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Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House
Part slave narrative, part memoir, and part sentimental fiction Behind the Scenes depicts Elizabeth Keckley's years as a slave and subsequent four years in Abraham Lincoln's White House during the Civil War. Through the eyes of this black woman, we see a wide range of historical figures and events of the antebellum South, the Washington of the Civil War years, and the final stages of the war.
404 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1868
About the author
Elizabeth Keckley
50 books51 followersElizabeth Hobbs Keckley (February 1818 –May 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. Mrs. Keckley utilized her intelligence, keen business acumen, 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 several years in St. Louis, she moved to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1860, where she had the country's most elite women of the time requesting her services. Through shrewd networking and hard work, she ended up making gowns and dresses for more notable wives such as Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, and Mrs. Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee. 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.
After several years in St. Louis, she moved to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1860, where she had the country's most elite women of the time requesting her services. Through shrewd networking and hard work, she ended up making gowns and dresses for more notable wives such as Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, and Mrs. Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee. 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.
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March 18, 2024
Mrs. Keckley’s book is remarkable in several ways. It begins with her early life as part of what the title says, “Thirty Years a Slave.” Slave memoirs are fairly uncommon and those from a female perspective rarer still. Keckley was subjected to all the horrors of the system from beatings from childhood, forcible separation of family, sexual abuse, to basic denial of freedom to choose where one lives and what one does. She learned what was ultimately to become her profession from her mother and was able to buy her freedom with her work as a seamstress and loans (all paid back) and gifts. She must have had a very winning personality as she had many lifelong friends.
Part two is unique as she became a close confidant as well as seamstress in the Lincoln household early on in his presidency. Clothing was very dear to Mrs. Lincoln’s heart and it brought this former slave into their circle. She soon became Mrs. Lincoln’s confidant and knew a lot about what was happening. It is obvious that much of what historians have written about life in the White House came from this wonderful firsthand account.
The third and much sadder and frankly least interesting part of her memoir deals with Keckley meeting up with old friends (once slave owners) and acquaintances. Most importantly in this last section, Keckley tried to help Mary Lincoln sell clothing and belongings after Lincoln’s death because MTL was in dire need of money. That was all very pitiful and worked out poorly for both women.
Although extremely intelligent, Keckley was self educated and the voice here is too much Victorian-lady to completely represent her. Her intention was to clear up attacks on Mrs. Lincoln but it is safe to say those who guided the writing of this book wanted to publish the letters between Keckley and MTL. They also wanted to spill the tea. The Lincoln family was horrified. MTL and Elizabeth never spoke again. The general perception of the book was negative. People didn’t find MTL sympathetic but also didn’t like the news spread in a book by a former confidant and seamstress. Keckley made no money, lost clientele and ended in relative poverty.
Whoever helped her write the book made certain that MTL didn’t look good. We see her at her most petty, hysterical and clueless. Had she not reamed out Mrs. Ulysses Grant shortly before the Lincoln was killed, Mr. and Mrs. Grant and military guards might have been in the theater that terrible night and it’s just possible that Booth might have been thwarted. That’s just speculation and not covered by Keckley but she does let us know all about the MTL and Mrs. Grant fiasco. Keckley’s descriptions of MTL surely have colored the perception of Mrs. Lincoln ever afterwards. The reading public probably loved the dirt but Mrs. Keckley was far ahead of her time as an ambitious, smart black woman rising from slavery to the middle class and readers may not have been ready for that. It’s a great story.
Part two is unique as she became a close confidant as well as seamstress in the Lincoln household early on in his presidency. Clothing was very dear to Mrs. Lincoln’s heart and it brought this former slave into their circle. She soon became Mrs. Lincoln’s confidant and knew a lot about what was happening. It is obvious that much of what historians have written about life in the White House came from this wonderful firsthand account.
The third and much sadder and frankly least interesting part of her memoir deals with Keckley meeting up with old friends (once slave owners) and acquaintances. Most importantly in this last section, Keckley tried to help Mary Lincoln sell clothing and belongings after Lincoln’s death because MTL was in dire need of money. That was all very pitiful and worked out poorly for both women.
Although extremely intelligent, Keckley was self educated and the voice here is too much Victorian-lady to completely represent her. Her intention was to clear up attacks on Mrs. Lincoln but it is safe to say those who guided the writing of this book wanted to publish the letters between Keckley and MTL. They also wanted to spill the tea. The Lincoln family was horrified. MTL and Elizabeth never spoke again. The general perception of the book was negative. People didn’t find MTL sympathetic but also didn’t like the news spread in a book by a former confidant and seamstress. Keckley made no money, lost clientele and ended in relative poverty.
Whoever helped her write the book made certain that MTL didn’t look good. We see her at her most petty, hysterical and clueless. Had she not reamed out Mrs. Ulysses Grant shortly before the Lincoln was killed, Mr. and Mrs. Grant and military guards might have been in the theater that terrible night and it’s just possible that Booth might have been thwarted. That’s just speculation and not covered by Keckley but she does let us know all about the MTL and Mrs. Grant fiasco. Keckley’s descriptions of MTL surely have colored the perception of Mrs. Lincoln ever afterwards. The reading public probably loved the dirt but Mrs. Keckley was far ahead of her time as an ambitious, smart black woman rising from slavery to the middle class and readers may not have been ready for that. It’s a great story.
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June 14, 2014How I wish a good scholar would flesh out this fascinating memoir written by a former slave who bought her own freedom and ended up as dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. The anecdotes reported in this slim history have the ring of truth, and Lincoln and his family glimmer to life in them.
Keckley gets by her slavery years at a brisk pace, without lingering on the beatings, rape, etc. Far more detail is given to the circumstances of her obtaining her freedom, but the main subject of this memoir is Mary Todd Lincoln, as Keckley pretty much spent every day with her during four years of Lincoln's presidency.
Keckley by her own admission seems to be trying for objectivity and honesty as she reports about a complicated (difficult) subject. Mrs. Lincoln comes off as a smart, ambitious, loyal, opinionated, and very volatile woman. She had accrued an enormous debt by the time of her husband's death, that apparently Lincoln never knew about. That debt rode Mrs. Lincoln hard, the more because she found herself without recourse after the assassination.
Bits that stick out are the smallest anecdotes, like Mrs. Lincoln's sudden decision to begin Tad Lincoln's education. His first lesson in reading ends with a reflection on Keckley's part about how a similar ignorant display by a black child would have prompted extrapolations about the stupidity of African Americans. She seems to be a sharp observer of the little interactions between races, and the evolving social milieu of Washington D.C in the 1860s.
It's a fast, absorbing read, conveying a clear picture of a smart woman, but leaving so many fascinating questions unanswered. I hope that some young scholar is going to make this book her project: I would love to find out more about what was not covered.
Keckley gets by her slavery years at a brisk pace, without lingering on the beatings, rape, etc. Far more detail is given to the circumstances of her obtaining her freedom, but the main subject of this memoir is Mary Todd Lincoln, as Keckley pretty much spent every day with her during four years of Lincoln's presidency.
Keckley by her own admission seems to be trying for objectivity and honesty as she reports about a complicated (difficult) subject. Mrs. Lincoln comes off as a smart, ambitious, loyal, opinionated, and very volatile woman. She had accrued an enormous debt by the time of her husband's death, that apparently Lincoln never knew about. That debt rode Mrs. Lincoln hard, the more because she found herself without recourse after the assassination.
Bits that stick out are the smallest anecdotes, like Mrs. Lincoln's sudden decision to begin Tad Lincoln's education. His first lesson in reading ends with a reflection on Keckley's part about how a similar ignorant display by a black child would have prompted extrapolations about the stupidity of African Americans. She seems to be a sharp observer of the little interactions between races, and the evolving social milieu of Washington D.C in the 1860s.
It's a fast, absorbing read, conveying a clear picture of a smart woman, but leaving so many fascinating questions unanswered. I hope that some young scholar is going to make this book her project: I would love to find out more about what was not covered.
April 15, 2022
This slim book, written by Elizabeth Keckley, onetime modiste of Mary Todd Lincoln during her husband's tenure in the White House, and subsequently her confidante, is a testament to a most remarkable woman. Keckley, who was born a slave in Virginia in 1818, generally speaks very openly about her early life, including the beatings she had suffered at the hands of her master and a friend of her master's family, who sought, in their eyes, to humble her spirit. What I found remarkable is that when both men failed in their object to "break" her, is that each man made plain to Keckley that they would never strike her again and would treat her with respect. And they proved true to their word. Keckley also gives brief mention of the 4-year relationship she was compelled to have with another white man, which led to the birth of her only child, George, in 1841. (George, after studying at Wilberforce College in Ohio, joined the Union Army shortly after war commenced in 1861, passing as a white man. He was killed in battle soon thereafter.)
Several years later, after acquiring remarkable skill and a high reputation as a dressmaker in Missouri, Keckley (her married name --- her husband, upon their first meeting, had professed himself to be a freeman; after their marriage, however, it turned out that he was a slave and something of a neer-do-well, being overly fond of drink --- he and Elizabeth soon become estranged, and he died sometime after Elizabeth had left Missouri) worked mightily to earn the $1200 she needed to buy freedom for herself and her son. This was achieved in the mid-1850s.
The chapters in the book dealing with Keckley's arrival in Washington in 1860 to set up her own dressmaking business and her time spent with President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd are among the most engaging, entertaining, and eye-opening. Here the reader gets a glimpse of the Lincolns as they really were.
After President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Keckley expands, at some length, on the privations his wife and 2 remaining sons had to contend with. (Unlike today, former Presidents and their families were accorded no government pension. Indeed, it has only been in the last 60 years that pensions were established for former Presidents.)
The value of this book lies in the fact that it was one of the first of the immediate post-Civil War era written by an African American Woman, who, by dint of hard work and determination, managed not only to buy her freedom and establish her own dressmaking business, but to earn the respect of several prominent Washington politicos (and their wives) of the era by virtue of her talent. That's why I give it 5 STARS. This book is a keeper.
(This book also has footnotes, listed in the "Exploratory Notes" section, which help to reveal or make clear to the present-day reader places and personalities who played a part --- direct or indirect --- in Keckley's life.)
