Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House / Elizabeth Keckly ; introduction and notes by William L. Andrews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keckley, Elizabeth, approximately 1818-1907.

Contributor:

Andrews, William L., 1946-

Series:

Penguin classics

Standardized Title:

Behind the scenes

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Keckley, Elizabeth, approximately 1818-1907.

Keckley, Elizabeth.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882.

African American women--Biography.

African American women.

Enslaved women--United States--Biography.

Enslaved women.

Relations with African Americans.

Dressmakers.

United States.

Dressmakers--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882--Relations with African Americans.

Lincoln, Mary Todd.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Relations with African Americans.

Lincoln, Abraham.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 168 pages ; 20 cm.

Other Title:

Behind the scenes

Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House

Place of Publication:

New York : Penguin Books, 2005.

Summary:

Born a slave in Virginia, Elizabeth Keckley bought her freedom at the age of thirty-seven and set up a dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. One of her clients was Mary Todd Lincoln, whose husband had recently been inaugurated President of the United States. In time they became close friends. Their intimacy informs this extraordinary book, which is at once a slave narrative, a candid private view of the Lincoln White House during a violent turning point in American history, and the story of a friendship that continued after Lincoln's assassination. Condemned at its publication as an "indecent book" authored by a "traitorous eavesdropper," Behind the Scenes remains a poignant, revelatory work that belongs on any shelf of Civil War or African American literature.

Contents:

Behind the Scenes

Chapter I Where I was born 7

Chapter II Girlhood and its Sorrows 13

Chapter III How I gained my Freedom 19

Chapter IV In the Family of Senator Jefferson Davis 28

Chapter V My Introduction to Mrs. Lincoln 34

Chapter VI Willie Lincoln's Death-bed 41

Chapter VII Washington in 1862-3 50

Chapter VIII Candid Opinions 57

Chapter IX Behind the Scenes 62

Chapter X The Second Inauguration 68

Chapter XI The Assassination of President Lincoln 77

Chapter XII Mrs. Lincoln leaves the White House 89

Chapter XIII The Origin of the Rivalry between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln 101

Chapter XIV Old Friends 106

Chapter XV The Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln's Wardrobe in New York 119

Appendix Letters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley 147.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : G.W. Carleton & Co., 1868.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [xxii]-xxiv).

ISBN:

0143039245

9780143039242

OCLC:

56686429