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Elizabeth Keckley's Thirty Years A Slave And Four Years In The White House

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Prior to reading Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, I anticipated I would be reading about a woman in slavery with an unhappy past. I did not expect her story to end in a positive way. My expectations were to read of a woman bound in slavery that wrote memoirs of her saddened life and that life would continue until the day she died. I expected her to leave the home of a master and possibly become a maid or cook in the White House. I did not envision her becoming as successful as she did, her story far exceeded my expectations. Elizabeth Keckley's narrative had a positive outcome, once she was able to buy her freedom as well as her son's. She moved North and became popular
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This fear, perhaps more than any other aspect of the institution, revealed the deeply dehumanizing horror of slavery." (p. 10). This line from the past presents empathy and an understanding of why Tubman would risk her life so many times to save hundreds of slaves. It also gives background information on slavery that is vital to the understanding of the horrors of slavery. On the downside, this organizational style allows for numerous amounts of unnecessary details to be included in the biography.

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