Several years later, after acquiring remarkable skill and a high reputation as a dressmaker in Missouri, Keckley (her married name --- her husband, upon their first meeting, had professed himself to be a freeman; after their marriage, however, it turned out that he was a slave and something of a neer-do-well, being overly fond of drink --- he and Elizabeth soon become estranged, and he died sometime after Elizabeth had left Missouri) worked mightily to earn the $1200 she needed to buy freedom for herself and her son. This was achieved in the mid-1850s.
The chapters in the book dealing with Keckley's arrival in Washington in 1860 to set up her own dressmaking business and her time spent with President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd are among the most engaging, entertaining, and eye-opening. Here the reader gets a glimpse of the Lincolns as they really were.
After President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Keckley expands, at some length, on the privations his wife and 2 remaining sons had to contend with. (Unlike today, former Presidents and their families were accorded no government pension. Indeed, it has only been in the last 60 years that pensions were established for former Presidents.)
The value of this book lies in the fact that it was one of the first of the immediate post-Civil War era written by an African American Woman, who, by dint of hard work and determination, managed not only to buy her freedom and establish her own dressmaking business, but to earn the respect of several prominent Washington politicos (and their wives) of the era by virtue of her talent. That's why I give it 5 STARS. This book is a keeper.
(This book also has footnotes, listed in the "Exploratory Notes" section, which help to reveal or make clear to the present-day reader places and personalities who played a part --- direct or indirect --- in Keckley's life.)
July 27, 2018
This was interesting but far too much about Mary Todd Lincoln and her family struggles. I wish the beginning which dealt with Elizabeth's life in bondage had been expanded and that story fleshed out.
Much of Keckley's attitudes and feelings are bizarre to me. I don't understand why she wanted to pay for her freedom when she had been supporting her 'owner' her whole life.
Ah well. Interesting and quick read.
Much of Keckley's attitudes and feelings are bizarre to me. I don't understand why she wanted to pay for her freedom when she had been supporting her 'owner' her whole life.
Ah well. Interesting and quick read.
April 2, 2009
I bought this book when I went to the Lincoln Museum and home in Springfield, IL. I picked it up because - as you might be able to tell - I'm very interested in women's side of history.
This was written by Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave and the dressmaker and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. It is part slave narrative, and partly a history of the Lincoln family.
Keckley's stories of her time in slavery are upsetting, and there is a great deal she left out which I'm sure were important in her history. She had a husband she never writes about, and has a son by a white man which she plainly says she won't write about. She was an extremely skilled dressmaker, and this helped her work her way out of slavery. One of her customers who appreciates her loans her money to buy herself and her son. She repays the loan in full.
She also writes lovingly of her former slave masters, which isn't what one expects when reading a slave narrative. She even visits them years later while she is free, and writes of how well they treat her as a guest.
Her motive for writing this book was in part, clearly monetary, which might account for the many unflattering things she writes about Mary Todd. She knows it will cause a stir. I feel for Mary Todd in this matter, because someone she considered a friend published her letters which she wanted kept confidential. At the same time, Keckley puts a great deal of effort into helping Mary Todd after her husband dies by helping her sell her fine dresses. The venture was a failure, and Keckley lost a portion of her income by doing Mary this favor.
I'm glad I found this book. I wish the book had more about Keckley herself and less about the Lincolns, but Keckley clearly didn't want certain things going down in history. I'd reccomend this to anyone interested in African American Lit, Lincoln, or women's history.
This was written by Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave and the dressmaker and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. It is part slave narrative, and partly a history of the Lincoln family.
Keckley's stories of her time in slavery are upsetting, and there is a great deal she left out which I'm sure were important in her history. She had a husband she never writes about, and has a son by a white man which she plainly says she won't write about. She was an extremely skilled dressmaker, and this helped her work her way out of slavery. One of her customers who appreciates her loans her money to buy herself and her son. She repays the loan in full.
She also writes lovingly of her former slave masters, which isn't what one expects when reading a slave narrative. She even visits them years later while she is free, and writes of how well they treat her as a guest.
Her motive for writing this book was in part, clearly monetary, which might account for the many unflattering things she writes about Mary Todd. She knows it will cause a stir. I feel for Mary Todd in this matter, because someone she considered a friend published her letters which she wanted kept confidential. At the same time, Keckley puts a great deal of effort into helping Mary Todd after her husband dies by helping her sell her fine dresses. The venture was a failure, and Keckley lost a portion of her income by doing Mary this favor.
I'm glad I found this book. I wish the book had more about Keckley herself and less about the Lincolns, but Keckley clearly didn't want certain things going down in history. I'd reccomend this to anyone interested in African American Lit, Lincoln, or women's history.
July 26, 2020
Well. I am disgruntled. Dis. Gruntled. There are many reasons for my disgruntlement. To start, Keckley's life is 2000% more interesting than Mary Todd Lincoln's. There. I said it.
Perhaps it is owing to the moment in time in which we find ourselves, but the daughter of a slave-owning Lexingtonian who married a small-time politician from Illinois, destined for greatness as he was - even while she suffered from undiagnosed mental illness – is, simply put – stale.
Keckley focused on her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln in Behind the Scenes, yet it is Keckley herself who is by far the more fascinating, strong, powerful, clever American woman in this picture. She may not have realized it at the time, but Keckley’s the one to admire and focus on, rather than her white counterpart. If only we were given the opportunity.
The first-person narrative of Keckley's past as a slave is significantly downplayed compared to the political gossip surrounding her boss. And I do say gossip because there is nothing new or insightful revealed here about Mary Todd, Abraham Lincoln, and their social and political cohorts. Keckley herself is overlooked.
But there is something else about this book - Keckley’s writing is oddly, well - edited. Her narrative is rather expert yet her views seem to shift from her own to someone else’s, as does her focus. What is going on here? I did a little Googling and it turns out that Keckley’s book was edited by an abolitionist named James Redpath, Scottish by birth and evidently a very ardent activist. Over and over, I wondered what Keckley’s original writing was really like, before it went under the knife – and influence - of a white, European male. There are tonal and narrative inconsistencies in the book that seem to imply that Redpath had considerable influence over the end manuscript.
I yearned to read the actual, raw views of Elizabeth Keckley in her own words. If the writing in this book IS 100% authentic, that would be good to know, yet as an editor myself, with a sworn duty to ensure that the writer’s voice shines through very clearly, I have more than a few doubts about what Elizabeth Keckley really felt about her life story much less her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln. I recognize that because of the times during which she wrote this book (1868) Keckley may not have felt at liberty to express herself with no holds barred and that she did feel quite a lot of pressure about writing a “tell-all” about the widow of Lincoln, who came to an unfortunate and inglorious end – as did Keckley herself, sadly. If there is one woman to admire here, it is Keckley herself. Were that she knew that then – and now.
Perhaps it is owing to the moment in time in which we find ourselves, but the daughter of a slave-owning Lexingtonian who married a small-time politician from Illinois, destined for greatness as he was - even while she suffered from undiagnosed mental illness – is, simply put – stale.
Keckley focused on her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln in Behind the Scenes, yet it is Keckley herself who is by far the more fascinating, strong, powerful, clever American woman in this picture. She may not have realized it at the time, but Keckley’s the one to admire and focus on, rather than her white counterpart. If only we were given the opportunity.
The first-person narrative of Keckley's past as a slave is significantly downplayed compared to the political gossip surrounding her boss. And I do say gossip because there is nothing new or insightful revealed here about Mary Todd, Abraham Lincoln, and their social and political cohorts. Keckley herself is overlooked.
But there is something else about this book - Keckley’s writing is oddly, well - edited. Her narrative is rather expert yet her views seem to shift from her own to someone else’s, as does her focus. What is going on here? I did a little Googling and it turns out that Keckley’s book was edited by an abolitionist named James Redpath, Scottish by birth and evidently a very ardent activist. Over and over, I wondered what Keckley’s original writing was really like, before it went under the knife – and influence - of a white, European male. There are tonal and narrative inconsistencies in the book that seem to imply that Redpath had considerable influence over the end manuscript.
I yearned to read the actual, raw views of Elizabeth Keckley in her own words. If the writing in this book IS 100% authentic, that would be good to know, yet as an editor myself, with a sworn duty to ensure that the writer’s voice shines through very clearly, I have more than a few doubts about what Elizabeth Keckley really felt about her life story much less her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln. I recognize that because of the times during which she wrote this book (1868) Keckley may not have felt at liberty to express herself with no holds barred and that she did feel quite a lot of pressure about writing a “tell-all” about the widow of Lincoln, who came to an unfortunate and inglorious end – as did Keckley herself, sadly. If there is one woman to admire here, it is Keckley herself. Were that she knew that then – and now.
February 3, 2020
Elizabeth was born a slave, endured many hardships and eventually purchased her freedom.
Elizabeth was skilled in dress making having a large clientele.
Mary Todd Lincoln was a very good customer. Mary had a close relationship with Elizabeth. She was a confident to Mrs. Lincoln.
Elizabeth had options to go South with Mrs Davis but stayed with Mary, even after the President was assassinated .
I won this book from Goodreads First Reads.
Elizabeth was skilled in dress making having a large clientele.
Mary Todd Lincoln was a very good customer. Mary had a close relationship with Elizabeth. She was a confident to Mrs. Lincoln.
Elizabeth had options to go South with Mrs Davis but stayed with Mary, even after the President was assassinated .
I won this book from Goodreads First Reads.
March 9, 2022
Behind the placid neoclassical façade of the White House, a great deal is always going on, in any presidential administration. And few administrations were more eventful than that of Abraham Lincoln, the President who led the Union cause to victory in the American Civil War and – through measures like the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – worked to end slavery in the United States. Fortunately for history, a perceptive and eloquent African American woman named Elizabeth Keckley ended up working as a dressmaker for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln; and her 1868 memoir Behind the Scenes provides what its title promises – a look “behind the scenes” at the Lincolns’ political lives and family life during the four years of the Lincoln Administration.
Keckley was herself a survivor of slavery in Virginia and Missouri – hence the book’s subtitle: Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. She begins her book by reflecting on slavery as a longstanding wrong in American life, and on the long process by which growing numbers of Americans came to perceive the evil of slavery, writing that “An act may be wrong, but unless the ruling power recognizes the wrong, it is useless to hope for a correction of it….In fact, we give but little thought to the plant of evil until it grows to such monstrous proportions that it overshadows important interests; then the efforts to destroy it become earnest” (pp. 3-4).
