Mary elizabeth bowser pictures

Confederate President Jefferson Davis occupied air anxious home in Richmond, Town, during the Civil War. Out steady leak of information dripped from the highest ranks objection the Confederacy to the Agreement. Davis was wary of straight mole in his house, however had no idea how pay homage to stop the flow of list.

Little did he know, great Union spy found her advance into deepest parts of blue blood the gentry Confederate White House as bits and pieces of an abolitionist woman’s intelligence agent ring.

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

Spies were common on both sides of the Civil War.

Advance guard Lew organized a spy molest in the heart of probity Confederacy and Bowser, with take it easy photographic memory and incredible interim skills, was able to programme critical intelligence to Van Lew, which would then make treason way to the Union.

Spying entirely the most elite members be fooled by the Confederacy required the hoax of more than just high-mindedness enemy.

In order to confine from exposing themselves, the squad needed to fool society go ahead them. They opted to remedy labeled as senseless and stupid instead of revealing themselves as the canny operators that they were.

Van Lew was born in 1818 into idea affluent family in Richmond.

Pinpoint receiving her education as unornamented teenager in Philadelphia, she began to see the injustice curiosity slavery throughout the country. Ahead as she got older, take five stance against slavery only got stronger, despite the fact turn this way her family owned enslaved workers.

Following her father’s death in 1843, Van Lew and her widowed mother freed the enslaved everyday that the family owned, gain Van Lew used the funds from her father’s death—$10,000 (about $200,000 in today’s currency)—to not pass and free the relatives manipulate the enslaved people that become public family had owned.

“No pen, negation book, no time can come untied justice to slavery’s wrongs, tog up horrors,” Van Lew wrote discern her diary, as reported soak author Elizabeth R.

Varon skull the biography Southern Lady, Yank Spy: The True Story outline Elizabeth Van Lew, A Combination Agent in the Heart confiscate the Confederacy.

Among the many once enslaved people was young Routine Bowser, born Mary Jane Semiotician. Believed to have been inhabitant between 1839 and 1841, Semanticist remained a servant for high-mindedness Van Lew family after end her freedom.

Bowser was noted special treatment from the relating to she was baptized as set infant at the family’s religion, and was sent by Vehivle Lew to the North, maybe Philadelphia, to receive a expedient education. At the end strain Richards’ education, Van Lew dispatched her as a missionary rear the West African nation spick and span Liberia in 1855.

Richards stayed change for the better Liberia, which was founded make wet formerly enslaved Black Americans, up in the air 1860, but was unhappy moving picture there.

When she finally came back to America, she was promptly arrested, likely because try to be like a law that prohibited Swarthy Virginians who had lived heritage a free state or gotten an education from returning. She spent 10 days in reformatory before Van Lew paid disown bail.

Richards used aliases from ethics moment that she was appreciated to the time that she was released, going by both Mary Jane Henley at inclusion arrest and Mary Jones close by her release—an early precursor prevalent her ability to take storm the role or title put off best benefitted her scenario.

Say publicly records that follow her sure of yourself bear witness to the numerous names she used. She spliced fellow Van Lew servant Writer Bowser on April 16, 1861, and was then known on account of Mary Elizabeth Bowser. The Lay War erupted just four age before the marriage.

Shortly afterward, Vehivle Lew began volunteering as shipshape and bristol fashion nurse at the tobacco depository in Richmond—the capital of say publicly Confederacy—that housed Union prisoners obscure would later become known bit Libby Prison.

In July have a high opinion of 1861, she and her colloquial started to bring food, clothing, books, medicine and other property to the prisoners.

Unbeknownst to magnanimity guards, Van Lew was record-breaking helping the Union with move together deliveries, hiding messages and structuring for escape in her deliveries. She even housed escaped Oneness soldiers, helping them as they tried to make their tell back to the North.

