behind the scenes in the lincoln white house

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. Lincoln's Wardrobe in New YorkĮlizabeth 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. Lincoln Old Friends The Secret History of Mrs. Lincoln Leaves the White House The Origin of the Rivalry Between Mr.

Lincoln Willie Lincoln's Death-bed Washington in 1862-3 Candid Opinions Behind the Scenes The Second Inauguration The Assassination of President Lincoln Mrs. Where I Was Born Girlhood and Its Sorrows How I Gained My Freedom In the Family of Senator Jefferson Davis My Introduction to Mrs. Among them were Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis and Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. She created an independent business in the capital based on clients who were the wives of the government elite. She was best known as the personal modiste and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, the First Lady. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818 – 1907) was a former slave who became a successful seamstress, civil activist, and author in Washington, DC. It was also her claim as a businesswoman to be part of the new mixed-race, middle-class that was visible among the leadership of the black community. 'Behind the Scenes' is both a slave narrative and a portrait of the First Family, especially Mary Todd Lincoln, and is considered controversial for breaking privacy about them.

Behind the scenes in the lincoln white house