From these general reflections, Keckley proceeds to a look back at her early life as an enslaved person in Southside Virginia. Those passages of Behind the Scenes make for difficult reading, particularly when she describes attacks she faced from a man who had simply decided that it was his job to try (unsuccessfully) to break her spirit. The reader is moved by Keckley’s declaration that “We who are crushed to earth with heavy chains, who travel a weary, rugged, thorny road, groping through midnight darkness on earth, earn our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter” (p. 9).
I find that each slavery narrative I read provides new insights into the grim realities of plantation society. In Behind the Scenes, Keckley discusses how one of the slaveholders who held her in bondage, a Colonel Burwell, did not like to see unhappy faces among the enslaved people on his plantation, and therefore punished any enslaved person who looked unhappy. “Alas,” Keckley writes, “the sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart” (p. 11).
Eventually, Keckley’s journey as an enslaved person took her from Southside Virginia to Saint Louis, Missouri, in accordance with the “new-start” aspirations of a slaveholder who was not doing well in Virginia. In Saint Louis, Keckley cultivated her skills with a needle, in a manner that prefigured her later success as a dressmaker: “With my needle I kept bread in the mouths of seventeen persons for five years and two months” (p. 17).
Keckley eventually did gain her freedom, in 1855, and the reader of Behind the Scenes gets to see the bureaucracy of antebellum emancipation, as Keckley includes in her book the long litany of forms and letters through which Keckley’s freedom before the law was finally recognized.
By 1860, the now-free Keckley had made her way back east, to Washington, D.C., where she worked for a time for then-U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis and his family. When the Davises left Washington during the secession crisis, they advised Keckley to go with them; she wisely demurred.
With the onset of the Lincoln Administration, an introduction to the nation’s new First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, initiated the process by which Keckley came to work at the White House, and to become not only a dressmaker for, but a valued confidante of, Mrs. Lincoln. Keckley’s insider provides that behind-the-scenes look at the White House lives of the Lincolns that the book’s title promises.
The passages detailing the good-natured quarreling between the intense Mary Todd Lincoln and the more easygoing Abraham Lincoln have an amusing domestic quality to them. Mrs. Lincoln distrusted Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and General George B. McClellan (justifiably), as well as Secretary of State William Seward and General Ulysses S. Grant (unfairly), and it is amusing to see the President and the First Lady amiably squabbling over these mutual associates. On the other hand, those parts of the book that set forth the intensity of the Lincolns’ grief at the death of their 11-year-old son Willie in 1862 make for wrenching reading.
Keckley’s devout religiosity comes through in her recollection of a moment in early 1863, when the war seemed to be going against the Union. She saw President Lincoln take up the Bible and read from the Book of Job, and reflects on that tableau as follows: “What a sublime picture was this! A ruler of a mighty nation going to the pages of the Bible with simple Christian earnestness for comfort and courage, and finding both in the darkest hours of a nation’s calamity. Ponder it, O ye scoffers at God’s Holy Word, and then hang your heads for very shame!” (p. 49)
My own reading of that moment might be somewhat different. President Lincoln, as I understand it, held deistic beliefs in a higher power, but was suspicious of organized religion. Perhaps President Lincoln, who loved the poetry of the King James Bible, turned to the Book of Job simply for a powerful recounting of how people endure seemingly unendurable suffering, the same way he might have taken up Shakespeare’s King Lear. But if Keckley’s religious faith helped her to endure the unendurable, in the form of 30 years of slavery, then I am glad of it.
Eventually, the war ended – with Union victory and the emancipation of four million once-enslaved African Americans. The war’s end was also marked by the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. The fatal shooting occurred right before Mary Todd Lincoln’s eyes, and she was denied any access to her husband while he lay dying. No wonder poor Mrs. Lincoln was never the same afterward.
Behind the Scenes is of particular value in the light it sheds on Mrs. Lincoln’s post-war life. Pressed for money in the immediate aftermath of the war (the U.S. Congress did not grant her a pension until 1870), Mrs. Lincoln relocated to Chicago. By November of 1867, Mrs. Lincoln was trying to raise money by selling portions of her wartime wardrobe – an initiative that was widely criticized as unworthy of the dignity of the American presidency.
Mrs. Lincoln’s letters from the time, included as a later chapter of Behind the Scenes, reveal her feelings of bitterness at the U.S. government regarding her then still-pending pension, along with her mounting feelings of desperation at the state of her finances:
“I feel chiefly the humiliation of my small circumscribed income. If Congress, or the Nation, had given me the four years’ salary, I should have been able to live as the widow of the great President Lincoln should, with sufficient means to give liberally to all beloved objects….Although the petty sum of $22,000 was an insufficient return for Congress to make me, and allowanced to its meagreness by men who traduced and vilified the loved wife of the great man who made them, and from whom they amassed great fortunes….And yet, all this was permitted by an American people, who owed their remaining a nation to my husband!” (pp. 152-53)
On those controversies over Mrs. Lincoln’s postwar behavior, Keckley asks the reader to be understanding and forbearant: “For an act may be wrong judged purely by itself, but when the motive that prompted the act is understood, it is construed differently….None of us are perfect, for which reason we should heed the voice of charity when it whispers in our ears, ‘Do not magnify the imperfections of others” (pp. 4-5).
As Mrs. Lincoln was criticized for the attempted sale of artifacts from her time in the White House, so Keckley was criticized for publishing Behind the Scenes when the book first came out in 1868. Mrs. Lincoln, for her part, did not appreciate the publication of letters that she had intended to remain private, and her displeasure is understandable. Now, however, Keckley’s book is appreciated by historians and students of the Civil War era, for its intimate look at life in the Lincoln White House. For students of African American history and women’s history, Behind the Scenes is a true find.
Keckley was herself a survivor of slavery in Virginia and Missouri – hence the book’s subtitle: Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. She begins her book by reflecting on slavery as a longstanding wrong in American life, and on the long process by which growing numbers of Americans came to perceive the evil of slavery, writing that “An act may be wrong, but unless the ruling power recognizes the wrong, it is useless to hope for a correction of it….In fact, we give but little thought to the plant of evil until it grows to such monstrous proportions that it overshadows important interests; then the efforts to destroy it become earnest” (pp. 3-4).
From these general reflections, Keckley proceeds to a look back at her early life as an enslaved person in Southside Virginia. Those passages of Behind the Scenes make for difficult reading, particularly when she describes attacks she faced from a man who had simply decided that it was his job to try (unsuccessfully) to break her spirit. The reader is moved by Keckley’s declaration that “We who are crushed to earth with heavy chains, who travel a weary, rugged, thorny road, groping through midnight darkness on earth, earn our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter” (p. 9).
I find that each slavery narrative I read provides new insights into the grim realities of plantation society. In Behind the Scenes, Keckley discusses how one of the slaveholders who held her in bondage, a Colonel Burwell, did not like to see unhappy faces among the enslaved people on his plantation, and therefore punished any enslaved person who looked unhappy. “Alas,” Keckley writes, “the sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart” (p. 11).
Eventually, Keckley’s journey as an enslaved person took her from Southside Virginia to Saint Louis, Missouri, in accordance with the “new-start” aspirations of a slaveholder who was not doing well in Virginia. In Saint Louis, Keckley cultivated her skills with a needle, in a manner that prefigured her later success as a dressmaker: “With my needle I kept bread in the mouths of seventeen persons for five years and two months” (p. 17).
Keckley eventually did gain her freedom, in 1855, and the reader of Behind the Scenes gets to see the bureaucracy of antebellum emancipation, as Keckley includes in her book the long litany of forms and letters through which Keckley’s freedom before the law was finally recognized.
By 1860, the now-free Keckley had made her way back east, to Washington, D.C., where she worked for a time for then-U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis and his family. When the Davises left Washington during the secession crisis, they advised Keckley to go with them; she wisely demurred.
With the onset of the Lincoln Administration, an introduction to the nation’s new First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, initiated the process by which Keckley came to work at the White House, and to become not only a dressmaker for, but a valued confidante of, Mrs. Lincoln. Keckley’s insider provides that behind-the-scenes look at the White House lives of the Lincolns that the book’s title promises.
The passages detailing the good-natured quarreling between the intense Mary Todd Lincoln and the more easygoing Abraham Lincoln have an amusing domestic quality to them. Mrs. Lincoln distrusted Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and General George B. McClellan (justifiably), as well as Secretary of State William Seward and General Ulysses S. Grant (unfairly), and it is amusing to see the President and the First Lady amiably squabbling over these mutual associates. On the other hand, those parts of the book that set forth the intensity of the Lincolns’ grief at the death of their 11-year-old son Willie in 1862 make for wrenching reading.
Keckley’s devout religiosity comes through in her recollection of a moment in early 1863, when the war seemed to be going against the Union. She saw President Lincoln take up the Bible and read from the Book of Job, and reflects on that tableau as follows: “What a sublime picture was this! A ruler of a mighty nation going to the pages of the Bible with simple Christian earnestness for comfort and courage, and finding both in the darkest hours of a nation’s calamity. Ponder it, O ye scoffers at God’s Holy Word, and then hang your heads for very shame!” (p. 49)
My own reading of that moment might be somewhat different. President Lincoln, as I understand it, held deistic beliefs in a higher power, but was suspicious of organized religion. Perhaps President Lincoln, who loved the poetry of the King James Bible, turned to the Book of Job simply for a powerful recounting of how people endure seemingly unendurable suffering, the same way he might have taken up Shakespeare’s King Lear. But if Keckley’s religious faith helped her to endure the unendurable, in the form of 30 years of slavery, then I am glad of it.
Eventually, the war ended – with Union victory and the emancipation of four million once-enslaved African Americans. The war’s end was also marked by the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House. The fatal shooting occurred right before Mary Todd Lincoln’s eyes, and she was denied any access to her husband while he lay dying. No wonder poor Mrs. Lincoln was never the same afterward.
Behind the Scenes is of particular value in the light it sheds on Mrs. Lincoln’s post-war life. Pressed for money in the immediate aftermath of the war (the U.S. Congress did not grant her a pension until 1870), Mrs. Lincoln relocated to Chicago. By November of 1867, Mrs. Lincoln was trying to raise money by selling portions of her wartime wardrobe – an initiative that was widely criticized as unworthy of the dignity of the American presidency.
