It's a fast, absorbing read, conveying a clear picture of a smart woman, but leaving so many fascinating questions unanswered. 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. 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. Lincoln's sudden decision to begin Tad Lincoln's education. Lincoln hard, the more because she found herself without recourse after the assassination.īits that stick out are the smallest anecdotes, like Mrs. She had accrued an enormous debt by the time of her husband's death, that apparently Lincoln never knew about. Lincoln comes off as a smart, ambitious, loyal, opinionated, and very volatile woman. Keckley by her own admission seems to be trying for objectivity and honesty as she reports about a complicated (difficult) subject. 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 gets by her slavery years at a brisk pace, without lingering on the beatings, rape, etc. The anecdotes reported in this slim history have the ring of truth, and Lincoln and his family glimmer to life in them. How 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. 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. Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, and Mrs.
Through shrewd networking and hard work, she ended up making gowns and dresses for more notable wives such as Mrs. in the spring of 1860, where she had the country's most elite women of the time requesting her services. 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.Īfter several years in St. Elizabeth 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.
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