Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave, by Jennifer Fleischner, Broadway Books; 2003; $26.00
Three months well into 2004, there is but one book that remains in the cache of literary works that debuted the previous year that I find irresistible enough to not only mention, but strongly advise as reading material. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave is a fascinating and equally unnerving account of two women who built a strong bond of friendship -- an impossible relationship that unearthed a racially divided nation's possibilities. A relationship that was solid enough to endure changing times and tragedy, but too fragile to withstand opinion, rumor and innuendo.
Author Jennifer Fleischner, chair of the English department at Adelphi University and the recipient of a one year Mellon Faculty Fellowship in Afro-American studies at Harvard with her latest book, unravels many longstanding mysteries of interracial relationships--platonic and sexual--during slavery. What's more, Fleischner's revelations provide such infinite details that her writing comes across with an acute accuracy.
It is certain that Fleischner, whose previous work includes Mastering Slavery: Memory, Family, and Identity in Women's Slave Narratives, is determined to let the facts speak for themselves.
"There are two other restorations, which result from my wish to be true to these women's own representations of themselves...[I noticed] that [Elizabeth] spelled [her name] 'Keckly' not 'Keckley' as it appears in her published memoir and in the history books. I also noticed that she signed her first name 'Lizzy' not 'Lizzie,' as Mary Lincoln spelled it... if I was to restore Elizabeth Keckly's 'voice' I must also restore her name, as she knew it..."
Fleischner also gives restoration to what most historians notoriously overlook or fail to mention concerning First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. "I have also done something like this for Mary Lincoln, who dropped the Todd after her marriage and never used it when signing her name. In my book she is referred to as Mary Lincoln."
Historical corrections and revelations abound throughout the book. One of the more shocking revelations (amongst many) is the author's admission of her personal views concerning the two women's camaraderie. "The more deeply I became involved in their lives, the more fascinated I became by the dynamic of their 'friendship'--their term for their relationship. But, I was troubled by a too easy use of the word. What kind of friendship was it, after all, when the Black woman who was paid for her time deferred to the white woman who, for her part, turned to her 'friend' out of a need most triggered whenever she felt betrayed and abandoned by the white world?"
Other than the Prologue, where Fleischner gives readers some insight into her thoughts and feelings on her subject matter, the book is dominated by supported research, documented materials and quotes from the people of whom she writes.
The book delves separately into the genealogies of both women, only for the reader to discover that Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly are related by marriage. Elizabeth Keckly's father (and owner) was Colonel Armistead Burwell, (a Virginian and veteran of the War of 1812) who sired her with a slave, Mammy Aggy (Agnes Hobbs). A cousin of Burwell's married a Todd, a distant relative of Mary Lincoln.
Concerning the women's respective childhood, the book discloses that Mary Todd grew up in a privileged, white Kentucky household that had everything except strong parenting--due to fault and default. Todd's father was emotionally and most times physically absent from his children's lives while he maintained varied professions as a lawyer, entrepreneur and an aspiring political career. Todd's mother died while giving birth to a younger brother. During such upheaval, Todd found solace in the arms of a Black slave (whom her father owned) that became a surrogate mother of sorts to the Todd children. This is true, according to Mrs. Lincoln's memoirs as well as her siblings, even though their father soon remarried, providing his children a stepmother, who ultimately made a "distinction" between the first set of Todd children and the children she made within her marriage to the senior Todd.
Elizabeth "Lizzy" Hobbs astonishingly also grew up with privilege--at least as privileged as a child born into slavery could be. We find that the Burwells allowed their slaves to marry if they wished--a rare and somewhat "kind" gesture. Hobbs, who would later marry a freed-Black slave named James Keckly after buying her own freedom, was in theory the daughter of George Pleasant Hobbs. Burwell, although married with children, still fathered Lizzy out of wedlock with his slave Agnes, whom he had previously sanctioned to marry Hobbs (who belonged to another owner and thusly, lived on another nearby plantation).
Nevertheless, the girl, who was born under dubious circumstances bore her Black father's name and her white father's face. Her "mulatto" features made way for the young girl becoming a "slave in the middle" or a house Negro. Here, the young woman would gain favor with her father, i.e., master and his wife (her mistress). She would learn to read and write (a skill both of her Black parents, although slaves, also possessed) and sew--a trade she instinctively learned from her mother.
It would be her sheer craftsmanship at textiles, patterns and knitting that would afford her the ability to purchase her freedom. Her talent would also enable her to marry the love of her life, start a new life in the North, garner the praise of high-society white women and be sought after by women who aspired to be upper echelon.
Here, fate would intertwine the paths of two young women, roughly a year apart in age, who were on the fast track to success. Mary Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, a political outsider who desperately wanted to merge into and dominate Washington's social scene. Lizzy Keckly, an ex-slave, whose profession as a dressmaker made her the nation's top designer for elite and cosmopolitan crowds.
The book speaks so poignantly on the issues, mores and mindsets of sex, marriage and friendship--those that cut across racial lines and those that don't.
While reading this book, one will possibly be amazed to find that society's attitude on these matters, despite many changes over a few hundred years, have hardly changed. This book will provide many answers for those who have ever pondered or questioned the dynamics of interracial relationships.
Article copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.
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