Mrs. Lincoln’s letters from the time, included as a later chapter of Behind the Scenes, reveal her feelings of bitterness at the U.S. government regarding her then still-pending pension, along with her mounting feelings of desperation at the state of her finances:
“I feel chiefly the humiliation of my small circumscribed income. If Congress, or the Nation, had given me the four years’ salary, I should have been able to live as the widow of the great President Lincoln should, with sufficient means to give liberally to all beloved objects….Although the petty sum of $22,000 was an insufficient return for Congress to make me, and allowanced to its meagreness by men who traduced and vilified the loved wife of the great man who made them, and from whom they amassed great fortunes….And yet, all this was permitted by an American people, who owed their remaining a nation to my husband!” (pp. 152-53)
On those controversies over Mrs. Lincoln’s postwar behavior, Keckley asks the reader to be understanding and forbearant: “For an act may be wrong judged purely by itself, but when the motive that prompted the act is understood, it is construed differently….None of us are perfect, for which reason we should heed the voice of charity when it whispers in our ears, ‘Do not magnify the imperfections of others” (pp. 4-5).
As Mrs. Lincoln was criticized for the attempted sale of artifacts from her time in the White House, so Keckley was criticized for publishing Behind the Scenes when the book first came out in 1868. Mrs. Lincoln, for her part, did not appreciate the publication of letters that she had intended to remain private, and her displeasure is understandable. Now, however, Keckley’s book is appreciated by historians and students of the Civil War era, for its intimate look at life in the Lincoln White House. For students of African American history and women’s history, Behind the Scenes is a true find.
April 13, 2013
That this book was saved from obscurity is a miracle in itself, and Ms. Keckley's life is another. The cover art informs the reader what writing will be revealed inside. Keckley's gaze is clear, fierce and magnificent. Her writing is the same, and I am grateful that the book is alive still. The author bought her freedom and secured her place in history with a steadfast heart and ferocious spirit. Her story survives and inspires.
Read
July 6, 2016Won’t be rating this, but a few thoughts: this was an incredibly engrossing and insightful read. Like many have, I do question how much of Keckley’s words have been censored but even with those changes, I’d say this is a book worth a few hours. Not only is it interesting to learn about Keckley’s life, but Mary Todd Lincoln’s life after her husband’s assassination as well. It wasn’t a period I’ve ever examined before but would like to after having read this.
April 4, 2014
Hmmm. After reading "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker," I had to read Mrs. Keckley's actual book. I have to admit I am skeptical.
First, Mrs. Keckley was born a slave, and in her early life, she experienced all the horrors that came with that terrible status. She did not have a formal education, and she earned the money to purchase her (and her son's) freedom. Her sewing skills were superlative, and her skill at making dresses made her a very popular seamstress for many upper-class women.
Her association with Mrs. Lincoln was what allegedly prompted her to write this book. Some say she was trying to vindicate Mrs. Lincoln's erratic behavior, some say she was in dire need of money, some say she was hoodwinked by a clever editor, and some say she was angry and looking for a public exposure to embarrass her former friend. I don't think any of these answers is definitive. What I do suspect is that the editor who sweet-talked her into letting him take her manuscript and Mrs. Lincoln's letters back to his office, did a lot of editing. The vocabulary and sentence structure of most of the writing is very sophisticated, and even though Mrs. Keckley was self-educated, to be at this level is a hard sell to me. I am hard-pressed to believe that she wrote this un-assisted.
Also, Ms. Chiaverini has definitely read Mrs. Keckley's book. Major parts of Mrs. Keckley's book are used in the plot line of Ms. Chiaverini's.
As in all things historical, we may never know for sure what prompted the writing of Mrs. Keckley's book. What we do know is that Mrs. Lincoln took it as a major betrayal of a confidence, and she never forgave Mrs. Keckley.
First, Mrs. Keckley was born a slave, and in her early life, she experienced all the horrors that came with that terrible status. She did not have a formal education, and she earned the money to purchase her (and her son's) freedom. Her sewing skills were superlative, and her skill at making dresses made her a very popular seamstress for many upper-class women.
Her association with Mrs. Lincoln was what allegedly prompted her to write this book. Some say she was trying to vindicate Mrs. Lincoln's erratic behavior, some say she was in dire need of money, some say she was hoodwinked by a clever editor, and some say she was angry and looking for a public exposure to embarrass her former friend. I don't think any of these answers is definitive. What I do suspect is that the editor who sweet-talked her into letting him take her manuscript and Mrs. Lincoln's letters back to his office, did a lot of editing. The vocabulary and sentence structure of most of the writing is very sophisticated, and even though Mrs. Keckley was self-educated, to be at this level is a hard sell to me. I am hard-pressed to believe that she wrote this un-assisted.
Also, Ms. Chiaverini has definitely read Mrs. Keckley's book. Major parts of Mrs. Keckley's book are used in the plot line of Ms. Chiaverini's.
As in all things historical, we may never know for sure what prompted the writing of Mrs. Keckley's book. What we do know is that Mrs. Lincoln took it as a major betrayal of a confidence, and she never forgave Mrs. Keckley.
January 17, 2017
I liked this autobiography WAY more than I expected to. It had an easy pace even while tackling such a historically painful time in our nation. Very personal writing, which I always prefer. The Lincoln White House, Washington and the pre-Civil War era seen from Elizabeth Keckley's (sometimes spelled Keckly) view is so clear and illuminating. This book makes me want to read more about all three of those things, as well as re-watching the movie "Lincoln." A highly recommended read!
July 16, 2013
I read the Schomburg Library edition which includes a Forward by Louis Henry Gates, a note on behalf of the Schomburg Library, an Introduction by James Olney and an Appendix of letters by Mary Todd Lincoln. Elizabeth Keckley's voice shines through all these more famous and more learned people.
Keckley's writing is brought down by the extra material. One of the introductory essays (by a scholar who writes of the importance of the work) says that her description of the day her father was sent away (the same day he returned to her life) is like (or is) fiction.
I wish there were more of Keckley's 19th century prose. Not only is her beautiful narrative sandwiched in between the writing of others, she brings it down by incorporating letters and news accounts of lesser style/value.
Keckley's story of her youth is compelling, but here it is short and understated. Born a slave and despite difficult odds, she purchased her own freedom. She ran a successful business catering to the wives of the powerful... for instance, both Verina Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln. All of this is breezed through in favor of the description of her friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln.
The best parts of the episodes from her childhood, the dialog of the Lincoln's and Mary Lincoln's views of cabinet members. The detail on Lincoln's attempt to sell her clothing could be the subject of another short book or essay, but here it dominates.
It would be wonderful if there were more of Keckley's life experience. I'd like to know more about the process of starting her business, how she designed the clothing, purchased the materials and recruited and trained the assistants. How did she raise her son while having the raise the children of others? There is a brief mention of the complexity of this, since he is the result of a rape. I'd also like to know more about how she became literate, and how her father before her acquired this skill. She did a lot of traveling, I'd like to know how she did this and what she saw.
For what Elizabeth Keckley writes, this book is 4-5 stars. It is watered down by the words of others and her own reluctance to tell her story. Perhaps she or her publisher felt that the people wanted to know more about Mary Lincoln than about her. Maybe the publisher required inclusion of the letters of Mary Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. If this is the case, this short sightedness has deprived this generation of a significant biographical record.
Keckley's writing is brought down by the extra material. One of the introductory essays (by a scholar who writes of the importance of the work) says that her description of the day her father was sent away (the same day he returned to her life) is like (or is) fiction.
I wish there were more of Keckley's 19th century prose. Not only is her beautiful narrative sandwiched in between the writing of others, she brings it down by incorporating letters and news accounts of lesser style/value.
Keckley's story of her youth is compelling, but here it is short and understated. Born a slave and despite difficult odds, she purchased her own freedom. She ran a successful business catering to the wives of the powerful... for instance, both Verina Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln. All of this is breezed through in favor of the description of her friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln.
The best parts of the episodes from her childhood, the dialog of the Lincoln's and Mary Lincoln's views of cabinet members. The detail on Lincoln's attempt to sell her clothing could be the subject of another short book or essay, but here it dominates.
It would be wonderful if there were more of Keckley's life experience. I'd like to know more about the process of starting her business, how she designed the clothing, purchased the materials and recruited and trained the assistants. How did she raise her son while having the raise the children of others? There is a brief mention of the complexity of this, since he is the result of a rape. I'd also like to know more about how she became literate, and how her father before her acquired this skill. She did a lot of traveling, I'd like to know how she did this and what she saw.
For what Elizabeth Keckley writes, this book is 4-5 stars. It is watered down by the words of others and her own reluctance to tell her story. Perhaps she or her publisher felt that the people wanted to know more about Mary Lincoln than about her. Maybe the publisher required inclusion of the letters of Mary Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. If this is the case, this short sightedness has deprived this generation of a significant biographical record.
February 17, 2020
Sadly, the author spends far too little time on her years in slavery and far too much time on the efforts she made on Mrs. Lincoln's behalf after the assassination. To give you an idea: one sentence on the death of Keckley's only child in a chapter dedicated to the death of the Lincoln's child. No doubt this reflects the interest of the public and the author when the book was written, but it just made me sad for her that she couldn't devote more time to her own life, which is fascinating.
Still, a worthwhile read for the brief and highly discrete version of her years in slavery, and a glimpse at how she bought her way out. The casualness with which she informs the reader that she was single-handedly supporting herself, and her child, as well as the entire family of her white owners with her dress-making in St Louis, is just gobsmacking.
Overall a much stronger effect on me as a white reader in the 21st century than the work of fiction that inspired me to give it a go.
Free copy for Kindle
Still, a worthwhile read for the brief and highly discrete version of her years in slavery, and a glimpse at how she bought her way out. The casualness with which she informs the reader that she was single-handedly supporting herself, and her child, as well as the entire family of her white owners with her dress-making in St Louis, is just gobsmacking.
Overall a much stronger effect on me as a white reader in the 21st century than the work of fiction that inspired me to give it a go.
Free copy for Kindle
August 10, 2017
Testimonianza storica interessante scritta direttamente da una donna schiava nell' America delle guerre civili., una sarta che riuscì a comprarsi la libertà e andò a lavorare come modista dalla First Lady Lincoln.....
