became Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker and close friend; and
- her perspectives and experiences from her inside view of Lincoln’s White House.
Keckley emerges as a calm and confident person who speaks of a very tumultuous period of American history.
