Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House - Brossura

Keckley, Elizabeth

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0252070208 ISBN 13: 9780252070204

Casa editrice: Univ of Illinois Pr, 2001

Riassunto

Born into slavery, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (ca. 1824-1907) rose to a position of respect as a talented dressmaker and designer to the political elite of Washington, D.C., and a confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. In this unusual memoir, Keckley offers a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the formal and informal networks that African Americans established among themselves, as well as an insider's perspective of the men who made Civil War politics and the women who influenced them.
 
As an enslaved young woman, Keckley was moved to the rough frontier city of St. Louis, where she began working as a modiste, or dress designer. She eventually was able to buy her freedom and went to Washington, D.C., where she established herself as modiste to some of the wives and daughters of high-level politicians and officers. Before long, she was supplying not only beautiful clothing but also a sympathetic ear to Mary Todd Lincoln.
 
Keckley's descriptions of the Lincolns at home reveal touching, unguarded moments of laughter, discussion, and affection. She witnessed the grief of both parents at the death of their son Willie and Mary Todd's prostration after the president's assassination. In dire financial straits, Mary Todd turned to Keckley, who spent several months in New York helping the former First Lady sell her elegant clothing.
 
President of the Contraband Relief Association and a friend of Frederick Douglass and other prominent African-American leaders, Keckley emerges as a remarkable, resourceful, and principled woman who helped mediate between black and white communities. Frances Smith Foster's introduction traces the book's reception history and fills in biographical gaps in the text.
 

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull'autore

Frances Smith Foster, Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and director of the Institute for Women's Studies at Emory University, is the author of Written by Herself: Literary Production of African American Women, 1746-1892 and other books.
 

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Univ of Illinois Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2001
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0252070208
• ISBN 13: 9780252070204
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 270
• Redattore: Foster Frances Smith
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Paesi Bassi