Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House

An autobiographical narrative, Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House traces Elizabeth Keckley's life from her enslavement in Virginia and North Carolina to her time as seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House during Abraham Lincoln's administration. It was quite controversial at the time of its release—an uncompromising work that transgressed Victorian boundaries between public and private life, and lines of race, gender, and society.