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Wikipedia Draft Mary Elizabeth Bowser Born: Mary Elizabeth Van Lew May 17, 1839 Richmond, Virginia Died: N/A Education: African American Quaker School Occupation: former slave, paid servant, spy, teacher Organization: The Union of the United States of America Spouse: William (Wilson) Bowser (April, 1861-N/A) Children: N/A Parents: N/A Awards: Inducted into The “U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame” (1995, at Arizona Fort Huachuca) Contents: 1.	Introduction 2.	Early Years 3.	Schooling in Philadelphia 4.	Spy Years 5.	After the Civil War 6.	References

Introduction: Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a freed black woman who was instrumental in the Union’s efforts to defeat the Confederacy, in the fact that she acted as a spy for the North in the Gray House of the South. Early Years: Mary Elizabeth Van Lew was enslaved by the Van Lew family, her mother’s name was Minerva, and her father’s name was Lewis. Minerva had been sold into slavery at a very early age, and she did not know much about her family, except that they lived in New York. In 1843, her owner, John Van Lew, who was skilled in the hardware business, died. Documents state that shortly after this, specifically in 1846, that Mary was baptized in St. John’s Episcopal Church on May 17. Mary and the other enslaved members of the Van Lew household were freed by the wife and daughter of John Van Lew after his death. Some historians reason that the slaves of the Van Lew house were freed in the early 1850s. It is believed that though Mary’s only blood relation in the Van Lew household was her mother, Minerva, she was also close to her father, Lewis, who was enslaved by Mr. Mahon of Virginia. Though Mary’s father was enslaved, he still received pay from his master for the work he did as a blacksmith and foreman of Mahon’s shop. From an early age, Mary demonstrated her remarkable gift for memory; she could recite conversations word for word before she could even read. Although Miss Van Lew had a quarrel with Mary’s talent, her daughter, Elizabeth Van Lew, and Mary’s mother worked secretly with Mary to help her learn how to read and work out mathematical equations. When Elizabeth Van Lew, also called Miss Bet, and her mother freed the enslaved members of the household, some of the now freed moved up North with their families, while others stayed behind and worked as house servants with pay. Unfortunately, Mary’s father was too valuable of a worker to be bought and sold from Mr. Mahon. With this opportunity at hand, and remembering Mary’s talents, Miss Bet arranged for Mary to gain a formal education in Pennsylvania. Though Mary’s mother stayed in Richmond with Mary’s father, Mary was encouraged to attend school up north, which is what she did. Although Mary’s mother stayed behind, she faced the risk of being put back into slavery because in Richmond, if someone was freed, they could not stay more than a year in the state, or they could be resold into slavery. Knowing this, Mary’s mother and the Van Lews kept it a secret that she was ever freed. The most dangerous part of Mary’s journey, was that blacks who sought education up north were not allowed back into Richmond. Schooling in Philadelphia: While in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mary attended Sarah Mapps Douglass’, a black woman, school for colored girls, which was actually held in her home. While going to school, Miss Bet organized a home for Mary; Mary stayed at the home of Mrs. Octavia Upshaw, a black woman who worker has a sewer. Mrs. Upshaw’s daughter, who worked for a family in Philadelphia, also lived in the home of her mother. Mary is recounted as being a very bright student. Although Mary had many successes in the classroom, she encountered many failures of society even in the Union state Pennsylvania, meaning that she often faced racism in certain public affairs. Though Mary did often write to her parents of her life in Philadelphia, she was careful to avoid writing about any of the negative encounters that she faced. While in Philadelphia, Mary joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, which was a committee that her teacher, Miss Douglass was a part of; at the start of her induction, Mary did not participate in any of the actual meetings, but she did attend the sewing parties that the women, black and white, held. While in Richmond, Mary became friends with a girl named Hattie Jones. It was Hattie who not only introduced Mary to all the great things about Philadelphia, but who also gave Mary her first role as a hero for slaves. Hattie’s father, Alexander Jones, had a huge role in the Underground Railroad, in the fact that he would hide runaway slaves in his undertaker office building. It was here where Mary met two other figures who worked to help those who were enslaved, David Bustill Bowser, the cousin of Miss Sarah Mapps Douglass, and Thomas McNiven, a Scotsman. While in Philadelphia, Mary helped Mr. Jones by providing refreshments to the runaways who took cover in his office. Mary even played a part in transporting a runaway slave girl up north with Mr. McNiven. It is believed that while Mary was away at school, her mother died of a mysterious illness. Spy Years: Shortly after Mary’s return to Richmond, she was incarcerated for not having her travelling papers on hand, even though she was a free woman of color by law. Mary returned to her home in Richmond in the early 1860s, before the Civil War started. Although Mary sought to visit her father whenever she could, she often struggled with the curfew rules that Richmond had burdened blacks with after the raids of John Brown. With this rule in place, Mary only saw her father on Sundays, his only day off. When Mary returned to Richmond, she became the caretaker for Bet’s mother, who had suffered a stroke. With this new responsibility, Mary would accompany Mistress Van Lew to Richmond’s Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Union Guard, where Mistress Van Lew would participate in the group sewing, but Mary would pick up on the latest gossip of Virginia’s position for the probable Civil War. These trips with