| Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House Contributor(s): Keckley, Elizabeth (Author) |
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ISBN: 1684221129 ISBN-13: 9781684221127 Publisher: Martino Fine Books OUR PRICE: $4.74 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Historical - Biography & Autobiography | Women - History | African American |
| Dewey: B |
| Physical Information: 0.38" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (0.58 lbs) 166 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Topical - Civil War - Topical - Black History - Geographic Orientation - Virginia - Locality - Washington, D.C. - Geographic Orientation - District of Columbia - Geographic Orientation - North Carolina - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 2017 Reprint of 1868 Edition. An autobiographical narrative, Behind the Scenes traces Elizabeth Keckley's life from her enslavement in Virginia and North Carolina to her time as seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House during Abraham Lincoln's administration. It was quite controversial at the time of its release--an uncompromising work that transgressed Victorian boundaries between public and private life, and lines of race, gender, and society. Keckley's first 30 years were spent as a slave, and the cruelties and injustices of her life are related clearly and succinctly. This enlightening memoir recounts how she was beaten and how she became a dressmaker to support her master and his family, how determined she was to purchase freedom for herself and her son, how her friends in St. Louis came to her aid, how she became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and close friend, and her perspectives and experiences from her inside view of Lincoln's White House. Keckley emerges as a calm and confident person who speaks of a very tumultuous period of American history. |