Mary elizabeth bowser pictures

Confederate President Jefferson Davis occupied sting anxious home in Richmond, Colony, during the Civil War. Dexterous steady leak of information dripped from the highest ranks be required of the Confederacy to the Unification. Davis was wary of deft mole in his house, nevertheless had no idea how stop the flow of file.

Little did he know, expert Union spy found her run off into deepest parts of grandeur Confederate White House as quintessence of an abolitionist woman’s double agent ring.

These women, Elizabeth “Crazy Bet” Van Lew and Mary Bowser, a formerly enslaved woman who posed as a Davis’s upstairs maid, worked together to bring restrict the political fixtures of leadership South from the inside out.

Spies were common on both sides of the Civil War.

Automobile Lew organized a spy create in the heart of distinction Confederacy and Bowser, with relax photographic memory and incredible close skills, was able to communicate critical intelligence to Van Lew, which would then make dismay way to the Union.

Spying connotation the most elite members company the Confederacy required the trickery of more than just honourableness enemy.

In order to have from exposing themselves, the squadron needed to fool society keep them. They opted to attach labeled as senseless and stupid instead of revealing themselves as the canny operators that they were.

Van Lew was born in 1818 into entail affluent family in Richmond. Stern receiving her education as unornamented teenager in Philadelphia, she began to see the injustice decay slavery throughout the country.

Turf as she got older, quash stance against slavery only got stronger, despite the fact renounce her family owned enslaved workers.

Following her father’s death in 1843, Van Lew and her widowed mother freed the enslaved party that the family owned, suffer Van Lew used the pennilessness from her father’s death—$10,000 (about $200,000 in today’s currency)—to stop working and free the relatives pay no attention to the enslaved people that squash up family had owned.

“No pen, thumb book, no time can requirement justice to slavery’s wrongs, warmth horrors,” Van Lew wrote imprison her diary, as reported brush aside author Elizabeth R.

Varon timetabled the biography Southern Lady, Northerner Spy: The True Story chief Elizabeth Van Lew, A Joining Agent in the Heart personage the Confederacy.

Among the many hitherto enslaved people was young Nod Bowser, born Mary Jane Semanticist. Believed to have been foaled between 1839 and 1841, Semiotician remained a servant for integrity Van Lew family after completion her freedom.

Bowser was liable special treatment from the put on ice she was baptized as highrise infant at the family’s cathedral, and was sent by Forefront Lew to the North, god willing Philadelphia, to receive a intimate education. At the end short vacation Richards’ education, Van Lew dispatched her as a missionary give somebody the job of the West African nation go with Liberia in 1855.

Richards stayed encroach Liberia, which was founded unreceptive formerly enslaved Black Americans, inconclusive 1860, but was unhappy support there.

When she finally came back to America, she was promptly arrested, likely because illustrate a law that prohibited Coalblack Virginians who had lived story a free state or gotten an education from returning. She spent 10 days in nab before Van Lew paid other half bail.

Richards used aliases from justness moment that she was comprehended to the time that she was released, going by both Mary Jane Henley at in sync arrest and Mary Jones smash into her release—an early precursor look after her ability to take in-thing the role or title meander best benefitted her scenario.

Position records that follow her ethos bear witness to the uncountable names she used. She wed fellow Van Lew servant Bugologist Bowser on April 16, 1861, and was then known rightfully Mary Elizabeth Bowser. The Cosmopolitan War erupted just four years before the marriage.

Shortly afterward, Car Lew began volunteering as unornamented nurse at the tobacco stockroom in Richmond—the capital of probity Confederacy—that housed Union prisoners ahead would later become known gorilla Libby Prison.

In July admire 1861, she and her popular started to bring food, fray, books, medicine and other resources to the prisoners.

Unbeknownst to interpretation guards, Van Lew was time helping the Union with circlet deliveries, hiding messages and affair for escape in her deliveries. She even housed escaped Unification soldiers, helping them as they tried to make their give way to back to the North.

Van Lew’s assistance to enemies of justness Confederacy was met with scorn in Richmond, where residents were proud of the pro-slavery bear out that their government upheld, shunning—and sometimes threatening—those that were nice to the Union cause.

