Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House - Tapa blanda

Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (1818-1907) was a former slave turned successful seamstress who is most notably known as being Mary Todd Lincoln[s personal modiste and confidante, and the author of her autobiography, Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868). Mrs. Keckly utilized her intelligence, keen business savvy, and sewing and design skills to arrange and ultimately buy her freedom (and that of her son George as well), and later enjoyed regular business with the wives of the government elite as her base clientele. After years of establishment in St. Louis she moved to Washington, DC in the Spring of 1860, where she had the country[s most elite women of the time requesting her services. Of all her clients, she had the closest and most long-standing relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln, devoting many of her days during Abraham Lincoln[s administration to being available to her and the First Family in a myriad of ways. In 1892 she was offered a faculty position at Wilberforce University as head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts and moved to Ohio.

PREFACE. I have often been asked to write my life, as those who know me know that it has been an eventful one. At last I have acceded to the importunities of my friends, and have bastily sketched some of tbe striking incidents tbat go to make up my history. My life, so full of romance, may sound like a dream to tbe matter-of-fact reader, nevertheless everything I have written is strictly true ; much has been omitted, but nothing has been exaggerated. In writing as I have done, I am well aware tbat I have invited criticism ; but before the critic judges harshly, let my explanation be carefully read and weighed. If I have portrayed the dark side of slavery, I also have painted the bright side. The good that I have said of human servitude should be thrown into the scales with the evil that I have said of it. I have kind, true-hearted friends in the South as well as in the North, and I would not wound those Southern

Table of Contents

Preface 11; CHAPTER I Where I was born 17; CHAPTER II Girlhood and its Sorrows 31; CHAPTER III How I gained my Freedom 43; CHAPTER IV In the Family of Senator Jefferson Davis 63; CHAPTER V My Introduction to Mrs Lincoln 76; CHAPTER VI Willie Lincoln's Death-bed 91; CHAPTER VII Washington in 1862-3 111; CHAPTER VIII; FACH; Candid Opinions 127; CHAPTER IX Behind the Scenes139; CHAPTER X The Second Inauguration 156; CHAPTER XI The Assassination of President Lincoln178; CHAPTER XII Mrs Lincoln leaves the White House 201; CHAPTER XIII; The Origin of the Eivalry between Mr Douglas and Mr; Lincoln223; CHAPTER XIV Old Friends 238; CHAPTER XV; The Secret History of Mrs Lincoln's Wardrobe in New York2G7; Appendix-Letters from Mrs Lincoln to Mrs Keckley 832

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgo