The Secrets of Mary Bowser

Title:                      The Secrets of Mary Bowser

Author:                  Lois Leveen

Leveen, Lois (2012). The Secrets of Mary Bowser. New York: William Morrow

LCCN:    2011038111

PS3612.E9233 S43 2012

Subjects

• Bowser, Mary Elizabeth, approximately 1840—Fiction.
• Freedmen–Fiction.
• Women spies–Fiction.
• United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865–Secret service–Fiction.

Date Posted:      March 14, 2015

Based on a remarkable true story, The Secrets of Mary Bowser is an inspiring tale of one daring woman’s willingness to sacrifice her own freedom to change the course of history

All her life, Mary has been a slave to the wealthy Van Lew family of Richmond, Virginia. But when Bet, the willful Van Lew daughter, decides to send Mary to Philadelphia to be educated, she must leave her family to seize her freedom.

Life in the North brings new friendships, a courtship, and a far different education than Mary ever expected, one that leads her into the heart of the abolition movement. With the nation edging toward war, she defies Virginia law by returning to Richmond to care for her ailing father—and to fight for emancipation. Posing as a slave in the Confederate White House in order to spy on President Jefferson Davis, Mary deceives even those who are closest to her to aid the Union command.

Just when it seems that all her courageous gambles to end slavery will pay off, Mary discovers that everything comes at a cost—even freedom.

 

Women in the Civil War

Title:                      Women in the Civil War

Author:                  Mary Elizabeth Massey

Massey, Mary Elizabeth (1994).Women in the Civil War. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press

LCCN:    93045580

E628 .M3 1994

Subjects

• Women–United States–History–19th century.
• United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865–Women.

Date Updated:  December 11, 2015

The Civil War wrought cataclysmic changes in the lives of American Women on both sides of the conflict. Women in the Civil War demonstrates their enterprise, fortitude, and fierceness. In this revealing social history, Massey focuses on many famous women, including nurses Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, and Mother Bickerdyke; spies Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd; writers Louisa May Alcott, Julia Ward Howe, and Mary Chestnut; pamphleteer and military strategist Anna Ella Carroll; black abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth; feminists Susan B. Anthony and Jane Grey Swisshelm; and political wives Varina Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln. The anonymous women who maintained farms and plantations are described, as are camp followers, businesswomen, entertainers, activists, and socialites in Charleston and Washington.