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My life during the Civil War was tiring, long, and hard. I had to gather a lot of information without being caught or assumed to be the cause of troop strategies and movements gone wrong.

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“Biography.” Mary Elizabeth Bowser, maryelizabethbowser.weebly.com/biography.html.

Leveen, Lois. “A Black Spy in the Confederate White House.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 June 2012, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/a-black-spy-in-the-confederate-white-house/.

“Mary Elizabeth Bowser.” Jama Masjid, Delhi - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mary_Elizabeth_Bowser.

“Civil War.” Mary Elizabeth Bowser, maryelizabethbowser.weebly.com/civil-war.html.

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~Mary was able to get some information through to Van Lew by codes and ciphers.
~Admitted to the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame as "one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War."

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"Ms. Bowser certainly succeeded in a highly dangerous mission to the great benefit of the Union effort. She was one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War. ... [Her information] greatly enhanced the Union's conduct of the war. ... Jefferson Davis never discovered the leak in his household staff, although he knew the Union somehow kept discovering Confederate plans."

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The federal government destroyed all records of the Southern Spies. Including Mary, Elizabeth, and Thomas and all of their actions during the war. Mary kept a diary when she worked at the Confederate White House, that information is still missing to this day.

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After Mary graduated from the Quaker School for Negroes, she went back Richmond to work for the Van Lew family. Later on, Elizabeth Van Lew, requested Mary to be a spy. Mary changed her name to Ellen Bond and started to work in the Confederate White House, for President Davis and his wife. Ellen (Mary) was considered  "dim-witted, also slightly crazy, but able servant".  Even though she was free, she still had to act like she was a slave for her mission. Mary had to listen on conversations while she was cleaning dishes. No one of the Confederate didn't mind to talk about their troop strategies and movements, because they thought she wouldn't know what they were talking about or that she would just forget. At the end of the Civil War, Mary was suspected of being the "leak" in their plans of the Confederate. Mary decided to run away, she also tried to burn down the Confederate Capitol as her last, but failed to do that. Mary was soon no longer heard of that day, nobody knows when and where she died

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Mary Elizabeth Bowser was one of the most brilliant female, because her group of spies were able to find a way to write their messages and secrets with invisible ink using milk. Her Leader Van Lew also created a code and cipher to communicate with people.

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Born: March 30, 1840. Richmond, VA

Politics: Adopted political views of an abolitionist and opposed the confederacy.

Maybe You Didn't Know: Mary Elizabeth Bowser was born into slavery and once her owner died, she and the owner's daughter (Elizabeth) freed all the slaves. Mary chose to remain there for several years and was transferred to the Quaker School for Negroes in Philadelphia in the late 1850s.