Scrittura un po lenta, piena di lettere e documenti.. ma sempre molto chiara e semplice nell' esposizione.
Scrittura un po lenta, piena di lettere e documenti.. ma sempre molto chiara e semplice nell' esposizione.
December 8, 2019
A fascinating read.
This is an autobiography of Eliabeth Keckley, who spent a chunk of her life working as Mary Todd Lincoln's personal dressmaker. Keckley was born a slave but worked to purchase her freedom and the freedom of her son. She then used her skills as a seamstress to earn a living by starting her own business and making clothes for famous political wives and daughters of her time. Keckley spends time talking about her time as a slave, but the majority of the book talks about the time she spent with the Lincoln family in the White House and her close friendship with Mrs. Lincoln.
This book reads easily and I have to say that I was surprised at so much of what is revealed here. I think that, for the time, it was quite forward and brave of Keckley to release so much about the private lives of the President and his family. Before the book begins, Keckley speaks about why she chose to publish: it seems that she wanted to make sure the world knew the truth about Mrs. Lincoln and that if they only knew her reasons for her actions and words, they would be less harsh and judgmental.
Regarding that truth: wow.
I understand why Mrs. Lincoln was upset at the release of this book. I think the revelations and correspondences released reveal things that the Lincoln family would have rather kept secret. I think this book keeps Mr. Lincoln in high regard while exposing A LOT about his wife.
In truth, Ms. Lincoln seemed like...a lot...and the association with her (particularly during her financial issues after the President's assassination) read like a lot of drama. Quite scandalous.
I recommend this one for people that are interested in more about Mrs. Lincoln, but more than that: this is the personal account of a woman that bought her freedom and became a successful business owner during a volatile time in US history. A remarkable read.
This is an autobiography of Eliabeth Keckley, who spent a chunk of her life working as Mary Todd Lincoln's personal dressmaker. Keckley was born a slave but worked to purchase her freedom and the freedom of her son. She then used her skills as a seamstress to earn a living by starting her own business and making clothes for famous political wives and daughters of her time. Keckley spends time talking about her time as a slave, but the majority of the book talks about the time she spent with the Lincoln family in the White House and her close friendship with Mrs. Lincoln.
This book reads easily and I have to say that I was surprised at so much of what is revealed here. I think that, for the time, it was quite forward and brave of Keckley to release so much about the private lives of the President and his family. Before the book begins, Keckley speaks about why she chose to publish: it seems that she wanted to make sure the world knew the truth about Mrs. Lincoln and that if they only knew her reasons for her actions and words, they would be less harsh and judgmental.
Regarding that truth: wow.
I understand why Mrs. Lincoln was upset at the release of this book. I think the revelations and correspondences released reveal things that the Lincoln family would have rather kept secret. I think this book keeps Mr. Lincoln in high regard while exposing A LOT about his wife.
In truth, Ms. Lincoln seemed like...a lot...and the association with her (particularly during her financial issues after the President's assassination) read like a lot of drama. Quite scandalous.
I recommend this one for people that are interested in more about Mrs. Lincoln, but more than that: this is the personal account of a woman that bought her freedom and became a successful business owner during a volatile time in US history. A remarkable read.
April 12, 2013
After reading the new book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, I was interested in what resources the author had used since the book was historical fiction. It turns out that in 1868, the dressmaker herself had published her memoirs. It was interesting to see how the memoirs became a part of the new book.
It was interesting to have a glimpse of Mrs. Lincoln since it is usually her famous husband that one reads about. In looking up this book to see if our library system had it, I also discovered that they had one about the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. I am looking forward to reading that one, also.
Elizabeth Keckley says that she is writing these memoirs because she has been asked to but also to show Mrs. Lincoln in a good light and as a person whose motives were out of what she felt was the correct thing to do. I am not sure that these were her only motives or even the highest on the list. She was a close friend of Mrs. Lincoln and has a section where she describes how an actress tried to bribe her and use her to get into Mrs. Lincoln's inner circle in order to write a tell-all book and how she refused and would never do such a thing to Mrs. Lincoln but in telling her story, Elizabeth is exposing Mrs. Lincoln! She also hands over personal letters to her from Mrs. Lincoln which she allows to be published so I am not sure she is a noble as she would like others to think of her.
On the flip side, for a slave to have bought not only her freedom but her son's and to know how to read and write plus have a son who attended college is an accomplishment that goes beyond extraordinary in the late 1800's.
It was interesting to have a glimpse of Mrs. Lincoln since it is usually her famous husband that one reads about. In looking up this book to see if our library system had it, I also discovered that they had one about the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. I am looking forward to reading that one, also.
Elizabeth Keckley says that she is writing these memoirs because she has been asked to but also to show Mrs. Lincoln in a good light and as a person whose motives were out of what she felt was the correct thing to do. I am not sure that these were her only motives or even the highest on the list. She was a close friend of Mrs. Lincoln and has a section where she describes how an actress tried to bribe her and use her to get into Mrs. Lincoln's inner circle in order to write a tell-all book and how she refused and would never do such a thing to Mrs. Lincoln but in telling her story, Elizabeth is exposing Mrs. Lincoln! She also hands over personal letters to her from Mrs. Lincoln which she allows to be published so I am not sure she is a noble as she would like others to think of her.
On the flip side, for a slave to have bought not only her freedom but her son's and to know how to read and write plus have a son who attended college is an accomplishment that goes beyond extraordinary in the late 1800's.
June 13, 2017
This book is an American treasure
Published in 1868, it was written by Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her own freedom and eventually became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante.
EK briefly but effectively writes about her years as a slave and then as a free black woman who built a successful business making clothes for the prominent people of the time. However, most of the book centers around Mary Todd Lincoln during and after her years in the White House. This firsthand account written almost 150 years ago brings to life the people and events that we've only read about in the history books.
I thought it sad to learn that EK was castigated for writing this book. She was accused of betraying the confidence of the Lincolns and attempting to profit from her relationship with them. In fact, after its publication, MTL never spoke to her again. This is unfortunate because I believe EK was trying to help the former first lady who had meager means of financial support. There are many letters in the book written by MTL, imploring EK to help her obtain money for her living expenses. It is obvious from the letters that the two women were very close, and easy to see why EK might have felt pressured to help in whatever way she could.
Although much criticism was heaped on the author after the publication of this book, I am glad it has survived for posterity. I believe it should be on the recommended reading list for all high school students in the United States. It is a remarkable book and I give it five stars.
Published in 1868, it was written by Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who bought her own freedom and eventually became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante.
EK briefly but effectively writes about her years as a slave and then as a free black woman who built a successful business making clothes for the prominent people of the time. However, most of the book centers around Mary Todd Lincoln during and after her years in the White House. This firsthand account written almost 150 years ago brings to life the people and events that we've only read about in the history books.
I thought it sad to learn that EK was castigated for writing this book. She was accused of betraying the confidence of the Lincolns and attempting to profit from her relationship with them. In fact, after its publication, MTL never spoke to her again. This is unfortunate because I believe EK was trying to help the former first lady who had meager means of financial support. There are many letters in the book written by MTL, imploring EK to help her obtain money for her living expenses. It is obvious from the letters that the two women were very close, and easy to see why EK might have felt pressured to help in whatever way she could.
Although much criticism was heaped on the author after the publication of this book, I am glad it has survived for posterity. I believe it should be on the recommended reading list for all high school students in the United States. It is a remarkable book and I give it five stars.
March 26, 2015
It’s beyond doubt that Elizabeth Keckley led an incredible life. Keckley’s writing skills, on the other hand, are very doubtful. She casts a veneer of politeness over her tale that is incredibly grating. I don’t blame her for it. As an African American women writing about the private lives of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis I’m sure she felt a lot of pressure not to step on any toes. However, her consideration for her subjects removes her book from the shelf titled “Historical Masterpieces” and moves it down a few shelves into the “Badly-Written-but-still-Historical-Interesting” area. It’s a shame.
Keckley’s story is the stuff of legends; born a slave and through her skill and hard work becoming a dressmaker for Washington’s elite and an intimate of Mary Todd Lincoln. Perhaps it’s too much to wish that she could be a vivid storyteller as well. It’s an inspiring tale but Keckley doesn’t have the skill to make it emotionally resonate. She always keeps the reader at a distance, trying not to disturb our delicate sense of propriety. I wish someone could have told her that subsequent generations would be on her side, that she didn’t have to apologize for her point of view. Keckley’s book is valuable as a first-person account of an important moment of American history, but it’s not a great read.
Keckley’s story is the stuff of legends; born a slave and through her skill and hard work becoming a dressmaker for Washington’s elite and an intimate of Mary Todd Lincoln. Perhaps it’s too much to wish that she could be a vivid storyteller as well. It’s an inspiring tale but Keckley doesn’t have the skill to make it emotionally resonate. She always keeps the reader at a distance, trying not to disturb our delicate sense of propriety. I wish someone could have told her that subsequent generations would be on her side, that she didn’t have to apologize for her point of view. Keckley’s book is valuable as a first-person account of an important moment of American history, but it’s not a great read.
May 2, 2013
First, to respond to some reviews I've read. This is not historical fiction. It is a first person account of events and experiences written from the author's perspective.
Fascinating. There were so many things I learned about Mary Todd Lincoln that I never knew. I had heard, or read, about her being a little less than stable but to read evidence of it was gripping. I was not surprised by the devotion of Lincoln to his wife. That has been documented by many. The extravagant lifestyle of the women of the north was a surprise. Even during war times they maintained their extravagance. I was however surprised at the acceptance of Keckley as a modern businesswoman. My perception of the era was that although slaves were not slaves in the north but servants they were treated no better. I didn't find this to be true according to Keckley.
I was stunned by the letters and documentation that gave credence to Keckley's account of the events in that period of history. I was saddened by the behavior of the first lady to one of the greatest Presidents of our history. She appeared to be self indulgent, vain and completely ignorant of the conflicts of the age. I believe historical accounts have been proven out, that Mrs. Lincoln was a disturbed woman. I imagine as she got older it only got worse.
Keckley's account of her dealings with Mrs. Lincoln was riveting but her own life was equally engrossing. Her journey from slave to businesswoman seems fantastical looking back. Her strength and determination, her belief in freedom seem so different than some of the despondence we've come to accept from slave accounts we read today.
