Elizabeth (Lizzie) Keckley was a free black woman who became Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and later her close friend. This is a short memoir of her early life as a slave, before she bought her own freedom, and of her years in the White House, as seamstress and companion, and afterwards, when she aided Mrs. Lincoln following the assassination of the President.
Keckley's years as a slave are only briefly recounted; contrary to most slave narratives, she remembers her owners fondly, for the most part. She acknowledges the injustice of slavery, particularly the cleavage of families, but has little complaint with the way she was treated. As a free woman, she sewed for some of Washington's most powerful, including Mrs. Jefferson Davis and Mrs. Robert E. Lee. She developed a friendship with Mrs. Lincoln, who was shunned by the Washington elite and thus had few close friends while her husband was president. Keckley is obliquely critical of the President's wife for her profligate spending, but does not relate any indications of mental illness, which have been claimed by critics of the time and by historians.
Elizabeth Keckley was criticized by many at the time of this book's appearance for betraying Mary Lincoln's confidence. It would be interesting to find out if their friendship continued after the publication.
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