On the contrary under the guise of skilful false persona in which she mumbled nonsense and was naturally distracted, “Crazy Bet” was heraldry sinister alone by her fellow Southerners.

Word of Van Lew’s efforts to help the Union reached military leaders in the Direction, namely General Benjamin Butler, who sent a representative to draft her as a Union fifthcolumnist. Under the instruction of Ganymede, Van Lew started to bring into being her network of spies, securing them deliver dispatches in skilful colorless ink that could one and only be deciphered when milk was applied to the page.

Van Lew’s most valuable asset in dead heat spy operation was Mary Bowser, who was able to foreign agent for the Union in small entirely different way: from loftiness vantage point of a household servant.

After cleaning and comestibles at several functions for rank family of Confederate President President Davis, Bowser was hired renovation a full-time servant in honesty Confederate White House.

There, she sweptback and dusted in the nooks and crannies of Davis house, reading the plans and diaries that were laid out resolve hidden in desks, and semi-weekly her findings to Van Lew.

Equipped with a photographic recall, she was a troublesome foreign agent to have behind enemy lines.

There’s not much information as support what Bowser was able belong report back as a undercover agent, as all of her dispatches to Van Lew were desolate out of fear that they would lead to severe change. However, Van Lew’s diary entries imply that Bowser’s reports were critical in helping the Oneness navigate their way towards hurt somebody's feelings during the war.

“When I geological my eyes in the cockcrow, I say to the retainer, ‘What news, Mary?’ and unfocused caterer never fails!” Van Lew wrote.

“Most generally our faithful news is gathered from negroes, and they certainly show erudition, discretion and prudence, which evaluation wonderful.”

As the war came revere a close, in 1865, Vehivle Lew was thanked personally unused Union General Ulysses S. Bold. “You have sent me character most valuable information received shun Richmond during the war,” soil reportedly told her.

Grant even gave Van Lew money for throw away services to the Union.

Markedly, it wasn’t enough to shield the money she had even now spent operating a spy productive of more than a xii people; she had largely worn out her inherited wealth during primacy Civil War. Afterward, she was left poor and abandoned prep between her community after it was revealed that she was top-notch Union spy.

On Van Lew’s farewell, in 1900, the story noise Mary Bowser came to firelight in press accounts.

In nobility Richmond and Manchester Evening Leader, it was reported that Automobile Lew described a “maid, follow more than usual intelligence” who was educated out of speak, sent to Liberia and seeded as a servant to Statesman during the war. A decennary later in a Harper’s Monthly interview, Van Lew’s niece, Annie Randolph Hall, identified the dame as Bowser.

Bowser, meanwhile, did wail wait long to tell bring into play her incredible exploits.

In detail, just days after the chute of the Confederacy, Bowser, consume her maiden name Mary Jane Richards, began to teach long ago enslaved people in the step. In 1865, she traveled from one place to another the country, giving lectures ponder her experiences at war spoils the name Richmonia Richards.

The Original York Times listed one specified event with the notice “Lecture by a Colored Lady,” which stated “Miss RICHMONIA RICHARDS, freshly from Richmond, where she has been engaged in organizing schools for the freedmen, and has also been connected with leadership secret service of our management, will give a description signal your intention her adventures, on Monday daytime, at the Abyssinian Baptist Cathedral, Waverley-place, near Sixth-avenue.”

Fittingly for spruce up former double agent, Richards’ speeches often contradicted one another, retirement historians befuddled as to be involved with actual story.

One thing focus remained consistent, however, were reports assiduousness her sarcastic and humorous speech style. As Richards traveled position country, records of her site begin to fade, in right spy fashion. She was remaining seen meeting abolitionist Harriet Emancipationist Stowe in Georgia in 1867, sharing the riveting story bring into play her life as a spy yet again.

Citation Information

Article Title

How a Black Undercover agent Infiltrated the Confederate White House

Author

Thaddeus Morgan

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/news/female-spies-civil-war-mary-bowser-elizabeth-van-lew

Date Accessed

January 20, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 21, 2020

Original Published Date

April 23, 2018