I don't agree with the criticism regarding Keckley publishing the book, including Mrs. Lincoln's letters. We tend to want to hold our public figures to a different standard. First Ladies are often taboo subjects especially when documenting their flaws or misbehavior's. Whether a president is perceived good or bad, his First Lady is usually considered beyond reproach. They are allowed to behave any way they wish because they are sacrificing their life and freedom in the support of the president.
I cannot applaud enough the bravery and loyalty of Keckley. Her deft handling and sympathy of the way she portrays Mrs. Lincoln and the sharing of her fantastical life. Her first person perspective of one of the most defining eras of American history are worth knowing as well as the author herself. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Fascinating. There were so many things I learned about Mary Todd Lincoln that I never knew. I had heard, or read, about her being a little less than stable but to read evidence of it was gripping. I was not surprised by the devotion of Lincoln to his wife. That has been documented by many. The extravagant lifestyle of the women of the north was a surprise. Even during war times they maintained their extravagance. I was however surprised at the acceptance of Keckley as a modern businesswoman. My perception of the era was that although slaves were not slaves in the north but servants they were treated no better. I didn't find this to be true according to Keckley.
I was stunned by the letters and documentation that gave credence to Keckley's account of the events in that period of history. I was saddened by the behavior of the first lady to one of the greatest Presidents of our history. She appeared to be self indulgent, vain and completely ignorant of the conflicts of the age. I believe historical accounts have been proven out, that Mrs. Lincoln was a disturbed woman. I imagine as she got older it only got worse.
Keckley's account of her dealings with Mrs. Lincoln was riveting but her own life was equally engrossing. Her journey from slave to businesswoman seems fantastical looking back. Her strength and determination, her belief in freedom seem so different than some of the despondence we've come to accept from slave accounts we read today.
I don't agree with the criticism regarding Keckley publishing the book, including Mrs. Lincoln's letters. We tend to want to hold our public figures to a different standard. First Ladies are often taboo subjects especially when documenting their flaws or misbehavior's. Whether a president is perceived good or bad, his First Lady is usually considered beyond reproach. They are allowed to behave any way they wish because they are sacrificing their life and freedom in the support of the president.
I cannot applaud enough the bravery and loyalty of Keckley. Her deft handling and sympathy of the way she portrays Mrs. Lincoln and the sharing of her fantastical life. Her first person perspective of one of the most defining eras of American history are worth knowing as well as the author herself. I cannot recommend this book enough.
July 25, 2019
Last Christmas while vacationing in Washington D.C., I picked up this little memoir at the Lincoln Memorial. Keckley's last name rang a bell, and it turns out this is because she is extensively quoted by George Saunders in "Lincoln in the Bardo," one of my favorite books from last year. Her chapter on the death of Willie Lincoln--Keckley helped wash and prepare the boy's body and witnessed his parents' grief--probably helped Saunders in his beautiful portrayal of the President's state of mind after his son's death and burial.
At the time of her acquaintance with the Lincolns, Keckley was a free African-American woman, having bought herself and her young son out of slavery, and a well-respected seamstress in the nation's capital. Mary Lincoln was her client, and later, after the end of the war and the President's assassination, Keckley became one of Mary's closest confidantes as the former First Lady descended into poverty, bitterness, and (some say, though Keckley doesn't agree) mental illness. The Lincolns weren't her only famous friends. She corresponded on several occasions with Frederick Douglass and created gowns for the daughters and wives of other politicians (even, before the war, the wife of Jefferson Davis).
As interesting to me as the portraits of Mary and Abraham Lincoln and her other famous clients, though, were the brief allusions Keckley makes to her prior life as a slave. Though in a later chapter she maintains that she truly loved the family of her final owners, other references point to the truth of the pain of slavery, even for a former slave who was (relatively) well-treated. Her father was sold away to the West when she was very young (their mistress told her mother, "Stop your nonsense...Your husband is not the only slave that has been sold from his family...There are plenty more men about here, and if you want a husband so badly, stop your crying and go and find another"). And as a free woman in the North after the war, her path remained marked by racism. While staying with Mary Lincoln in New York City, Keckley was refused dining service in their hotel's main dining room. "Servants," the clerk told her, "are not allowed to eat in the large dining room."
An articulate memoir whose occasional forays into late 19th-century sentimentalism in no way detract from its interest and relevance. I'd love to see a real biography of Keckley.
At the time of her acquaintance with the Lincolns, Keckley was a free African-American woman, having bought herself and her young son out of slavery, and a well-respected seamstress in the nation's capital. Mary Lincoln was her client, and later, after the end of the war and the President's assassination, Keckley became one of Mary's closest confidantes as the former First Lady descended into poverty, bitterness, and (some say, though Keckley doesn't agree) mental illness. The Lincolns weren't her only famous friends. She corresponded on several occasions with Frederick Douglass and created gowns for the daughters and wives of other politicians (even, before the war, the wife of Jefferson Davis).
As interesting to me as the portraits of Mary and Abraham Lincoln and her other famous clients, though, were the brief allusions Keckley makes to her prior life as a slave. Though in a later chapter she maintains that she truly loved the family of her final owners, other references point to the truth of the pain of slavery, even for a former slave who was (relatively) well-treated. Her father was sold away to the West when she was very young (their mistress told her mother, "Stop your nonsense...Your husband is not the only slave that has been sold from his family...There are plenty more men about here, and if you want a husband so badly, stop your crying and go and find another"). And as a free woman in the North after the war, her path remained marked by racism. While staying with Mary Lincoln in New York City, Keckley was refused dining service in their hotel's main dining room. "Servants," the clerk told her, "are not allowed to eat in the large dining room."
An articulate memoir whose occasional forays into late 19th-century sentimentalism in no way detract from its interest and relevance. I'd love to see a real biography of Keckley.
November 9, 2020
I started reading the novel "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" by Jennifer Chiaverini, and began wondering what parts of the book were facts, and what parts were fiction. Therefore, I decided to lay that book aside for now, and read this book, "Behind The Scenes" an autobiography memoir by Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, the dressmaker of Mrs. Lincoln.
I always enjoy reading autobiographies, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mrs. Keckley's account of her life as a slave and dressmaker. I didn't enjoy how she was treated as a slave, but it was an eyeopener for me. She was a brave lady, a hard worker, to the point that she worked long and difficult hours to make $1200 to buy her and her sons freedom out of slavery.
She was a close friend of the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and publishes many of the letters that Mrs. Lincoln wrote to her. It is a piece of history that otherwise would have been forgotten if not for this brave woman's decision to write about her life and the years she spent in the White House with the Lincoln's.
When Mrs. Keckley published this book in 1868, she was criticized severely. I, personally, view it as a piece of history that would have been lost if not for this brave woman's decision to publish the book. I'm sure at the time she needed the money, but that is the reason most people today write and publish books is for the money, isn't it? If you like books about history, I feel you would like this book, whether you agree with it or not.
This book is a part of my Nook library. I liked this book so I am awarding it 5*****
Now I'm back to reading "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" by Ms. Chiaverini.
I always enjoy reading autobiographies, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mrs. Keckley's account of her life as a slave and dressmaker. I didn't enjoy how she was treated as a slave, but it was an eyeopener for me. She was a brave lady, a hard worker, to the point that she worked long and difficult hours to make $1200 to buy her and her sons freedom out of slavery.
She was a close friend of the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and publishes many of the letters that Mrs. Lincoln wrote to her. It is a piece of history that otherwise would have been forgotten if not for this brave woman's decision to write about her life and the years she spent in the White House with the Lincoln's.
When Mrs. Keckley published this book in 1868, she was criticized severely. I, personally, view it as a piece of history that would have been lost if not for this brave woman's decision to publish the book. I'm sure at the time she needed the money, but that is the reason most people today write and publish books is for the money, isn't it? If you like books about history, I feel you would like this book, whether you agree with it or not.
This book is a part of my Nook library. I liked this book so I am awarding it 5*****
Now I'm back to reading "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" by Ms. Chiaverini.
March 9, 2013
As I read this autobiography written by a former slave, Elizabeth Keckley--later a free black and business woman and dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln--I wondered how she was able to get her book published in 1868. Then I noticed on the verso page that the original was published due to "an act of Congress, in the year 1868" and realized that her writing was considered important enough as a primary source that Congress felt it worthy of publication. And indeed it is. Truly it is mesmerizing! Her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln was unique not only because she was a former slave but also because her friend, Mrs. Lincoln, was raised in a slaveholding, upper class family. Her insider's look at the Lincoln family in the White House during the Civil War, the death of their son Willie, the assassination of the President, and Mrs. Lincoln's financial struggles after her husband's death, is a really interesting and eye-opening experience. After reading other books on this subject, I discovered that there is a controversy about who really wrote this book. Many think that her collaborator wrote it, but I don't see how it could have been accomplished without her inside information and insight.
July 23, 2013
Elizabeth Keckley made dresses for Mary Todd Lincoln when she was in the White House. Keckley was a former slave. She wrote this memoir largely to shed light on the character of Mrs. Lincoln who, at the time, was embroiled in a scandal involving misappropriation of gov't money to buy personal items. Keckley's writing is very elegant and formal; I haven't researched the book as yet to know if she had help in writing it, as she was uneducated and the language is surprising, given her background. Nevertheless, Keckley opens the book with a brief segment detailing her awful early years in slavery then moves us quickly to the Washington, D.C., area, preCivil War. She becomes the dressmaker to the rich and famous, Mrs. Jeff Davis, Mrs. Secretary this, Mrs. Secretary that, and finally, Mrs. Lincoln, First Lady. Although she has her own business, she becomes largely Mrs. Lincoln's personal assistant, traveling with her on her notorious shopping trips to New York and witnessing family moments such as the death of the Lincolns' son Willie and the days preceding and following the Lincoln assassination. It's a skinny little book and a fast and entertaining read.
April 7, 2009
Thought I was a bit surprised to find that Keckley's main focus is not her thirty years as a slave, but rather her time in the service of Mary Todd Lincoln, I was far more surprised at how very readable this book is. Even 100 years later, the book reads as quickly as a gossip novel should, and I found it quite an enjoyable read, though at times I questioned Keckley's avoidance of personally painful topics. Keckley has a personable voice that sheds light on one of the United States' most provocative first ladies, and the book would be a great read for any Lincoln buff or slave literature scholar.
