By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.

Special to The Courier

In 2018, I wrote a two-part story about Elizabeth Keckley, a slave and dressmaker who became close friends with the Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln families in Washington after buying freedom for herself and her son. She then wrote a tell-all book in 1868, “Behind the Scenes,” which was full of intimate, personal details about President and Mrs. Lincoln. Scholars who have tried to understand the Lincolns and this era in U.S. politics have valued this book. It was very controversial, but riveting, and impregnated with detail. I could not professionally finish my review of the book without adding a third part; here it is.

Romantic history of Mrs. Lincoln

Keckley, the former slave, ironically wrote a chapter on the origin of the rivalry

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