Behind the Scenes
eBook - ePub

Behind the Scenes

Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House

  1. 180 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Behind the Scenes

Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House

About this book

The revealing memoir of a woman who bought her freedom from slavery and became a White House dressmaker and confidant to Mary Todd Lincoln.
Born into slavery in Virginia, Elizabeth Keckley was whipped, sexually abused, and separated from her mother for long stretches of time. When her master eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri, Keckley resolved to buy her freedom. She put to use her talents as a seamstress and found patrons among the wives of the city's elite, eventually earning enough money to move with her young son to Washington, DC.
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In the nation's capital, Keckley started her own business and soon had commissions from the wives of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stephen A. Douglas, and Edwin Stanton. Hired by Mary Todd Lincoln to be her personal modiste, Keckley formed a close friendship with the first lady, a relationship strengthened by the tragedies they endured together, including the deaths of their sons and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
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Published to great controversy in 1868, Behind the Scenes offers an intimate and revealing portrait of life inside the White House as well as the stirring story of one woman's fight to rise above the horrors of slavery. Frequently cited in studies of the Civil War and biographies of the Lincolns, it is a must read for students of American history.
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This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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Yes, you can access Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley,Elizabeth Keckley in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. PREFACE
  5. CHAPTER I. WHERE I WAS BORN
  6. CHAPTER II. GIRLHOOD AND ITS SORROWS
  7. CHAPTER III. HOW I GAINED MY FREEDOM
  8. CHAPTER IV. IN THE FAMILY OF SENATOR JEFFERSON DAVIS
  9. CHAPTER V. MY INTRODUCTION TO MRS. LINCOLN
  10. CHAPTER VI. WILLIE LINCOLN’S DEATH-BED
  11. CHAPTER VII. WASHINGTON IN 1862-3
  12. CHAPTER VIII. CANDID OPINIONS
  13. CHAPTER IX. BEHIND THE SCENES
  14. CHAPTER X. THE SECOND INAUGURATION
  15. CHAPTER XI. THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
  16. CHAPTER XII. MRS. LINCOLN LEAVES THE WHITE HOUSE
  17. CHAPTER XIII. THE ORIGIN OF THE RIVALRY BETWEEN MR. DOUGLAS AND MR. LINCOLN
  18. CHAPTER XIV. OLD FRIENDS
  19. CHAPTER XV. THE SECRET HISTORY OF MRS. LINCOLN’S WARDROBE IN NEW YORK
  20. APPENDIX: LETTERS FROM MRS. LINCOLN TO MRS. KECKLEY.
  21. Copyright