Read
December 16, 2012This memoir is less about Mrs. Keckley's life in bondage than her relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln for whom she seems to have had deep affection. Her first hand recollections of Mrs. Lincoln' s destitution after the assassination is well worth the read. Surprisingly well written, it details the raw deal the widow Lincoln received from a war torn, divided nation. Interestingly, this book was censored when it was first published. No doubt because it exposed the humiliation the martyred president's widow suffered. Even the ex-slaves, led by Frederick Douglass, considered raising money for her aid.
September 26, 2015
Elizabeth Keckley wrote BEHIND THE SCENES OR, THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE, AND FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE in 1868. While the book received a great deal of attention when it was published, both she and the book were largely forgotten until the recent publication of MRS. LINCOLN’S DRESSMAKER by Jennifer Chiaverini in which she both bases and quotes much of her book.
In short, this book is about Mrs. Keckley’s life from her birth as a slave through her years as a seamstress and entrepreneur to her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln following President Lincoln’s assassination. The second focus is on the character, relationships, and actions of Mrs. Lincoln from her time in the White House to a year after President Lincoln’s assassination. It is not at all what one would expect to read from a woman born into slavery.
However, there is so much literary beauty in this book that I am including many examples of what I found that fueled my interest.
In the preface, Mrs. Keckley explained that she wrote the book to “place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before the world.” She continues that both their characters are “at stake, since I have been intimately associated with that lady in the most eventful periods of her life. I have been her confidant...and have been party to all her movements.” The book includes several letters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley verifying their close relationship. One, sent from Chicago after the assassination reads, “My Dear Lizzie,...I consider you my best living friend....Always truly yours, M. L.”
She began by telling the story of her childhood as a slave, born in Virginia. Her father lived on another plantation and was cruelly moved further away. She never saw him again but hoped to see him in heaven. She wrote, “We who are crushed to earth with heavy chains, who travel a weary, rugged, thorny road, groping through midnight darkness on earth, earn our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter.”
Speaking of life as a slave, she observed having what could be interpreted as a negative attitude could result in punishment. “The sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart.”
She did not want to marry and have children because she did not think want to bring a child into slavery. Her son was the result of rape. “The Anglo-Saxon blood as well as the African flowed in his veins; the two commingled–one singing of freedom, the other silent and sullen with generations of despair....By the laws of God and nature, as interpreted by man, one-half of my boy was free, and why should not this fair birthright of freedom remove the curse from the other half...?” But she did marry into a troubling relationship.
Mrs. Keckley writes about a visit she made to the plantation where she had been a slave following her White House years. She was greeted warmly, as she expected to be because of the “warm attachment between master and slave.”
She was an accomplished seamstress and was able to use her skills to help support her family and to buy freedom for herself and her son for $1200. She borrowed the money from her patrons in St. Louis, and was able to repay it.
She then moved to Baltimore, then to Washington City, now known as Washington, D.C. There she found a different life, being treated with respect by merchants and establishing a dressmaking shop serving women such as the wives of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. When Abraham Lincoln became President, her skills brought her to the attention of Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln relied on her not only for her needle skills but also as a confident and friend. (Many in the capital avoided Mrs. Lincoln for many reasons: She was from the West; she was opinionated ;she was jealous; she was suspicious; she was moody.)
Following the death of Willie Lincoln, the second of her sons to die, Mrs. Lincoln entered into a deep depression, she was adamant against allowing her older son Robert enlist in the Army. She thought she had sacrificed enough and that his services were not needed. Eventually he did enlist but was assigned to a less dangerous position.
Mrs. Keckley observed that freedmen came North “looking for liberty, and many of them not knowing it when they found it.” People weren’t as friendly as they were in the South and many former slaves had difficulty coping with independence. Their helplessness was branded idleness. “Charity is never kind,” she wrote. .Freedom brought poverty.
She wrote that “Colored people are wedded to associations and when you destroy these you destroy half the happiness in their lives.” They would rather live in poor, familiar surroundings with those they knew than travel and find what, to others, would be a better life. Many slaves believed they had “earned our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter.”
Education was very important to her. She learned to read and write, against the wishes of her masters, and her son attended college. She began an association to help poor colored people, especially soldiers. In the process, she became acquainted with people such as Frederick Douglass.
When Richmond fell, she and the girls who worked for her were “elated” because “the rebel capital had surrendered to colored troops.” When President Lincoln and his party went there by boat, he asked the band to play one of his favorite tunes, “Dixie.”
After Willie’s death Mary Lincoln went into a deep depression. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated it got worse; Mrs. Keckley and the Lincoln children were her only companions. She refused to see any other callers.
Even though she had a seamstress business to run in Washington, Mrs. Lincoln insisted that Mrs. Keckley accompany her to Chicago where Mrs. Lincoln continued her isolation. While there, Tad’s lack of education becomes very apparent when he refuses to admit that A-p-e doesn’t spell monkey. Mrs. Keckley observed, “Had Tad been a negro boy, not the son of a President, and so difficult to instruct, he would have been called thick-skulled, and would have been held up as an example of the inferiority of race....If a colored boy appears dull, so does a white boy sometimes; and if a whole race is judged by a single example of apparent dullness, another race should be judged by a similar example.”
At the time of President Lincoln’s death, Mrs. Lincoln owed $70,000 for her extravagant personal purchases. She tried several methods to raise money and eventually moved to Chicago. “The colored people...intend to take up collections in their churches for the benefit of Mrs. Lincoln.” When told about it, “Mrs. Lincoln...declined to receive aid from the colored people.” Mrs. Keckley also consulted with Frederick Douglass about ways to help Mrs. Lincoln.
Mrs. Keckley was given several personal items from both President and Mrs. Lincoln. Many were donated to Wilberforce University, a colored college in Ohio, which had been destroyed by fire the night of the assassination. A quilt made from pieces of Mrs. Lincoln’s dresses was donated to Kent State University.
BEHIND THE SCENES OR, THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE, AND FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE is a wonderful, very personal memoire of a remarkable woman living in and reporting on an important part of American history. I heartily recommend it.
This book was an e-book.
FOLLOW-UP: Following the publication of this memoir, Mary Todd Lincoln never spoke to Elizabeth Keckley again. Mrs.Keckley was abandoned by many white patrons, shunned by some blacks for being disloyal to President Lincoln and was no longer able to support herself as a seamstress and designer. She became head of Wilberforce University’s Department of Sewing and Domestic Arts until she was felled by a stroke. She died in the District of Columbia Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in 1907. (Information from CAPITAL DAMES) by Cokie Roberts.
In short, this book is about Mrs. Keckley’s life from her birth as a slave through her years as a seamstress and entrepreneur to her relationship with Mrs. Lincoln following President Lincoln’s assassination. The second focus is on the character, relationships, and actions of Mrs. Lincoln from her time in the White House to a year after President Lincoln’s assassination. It is not at all what one would expect to read from a woman born into slavery.
However, there is so much literary beauty in this book that I am including many examples of what I found that fueled my interest.
In the preface, Mrs. Keckley explained that she wrote the book to “place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before the world.” She continues that both their characters are “at stake, since I have been intimately associated with that lady in the most eventful periods of her life. I have been her confidant...and have been party to all her movements.” The book includes several letters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mrs. Keckley verifying their close relationship. One, sent from Chicago after the assassination reads, “My Dear Lizzie,...I consider you my best living friend....Always truly yours, M. L.”
She began by telling the story of her childhood as a slave, born in Virginia. Her father lived on another plantation and was cruelly moved further away. She never saw him again but hoped to see him in heaven. She wrote, “We who are crushed to earth with heavy chains, who travel a weary, rugged, thorny road, groping through midnight darkness on earth, earn our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter.”
Speaking of life as a slave, she observed having what could be interpreted as a negative attitude could result in punishment. “The sunny face of the slave is not always an indication of sunshine in the heart.”
She did not want to marry and have children because she did not think want to bring a child into slavery. Her son was the result of rape. “The Anglo-Saxon blood as well as the African flowed in his veins; the two commingled–one singing of freedom, the other silent and sullen with generations of despair....By the laws of God and nature, as interpreted by man, one-half of my boy was free, and why should not this fair birthright of freedom remove the curse from the other half...?” But she did marry into a troubling relationship.
Mrs. Keckley writes about a visit she made to the plantation where she had been a slave following her White House years. She was greeted warmly, as she expected to be because of the “warm attachment between master and slave.”
She was an accomplished seamstress and was able to use her skills to help support her family and to buy freedom for herself and her son for $1200. She borrowed the money from her patrons in St. Louis, and was able to repay it.
She then moved to Baltimore, then to Washington City, now known as Washington, D.C. There she found a different life, being treated with respect by merchants and establishing a dressmaking shop serving women such as the wives of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. When Abraham Lincoln became President, her skills brought her to the attention of Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln relied on her not only for her needle skills but also as a confident and friend. (Many in the capital avoided Mrs. Lincoln for many reasons: She was from the West; she was opinionated ;she was jealous; she was suspicious; she was moody.)
Following the death of Willie Lincoln, the second of her sons to die, Mrs. Lincoln entered into a deep depression, she was adamant against allowing her older son Robert enlist in the Army. She thought she had sacrificed enough and that his services were not needed. Eventually he did enlist but was assigned to a less dangerous position.
Mrs. Keckley observed that freedmen came North “looking for liberty, and many of them not knowing it when they found it.” People weren’t as friendly as they were in the South and many former slaves had difficulty coping with independence. Their helplessness was branded idleness. “Charity is never kind,” she wrote. .Freedom brought poverty.
She wrote that “Colored people are wedded to associations and when you destroy these you destroy half the happiness in their lives.” They would rather live in poor, familiar surroundings with those they knew than travel and find what, to others, would be a better life. Many slaves believed they had “earned our right to enjoy the sunshine in the great hereafter.”
Education was very important to her. She learned to read and write, against the wishes of her masters, and her son attended college. She began an association to help poor colored people, especially soldiers. In the process, she became acquainted with people such as Frederick Douglass.
When Richmond fell, she and the girls who worked for her were “elated” because “the rebel capital had surrendered to colored troops.” When President Lincoln and his party went there by boat, he asked the band to play one of his favorite tunes, “Dixie.”
