Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House

By Elizabeth Keckley

Subjects: Biography, Biography & Autobiography, Relations with African Americans, Nonfiction, Women slaves, African American women, Black Women, Employees, Slaves, united states, Slaves, African american women, History, Lincoln, mary todd, 1818-1882, Lincoln, abraham, 1809-1865, Dressmakers

Description: A former slave's intimate memoir of the Lincoln White House, a timeless addition to the canons of African American and Civil War literatureOriginally published in 1868-when it was attacked as an "indecent book" authored by a "traitorous eavesdropper"-Behind the Scenes is the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who began her life as a slave and became a privileged witness to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Keckley bought her freedom at the age of thirty-seven and set up a successful dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. She became modiste to Mary Todd Lincoln and in time her friend and confidante, a relationship that continued after Lincoln's assassination. In documenting that friendship-often using the First Lady's own letters-Behind the Scenes fuses the slave narrative with the political memoir. It remains extraordinary for its poignancy, candor, and historical perspective.First time in Penguin Classics