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Behind the Scenes, Or, Thirty Years and Slave, and Four Years in the White House
Elizabeth Keckley
2013
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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
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Keywords
- African American women
- Biography
- Biography & Autobiography
- Black Women
- Dressmakers
- Employees
- History
- Nonfiction
- Relations with African Americans
- Slaves
- Women slaves