Back to the Classics #8

I read this book for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020.

Classic by a Person of Color. Dave Chappelle says, “There’s only one thing that’s going to save this country from itself. Same thing that always saves this country from itself. And that is African-Americans. And I know the question a lot of y’all have in your minds is, should we do it? Fuck yeah, we should do it. No matter what they say or how they make you feel, remember, this is your country, too. It is incumbent upon us to save our country. And you know what we have to do. Every able-bodied African-American must register for a legal firearm. That’s the only way they’ll change the law.”

Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House - Elizabeth Keckley

Born in slavery, the author, from at the age of 18, was raped for four years by a white man. She was impregnated by him and bore his son.  She lost this son, who had joined the US Army, when he was killed in his first battle of the Civil War.

Determined and talented with her needle, she worked as a seamstress (custom dressmaking was required before mass production of clothes). She was able to buy her and her son’s freedom.  She built her professional reputation to the point where extremely influential women, such as Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson, recommended her to others. That was how Mary Lincoln came to hire her and dominate virtually all her time.

Mrs. Keckley was the modiste to Mary Lincoln for the entire time that the Lincolns were living in the White House. During that time, she also became Mary Lincoln's closest friend and confidant. This book details account her time spent working in the White House and she wrote about not only what was happening with Mrs. Lincoln, but the entire family too. She had a friendly relationship with Mr. Lincoln as well as with the sons Willie, Tad, and Robert.

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley had a complicated relationship. Mary Lincoln grew up assuming other people would do things for her and make things right when the going got rough. Mrs. Keckley took on that role, out of true liking, pity, and gratitude because Mrs. L.’s husband was the Moses of her people. When Lincoln was assassinated, Mary sent for Mrs. Keckley, though that terrible night Mrs. Keckley was unable to get past the jumpy guards.

Mrs. Keckley was a remarkable woman. She learned to read, write and figure. She owned her own dressmaking business and employed seamstresses.  She founded the Contraband Relief Association in August 1862. Mrs. Keckley said that the CRA was formed “for the purpose, not only of relieving he wants of those destitute people, but also to sympathize with, and advise them.”   

After leaving the White House, Mrs. Lincoln had little money. Keckley wrote this book to help Mrs. Lincoln financially. For her pains, she was roundly criticized by a racist sexist classist society for writing about and judging the white people that employed her. The backlash ended her career and livelihood as a dressmaker.

She left Washington in 1892 to teach home economics at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, but poor health forced her to return and spend her final years in the Home for Destitute Women and Children, which she had helped to establish. She died of a stroke in 1907.