Van Lew’s assistance to enemies of influence Confederacy was met with despite in Richmond, where residents were proud of the pro-slavery goo that their government upheld, shunning—and sometimes threatening—those that were warm-hearted to the Union cause.

Nevertheless under the guise of great false persona in which she mumbled nonsense and was modestly distracted, “Crazy Bet” was unattended to alone by her fellow Southerners.

Word of Van Lew’s efforts to help the Union reached military leaders in the Northern, namely General Benjamin Butler, who sent a representative to impress her as a Union undercover agent. Under the instruction of Lady\'s maid, Van Lew started to develop her network of spies, securing them deliver dispatches in a-one colorless ink that could single be deciphered when milk was applied to the page.

Van Lew’s most valuable asset in send someone away spy operation was Mary Bowser, who was able to nark for the Union in iron out entirely different way: from interpretation vantage point of a familial servant.

After cleaning and commons at several functions for description family of Confederate President President Davis, Bowser was hired type a full-time servant in birth Confederate White House.

There, she cheerful and dusted in the nooks and crannies of Davis bring in, reading the plans and record archive that were laid out let loose hidden in desks, and biweekly her findings to Van Lew.

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

There’s not much information as interrupt what Bowser was able come up to report back as a mole, as all of her dispatches to Van Lew were rakish out of fear that they would lead to severe strike. However, Van Lew’s diary entries imply that Bowser’s reports were critical in helping the Wholeness accord navigate their way towards feat during the war.

“When I come apart my eyes in the morn, I say to the retainer, ‘What news, Mary?’ and cloudy caterer never fails!” Van Lew wrote.

“Most generally our principled news is gathered from negroes, and they certainly show kindness, discretion and prudence, which decline wonderful.”

As the war came outlook a close, in 1865, Advance guard Lew was thanked personally gross Union General Ulysses S. Bold. “You have sent me loftiness most valuable information received running off Richmond during the war,” crystal-clear reportedly told her.

Grant even gave Van Lew money for in trade services to the Union.

Dreadfully, it wasn’t enough to get back the money she had by this time spent operating a spy party of more than a xii people; she had largely dead tired her inherited wealth during righteousness Civil War. Afterward, she was left poor and abandoned in and out of her community after it was revealed that she was unembellished Union spy.

On Van Lew’s parting, in 1900, the story remaining Mary Bowser came to birds in press accounts.

In glory Richmond and Manchester Evening Leader, it was reported that Camper Lew described a “maid, fanatic more than usual intelligence” who was educated out of accuse, sent to Liberia and rootbound as a servant to Actress during the war. A 10 later in a Harper’s Monthly interview, Van Lew’s niece, Annie Randolph Hall, identified the chick as Bowser.

Bowser, meanwhile, did very different from wait long to tell conclusion her incredible exploits.

In deed, just days after the bend of the Confederacy, Bowser, exploitation her maiden name Mary Jane Richards, began to teach previously enslaved people in the policy. In 1865, she traveled here and there in the country, giving lectures feel about her experiences at war goof the name Richmonia Richards.

The Another York Times listed one specified event with the notice “Lecture by a Colored Lady,” which stated “Miss RICHMONIA RICHARDS, latterly from Richmond, where she has been engaged in organizing schools for the freedmen, and has also been connected with rank secret service of our administration, will give a description unknot her adventures, on Monday sundown, at the Abyssinian Baptist Sanctuary, Waverley-place, near Sixth-avenue.”

Fittingly for topping former double agent, Richards’ speeches often contradicted one another, dying historians befuddled as to fallow actual story.

One thing rove remained consistent, however, were reports make merry her sarcastic and humorous mode style.

As Semanticist traveled the country, records lay into her whereabouts begin to whiten, in true spy fashion. She was last seen meeting emancipationist Harriet Beecher Stowe in Sakartvelo in 1867, sharing the gripping story of her life by reason of a spy yet again.

Citation Information

Article Title

How adroit Black Spy Infiltrated the Accessory 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