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Van Lew

The Abolitionist & the Spy

By Faheem JacksonPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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EARLY ON

There were a lot of people active during the American Civil War aiding in the Union winning. In particular was a woman named Elizabeth Van Lew. She was born in Richmond, Virginia in the year 1818. Her father owned several slaves which were freed by her and her mother when he died. Some of the former slave help was kept and paid to work for the family. Van Lew even took inheritance money and purchased family members of the slaves they owned and freed them as well. When the war broke she began bringing food, and clothing to the Union prisoners, even helping some escape. There were safe houses for those escaped and she even went as far as to help get Union sympathizers roles as prison staff. One of the places that was held as a safe house was her mansion which held Union prisoners and those looking to desert from the Confederacy side.

CIVIL WAR WORK

Elizabeth Van Lew ran an elaborate espionage ring that was known as the Richmond Underground. One very important woman who worked in the ring was an African American named Mary Bowser (Mary Jane Richards) who performed chores and other duties inside the White House of the Confederacy with then leader Jefferson Davies. Bowser gathered intelligence while no one was around that was presented to the Union via Elizabeth Van Lew. Key information was substantial enough where the Union was able to makes moves during the war to have an upper over the Confederacy.

Her work during the war is what convinced then Ulysses Grant that she should have an appointed position with the Virginia as Postmaster General of Richmond for which she served for 8 years. The government at that time also reimbursed her money for which she lost during her time spying to pay for those going behind enemy lines. But even though she was seen as a hero by many, she was equally met with disdain by her critics.

POST WAR

After the war she served in the postal service system where she revolutionized the way business was conducted. This included her demanding equal pay for the African American workers that was equal to that of their White counterparts. Holding her position, she served until the president Rutherford B. Hayes came along and she was demoted postal clerk which Van Lew held for a few years. But then, once the Reconstruction took place in the United States, her past work made her more of a pariah. She went to the government begging for her espionage records so that she would not be further subjugated to torment. They eventually gave them to her, but was not given any any pension of any kind since her family fortune had been spent on the war effort.

Van Lew eventually was able to secure financing from family and friends of people she helped years prior, whom championed her work with the Union during the war. And although she was seen as much of a traitor by those in the South, she was revered by the African Americans in Richmond and White Unionists. After her death she was sent a tomb from family members of Paul Revere, whom some she had helped during the war. Her former home was knocked down and made into an elementary school grounds, but plaques later would be setup to memorialize her work Mary Bowser's work. One of her former slaves she had freed, had a daughter, Maggie Walker, whom founded the United States first African American-woman-owned bank.

Little is known about the later years of Mary Bowser who went by many different aliases and stayed in hiding for a while due to her work as a spy. It wasn't until 1993, when Van Lew was named to the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame for her work during the Civil War. A posthumous award that was given way later due to years of her critics and detractors wanting to not acknowledge her work.

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