Behind the Scenes

In the winter of 1861, a formerly enslaved woman walked the halls of the White House, sewing dresses for the wife of the president of the United States. Elizabeth Keckley had purchased her own freedom with needle and thread, and now she found herself among the most powerful people in America during its bloodiest war. Her memoir, published in 1868, remains one of the most intimate accounts of the Lincoln White House ever written by someone who was neither politician nor guest. Keckley writes with sharp memory and surprising candor about her life: her childhood in slavery, her desperate struggle to earn enough money to buy her freedom, and the strange irony of becoming indispensable to Mary Lincoln while the nation tore itself apart. She offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of the Lincolns that no outsider could provide, including the devastating loss of their son Willie and the strains in the presidential marriage. The book also chronicles theprice Keckley paid for speaking her truth when publication brought ostracism from the very society she had fought her way into.