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Reviews
Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley
pandorasirens's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Slavery
juliacreson's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I read Elizabeth Keckley’s memoir Behind the Scenes as a part of a research project. I find the book interesting and educational about society right as the civil war was about to begin. Keckley, as a woman born into enslavement but who earned her own freedom, provides her own perception of historical events. While scholarship often focuses on her discussion of Mary Todd Lincoln, Keckley’s narrative enables the contemporary reader a look into navigating the racial, gendered, and classed tensions of the mid-nineteenth century.