Elizabeth Keckley's "Behind the Scenes at the Lincoln White House

[L Verge]

Toia, I cried first when learning that her beloved son was killed near the beginning of the Civil War. He had passed for white and enlisted in the Union Army. I have always felt that the loss of children is what forged the friendship between Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly. Mrs. Keckly devoted herself to helping the newly freed men and women, and Mrs. Lincoln never gets the credit I think she deserves for helping in that cause also.

P.S. The photo of Elizabeth Keckly that we used on the cover of that program came to us "quietly" via Roger's former 8th grade student, the well-known and well-respected Lincoln scholar Thomas Schwartz. Most people are used to seeing a younger Lizzie in what appears to be slave garb. That is actually an artist's sketch that does not even resemble Mrs. Keckly and was not intended to - if I am correct.