Elizabeth Keckly’s Union War

What would a formerly enslaved woman have to say about the critical transformations that took place during the American Civil War? In the 2012 film Lincoln, Steven Spielberg depicts a bustling White House, with black and white men and women moving in and out of the president’s home and tending to the daily business and tasks of the Executive Mansion. One black woman in particular makes a modest appearance in this account of Lincoln’s presidency during the Civil War. Audiences might place her as one of the many black servants that worked in the White House, but some would recognize