After Willie’s death Mary Lincoln went into a deep depression. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated it got worse; Mrs. Keckley and the Lincoln children were her only companions. She refused to see any other callers.
Even though she had a seamstress business to run in Washington, Mrs. Lincoln insisted that Mrs. Keckley accompany her to Chicago where Mrs. Lincoln continued her isolation. While there, Tad’s lack of education becomes very apparent when he refuses to admit that A-p-e doesn’t spell monkey. Mrs. Keckley observed, “Had Tad been a negro boy, not the son of a President, and so difficult to instruct, he would have been called thick-skulled, and would have been held up as an example of the inferiority of race....If a colored boy appears dull, so does a white boy sometimes; and if a whole race is judged by a single example of apparent dullness, another race should be judged by a similar example.”
At the time of President Lincoln’s death, Mrs. Lincoln owed $70,000 for her extravagant personal purchases. She tried several methods to raise money and eventually moved to Chicago. “The colored people...intend to take up collections in their churches for the benefit of Mrs. Lincoln.” When told about it, “Mrs. Lincoln...declined to receive aid from the colored people.” Mrs. Keckley also consulted with Frederick Douglass about ways to help Mrs. Lincoln.
Mrs. Keckley was given several personal items from both President and Mrs. Lincoln. Many were donated to Wilberforce University, a colored college in Ohio, which had been destroyed by fire the night of the assassination. A quilt made from pieces of Mrs. Lincoln’s dresses was donated to Kent State University.
BEHIND THE SCENES OR, THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE, AND FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE is a wonderful, very personal memoire of a remarkable woman living in and reporting on an important part of American history. I heartily recommend it.
This book was an e-book.
FOLLOW-UP: Following the publication of this memoir, Mary Todd Lincoln never spoke to Elizabeth Keckley again. Mrs.Keckley was abandoned by many white patrons, shunned by some blacks for being disloyal to President Lincoln and was no longer able to support herself as a seamstress and designer. She became head of Wilberforce University’s Department of Sewing and Domestic Arts until she was felled by a stroke. She died in the District of Columbia Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in 1907. (Information from CAPITAL DAMES) by Cokie Roberts.
February 1, 2023
Elizabeth Keckley writes a narrative as challenging, complicated, and human as the history of her country. It shows how she played, in her own way, a vital role in its most difficult, telling moment. She stands firmly alongside contemporaries like Lincoln, Seward, and Grant. Of course, once these men had finished their life’s work, they were allowed to rest. Keckley’s corpse was exhumed and dumped in an unmarked grave in Maryland to make way for the Rhode Island Avenue metro station.
June 16, 2013
I picked up Elizabeth Keckley's book, "Behind the Scenes" at the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois about a week ago. I love shopping for books when I travel, and this book was mentioned in Jennifer Chiaverini's "Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker" which I recently read. In fact, after reading "Behind the Scenes", I see where Ms Chiaverini got a lot of her material for her work of historical fictions!
This is the "original" book about Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. It was written by Mrs. Keckley just a few years after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. His widow was finacially struggling and had decided to sell some of her dresses. But, 'society' frowned on what she was doing. And, Mrs. Keckley says she wrote her story, in part, to set the record straight about Mrs. Lincoln and to show that, though her actions may have been imprudent, her intentions were good.
"Mrs. Lincoln may have been imprudent, but since her intentions were good, she should be judeged more kindly than she has been. But the world do not know what her intentions were; they have only been aquainted with her acts without knowing what feeling guided her actions. If the world are to judge her as I have judged her, they must be introduced to the secret history of her transactions. The veil of mystery must be drawn aside; the origin of a fact must be brought to light with the naked act itself. If I have betrayed confidence in anything I have published, it has been to place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before this world. A breach of trust - if breach it can be called - of this kind is always excusable." (The quote from the Introduction of this book.)
As the book unfolds, Elizabeth (or Lizzie) grows from a young slave girl to a young slave woman who gives birth to the son of a white man. (I liked that, although she mentioned that this was forced upon her, she didn't give any details.) Later, her master allows her to start working some for herself and she eventually buys freedom for both herself and her son. She becomes a well-known dressmaker and eventually starts making dresses and being a modiste for the president's wife, becoming a close friend and confidant.
I was uncomfortable with many of Mrs. Lincoln's letters that were published in the back - several of them begged her to not show the letters to anyone and to burn them after she read them. Understandably, the publishing of this book severed the friendship between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley. But, reading this book 150 years later, I am grateful that these items survived and that I was able to read them.
This was an amazing book. I loved the language, the flow of the true story, and the history involved. I'm surprised that more people on Goodreads haven't read this and I hope others will give it a try! My Penguin Classic edition has only 163 pages, so it's a fairly quick book to read.
This is the "original" book about Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. It was written by Mrs. Keckley just a few years after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. His widow was finacially struggling and had decided to sell some of her dresses. But, 'society' frowned on what she was doing. And, Mrs. Keckley says she wrote her story, in part, to set the record straight about Mrs. Lincoln and to show that, though her actions may have been imprudent, her intentions were good.
"Mrs. Lincoln may have been imprudent, but since her intentions were good, she should be judeged more kindly than she has been. But the world do not know what her intentions were; they have only been aquainted with her acts without knowing what feeling guided her actions. If the world are to judge her as I have judged her, they must be introduced to the secret history of her transactions. The veil of mystery must be drawn aside; the origin of a fact must be brought to light with the naked act itself. If I have betrayed confidence in anything I have published, it has been to place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before this world. A breach of trust - if breach it can be called - of this kind is always excusable." (The quote from the Introduction of this book.)
As the book unfolds, Elizabeth (or Lizzie) grows from a young slave girl to a young slave woman who gives birth to the son of a white man. (I liked that, although she mentioned that this was forced upon her, she didn't give any details.) Later, her master allows her to start working some for herself and she eventually buys freedom for both herself and her son. She becomes a well-known dressmaker and eventually starts making dresses and being a modiste for the president's wife, becoming a close friend and confidant.
I was uncomfortable with many of Mrs. Lincoln's letters that were published in the back - several of them begged her to not show the letters to anyone and to burn them after she read them. Understandably, the publishing of this book severed the friendship between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley. But, reading this book 150 years later, I am grateful that these items survived and that I was able to read them.
This was an amazing book. I loved the language, the flow of the true story, and the history involved. I'm surprised that more people on Goodreads haven't read this and I hope others will give it a try! My Penguin Classic edition has only 163 pages, so it's a fairly quick book to read.
October 2, 2017
A fascinating book written by an exceptional person, Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and friend, Elizabeth Keckley. Keckley describes many domestic scenes (including the heartbreaking incidents of Willie's death and Lincoln's assassination) and I feel that I have a greater understanding of both Mary's character, and the relationship between Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Keckley does not doubt that Abraham loved Mary (as some have done), even though the latter was often a "difficult" person to be around. To my modern eyes, Mary was a bit stroppy and emotional, clearly opinionated and independent-minded — but she doesn't sound at all like the harpy that she has sometimes been portrayed as being.
The reader is also struck by how exceptional Keckley is, and how lucky. Not only was she clearly incredibly bright, as well as a highly talented and hardworking dressmaker, she also manages to carve an incredible "rags to riches" life for herself. Well, not quite. Although she did indeed spend the first 37 years of her life in slavery, and managed to buy herself and her son out of slavery, she was not rich when she was Mary Lincoln's dressmaker, but she was certainly comfortably middle class. (Sadly, she died impoverished in the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington, DC.)
Keckley was also the impetus behind, and one of the founders of, an organization that raised funds from well-to-do free blacks in order to help newly freed ex-slaves, who often arrived in the North with no money or possessions, no education or skills beyond those they had used on the plantations (and cutting cane or picking cotton is not a valuable skill in New York City or Boston).
After her book was published, Keckley was publicly criticised as a traitor for "exposing" Mary, and I expect that that is in large part because "ladies" of the time were not supposed to have strong, independent opinions. So to her contemporary audience, Keckley made Mary look bad. (Although that same contemporary audience also seemed to enjoy hating Mary anyway.) Keckley claims she was trying to vindicate some of Mary's decisions by explaining the motives behind them, but (whether or not this was Keckley's genuine motivation) it backfired. As mentioned in the Introduction to the book, "After the appearance of Behind the Scenes... Mrs Lincoln contemptuously severed all ties with her former friend." This is very sad, because Elizabeth Keckley and Mary were clearly close friends and Keckley was very supportive of Mary as she dealt with her intense grief and shock over the assassination, and her subsequent move from the White House and into relative penury. I would like to know more about this episode and because the Introduction does not provide any more background on this, I give this book 4 rather than 5 stars.
The reader is also struck by how exceptional Keckley is, and how lucky. Not only was she clearly incredibly bright, as well as a highly talented and hardworking dressmaker, she also manages to carve an incredible "rags to riches" life for herself. Well, not quite. Although she did indeed spend the first 37 years of her life in slavery, and managed to buy herself and her son out of slavery, she was not rich when she was Mary Lincoln's dressmaker, but she was certainly comfortably middle class. (Sadly, she died impoverished in the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington, DC.)
Keckley was also the impetus behind, and one of the founders of, an organization that raised funds from well-to-do free blacks in order to help newly freed ex-slaves, who often arrived in the North with no money or possessions, no education or skills beyond those they had used on the plantations (and cutting cane or picking cotton is not a valuable skill in New York City or Boston).
After her book was published, Keckley was publicly criticised as a traitor for "exposing" Mary, and I expect that that is in large part because "ladies" of the time were not supposed to have strong, independent opinions. So to her contemporary audience, Keckley made Mary look bad. (Although that same contemporary audience also seemed to enjoy hating Mary anyway.) Keckley claims she was trying to vindicate some of Mary's decisions by explaining the motives behind them, but (whether or not this was Keckley's genuine motivation) it backfired. As mentioned in the Introduction to the book, "After the appearance of Behind the Scenes... Mrs Lincoln contemptuously severed all ties with her former friend." This is very sad, because Elizabeth Keckley and Mary were clearly close friends and Keckley was very supportive of Mary as she dealt with her intense grief and shock over the assassination, and her subsequent move from the White House and into relative penury. I would like to know more about this episode and because the Introduction does not provide any more background on this, I give this book 4 rather than 5 stars.
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