A01=Elizabeth Keckley
abraham lincoln
american
american civil war
american history
american history books
Author_Elizabeth Keckley
autobiographies
autobiography
biographies
biographies of famous people
biography
books for women
Category=DNB
Category=NHK
Category=NHTS
civil war
civil war books
civil war history
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
feminism
gettysburg
historical biographies
historical books
history
history books
history gifts
history teacher gifts
inspirational books for women
memoirs
reconstruction
robert e lee
slavery
ulysses s grant
united states history
us history
women
women in history
Product details
- ISBN 9780143039242
- Weight: 159g
- Dimensions: 128 x 196mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jul 2005
- Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This fascinating autobiography describes one woman's life as a slave and subsequently her four years in Lincoln's White House during the Civil War. Through the eyes of this black woman, a seamstress and dressmaker who was only a few years removed from being a 'slave for life', we see historical figures and events ranging from the Lincolns in their private chambers to the return to Richmond after the fall of the Confederate capital.
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in slavery in Virginia around 1818 and purchased her freedom in 1855. Keckley's memoir Behind the Scenes was published in 1868. The book included revelations about Mary Lincoln's private life, and, feeling betrayed, the former First Lady shunned Keckley. Her dressmaking business declined, and she died in poverty in 1907 at the Home for Destitute Women and Children in Washington, one of the institutions she had helped to found.
