Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave-Fast Shipping

Description

A vibrant social history set against the backdrop of the Antebellum south and theCivil War that recreates the lives and friendship of two exceptional women: FirstLady Mary Todd Lincoln and her mulatto dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckly.

“I consideryou my best living friend,” Mary Lincoln wrote to Elizabeth Keckly in 1867, and indeedtheirs was a close, if tumultuous, into slavery, mulatto ElizabethKeckly was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, confidante, and mainstay during the difficultyears that the Lincolns occupied the White House and the early years of Mary’s she was a fascinating woman in her own right, Lizzy had bought her freedom in 1855 and come to Washington determined to make a life for herself. She was independent and already well-establishedas the dressmaker to the Washington elite when she was first hired by Mary Lincolnupon her arrival in the nation’s capital. Mary Lincoln hired Lizzy in part because she was considered a“high society” seamstress and Mary, as an outsider in Washington’s social circles, wasdesperate for social cachet. With her husband struggling to keep the nation together,Mary turned increasingly to her seamstress for companionship, support, and advice—andover the course of those trying years, Lizzy Keckly became her confidante and closestfriend.

Historian Jennifer Fleischnerallows us to glimpse the intimate dynamics of this unusual friendship for the firsttime, and traces the pivotal events that enabled these two women to forge such an unlikely bond at a time when relationsbetween blacks and whites were tearing the nation apart. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly is a remarkable work ofscholarship that explores the legacy of slavery and sheds new light on the LincolnWhite House.