Mistress Van Lew soon became Mary’s new mission, as Bet would ask Mary to attend the Virginia convention with Mistress Van Lew, so she could tell Bet all about the plans that Virginia’s leaders were making, especially in terms of their secession from the Union. In April of 1861, Mary married Wilson Bowser, a free black man who had his own barbershop establishment in Richmond. The wedding took place in St. John’s Episcopal Church on the sixteenth of April. The point of having a formal marriage in a white church, was so Mary’s and Wilson’s marriage would be legal, because it was against the law for free blacks to live with enslaved people. Four days after the ceremony, the Civil War started. Also in April of that year, Elizabeth Van Lew asked Mary to join her in her efforts of aiding the Union’s efforts in their battle against slavery. At the start of this alliance, Mary and Bet would visit Union soldiers that had been imprisoned in Richmond and provide them with food, bandages, and books to read. Mary took up an even greater task while accompanying Bet, she would receive coded messages from a prisoner named Timothy Smith, who would provide, in code, the names of the soldiers, info overheard from the guards, and any other important observations. Mary would decode the information and direct it to Thomas McNiven, who would make this news public in the North. Sometime in 1862, possibly in February, McNiven asked a great task of Mary. He asked Mary to become a spy in the Gray House, also known as the home of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. The idea was that Mary would work as a servant in the Confederate White house, and that she would report on any verbal or written battle plans to either Miss Van Lew, or to Thomas McNiven, who delivered bread to the home as a cover up. McNiven had the opportunity to share his years as a spy with his daughter, Jeanette B. McNiven, who documented them in 1952. In his accounts of Mary, McNiven spoke highly of her ability to repeat conversations held in the Confederate base word-for-word; this great gift also applied to her ability to memorize the confidential writings of President Davis, and relay it to McNiven later. If Mary was in the office of Davis, she had the opportunity to read over any of the notes on his desk as she dusted his chamber. In addition to this, Mary did not get information only from President Davis and his cabinet of advisors. Mary would obtain info as she served food to Varina Davis, the wife of President Davis, and to Judah Benjamin (also called Aunt Piss), the Secretary of War, as he would often inform Mrs. Davis on the current state of the Confederacy in terms of the military and battles. On one specific occasion, as described by McNiven, Mary provided information on the conditions that the southern rebels were prepared to act on in order to end the war with the Union; in turn, these conditions were posted all around the south by Miss Bet Van Lew. In order to better conceal her identity, Mary changed her name to Ellen Bond. While at the home of President Davis, Mary had to change her behavior from an educated and well-able black women, into a confused and incomprehensive servant. During this time, Mary’s father was conscripted by the Confederacy. While he worked under the conscription, Mary’s father was infected with smallpox. He was admitted into the Howard Grove’s colored hospital, where he died shortly after. Mary played another role in weakening the Confederacy, she planned with McNiven a way to turn the women against President Davis; due to the financial issues of the war, prices for food increased, and many citizens had to miss countless meals. With this idea, McNiven stirred up a riot where many women attacked stores and stole food for their families. In 1863, Wilson Bowser decided to take up the fight with his wife, as he joined the Union Army. As the war came to a close, one of Mary’s last great efforts was helping one of the maids of the Gray House, Sophoronia, who was pregnant, to escape from the South before her baby was born, so that she and her baby could be free. Towards the end of the war, Mary’s true intentions were beginning to be suspected by Davis. Before fleeing the Confederacy, Mary attempted to burn the White house down. Though she did not succeed in this attempt, she did succeed in escaping the capital in January of 1865. After the Civil War: Much is not known of Mary’s life after the war, the Union disposed of the files of the spies for the north after the war. There are reasons to believe that Mary kept a diary that she wrote in about her adventures, but historians cite that it was thrown out by her family around 1952. Even after her years as a spy, there is still possible evidence of Mary serving her community and country; at about roughly 1867, it is believed that Mary took up a teaching position at the Freedmen’s Bureau in St. Mary’s, Georgia. Here she taught nearly 200 students about various subjects. Her valiant efforts have even been noted by great political figures of her time, such as the head general of the Union Army, Ulysses S. Grant, who declared that Mary sent him the most vital intelligence of Richmond. In 1995, Mary’s actions were honored by the U.S. government, as they inducted her memory into the “U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame.” References: "Biography." Mary Elizabeth Bowser. Accessed March 21, 2016. http://maryelizabethbowser.weebly.com/biography.html. Ferguson, Earnest B. Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Leveen, Lois. The Secrets of Mary Bowser. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012. Niven, Steven J. “Mary Bowser: A Brave Black Spy in the Confederate White House.” The Root. March 19, 2015. http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2015/03/mary_bowser_a_black_spy_in_the_confederate_white_house.html Sizer, Lyde Cullen. “Bowser, Mary Elizabeth (1839?-?), Union spy during the Civil War…” Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. March 21, 2016. http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/bowser-mary-elizabeth-1839-union-spy-during-civil-war

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