Fahrenheit 451: Mary Bowser

A servant who wasn’t supposed to notice anything noticed everything. We dive into the astonishing, under-told story of Mary Bowser—a Black woman born enslaved in Richmond—who used education, nerve, and perfect cover to spy inside Jefferson Davis’s household and feed critical intelligence to the Union.

We set the stage in Civil War–era Richmond, a city powered by enslaved labor and blinded by its own assumptions. Enter Elizabeth “Bet” Van Lew, the abolitionist mastermind behind the Richmond Underground, who turned charity runs to prisons into a full-fledged spy network. With Bet coordinating safe houses and invisible ink, Mary stepped into the Confederate White House as a domestic worker, quietly reading documents, catching whispers, and slipping details out before breakfast. From close calls in Davis’s study to reports on conscription and supply strains, her work shows how prejudice created the very breach that weakened the Confederacy.

The story doesn’t end at Richmond’s fall. We follow Mary as she teaches newly freed students at First African Baptist Church, then heads north under shifting aliases to lecture about espionage, call out Union hypocrisy, and argue for education as the path to real freedom. She later establishes schools in Georgia, meets Harriet Beecher Stowe, and writes a final letter to Bet from New York before disappearing from the historical record. Through it all, we highlight the human stakes: courage under daily threat, the power of literacy, and the quiet brilliance of a woman history nearly erased.

If hidden history and sharp storytelling are your thing, hit play, subscribe, and share this episode with a friend. Have thoughts or questions about Mary Bowser’s legacy? Leave a review or tag us on social—we’re listening.

Transcript

Drinks And Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_05 0:17

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

I'm Kate.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

And I'm Bradley.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

This is the history build. Sure fucking is.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Let's do this shit. What do you got for us today?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Oh, um, I have a story.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

I have a story about an enslaved woman.

SPEAKER_05 0:39

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Who penetrates the um Confederate White House.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Oh shit, really?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

As a spy.

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:50

All right.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

What do we got to drink today?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Um, I have a beer. Yeah, we both do. Um, you pick this out for me. It is um My Bach, which is a spring bock from Third Space Brewering from Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

Which you've had Third Space before.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

I'm pretty sure. So MyBach is a very um typical this is the season for my box. Um I remember when uh I sold beer many, many years ago. Capital Brewery before it was whatever the fuck it is now. I'm not even sure. But um we would go to their boch fest, and it was always in February, so I was happy to see uh a my bock for ya, and they would literally throw fish off the roof as one of their things. We being yeah. I think that's actually what they said when they threw it. Or they say eah, that too. Um but being obviously from a a distributor that sold their products, we got a little bit of special treatment. We got to go drink like my bot from the big fucking vat and everything. Um but I remember this one time Al Casey and I went. I for whatever reason did not go on the roof for the fish throwing thing. So I was still down in the I don't I don't know if you call it a beer garden, whatever you want to fucking call it. And Casey was up there, and it's it's Mardi Gras time too right now, because um Fat Tuesday just happened and so on, whatever. So we had beads. He threw beads off the roof, literally around around my head, like it landed around your head, yeah on my neck, yes. Wow. I'm like, how the fuck did that happen? It was impressive, but yeah, so that was always a good time. So I I'm pretty sure you haven't had a MyBok before. No, so I'm curious what you're gonna think.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Okay, what did you get?

SPEAKER_05 3:07

So I have a tried and true classic hop slam by Bells. I didn't also for some reason I am really terrible at guessing my can size when I buy them. I bought a four-pack. I'm like, oh cool, four 12 ounce. Nope, they're 16 ounce. I'm just an idiot. So I'm gonna open mine. Yeah, please do. Um, so this is from Bell's. It's delicious. I miss it in bottles. Um this is 10%. What do you think of it? Um it's different. Yeah, I expected it to be. I didn't want your normal average modello, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Modello's not average.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

You for you it is, because that's your go-to. Well, cheers. Cheers. I had an edge on my nose.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Okay. So let me set the stage here.

Richmond’s Racial Landscape

SPEAKER_05 4:10

All right.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

We are in Civil War time. Where are we? Richmond, Virginia. It is the 1860s.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

And Richmond was not the only Confederate capital, but also, well, she was not only the Confederate capital, but also um a society completely dependent on enslaved labor. Sure. So enslaved African Americans um and other black domestic servants were everywhere in the city, cooking meals, cleaning houses, tending to children, working in hospitals, while Richmonders. Richmonders were accustomed to black servants in every corner of daily life so much that they didn't really see them at all. They were treated as a silent, unquestioned part of the scenery.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Yeah, I'm sure, especially at night, though, it's really hard to see them. So I heard I heard a stat not that long ago where we are both white. And I hate the fact that this is a part of our history. It's not the only slavery that's ever happened in the world, though. Or led to believe it is, because for some reason that's the narrative a lot of people like to portray. But the stat I heard was roughly about the 1860s, like 0.4% of white people had slaves at this time. But yet, we're all led to believe that all white people had slaves. And it's kind of shitty that that's the the narrative that some people like to push, but like there was a lot of people for the freedom of these people, like Abraham Lincoln and all that. I don't know, the North. There was the South, Richmond, obviously, that were all for keeping it, and I mean that's why the Civil War was fought. There's speculation of other reasons why the Civil War is fought, but either way, it's um really sad that so few people created this narrative that we all wanted it, is all I'm saying. So, anyways, Richmond, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Um, so Confederate officials would speak freely about war plans and state secrets in front of these people, assuming that black servants were not paying attention, were not paying attention, or they're they were illiterate, too inferior to understand.

SPEAKER_05 6:58

Isn't see, and that's another sad part, is like they literally thought they could talk in front of him and be like, they don't fucking know what we're talking about. It's like, no, they do, they're fucking human, you fucking idiots.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

So one Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, yep, realized the ridiculousness of this assumption. Okay, and in May of 1863, Lee warned that, quote, the chief source of information to the enemy is through our Negroes, end quote. Wow. Acknowledging that enslaved people were transmitting this valuable information to the Union.

SPEAKER_05 7:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So by then it was too late. A neck network of black informants were already in full swing.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

And our character today, Mary Bowser, uh, would become one of these uh legendary figures.

SPEAKER_05 7:45

Oh, so she was one of the slaves? Nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

So enslaved house servants moved.

SPEAKER_05 7:51

Okay, I'm sorry, the way I said that, not nice she was a slave. Nice that she was an informant. Okay, I just wanted to make that clear.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Enslaved house servants moved quietly in the background, serving dinners, etc., all while white residents took their presence for granted.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

Do you know what's really unfortunate in my brain? I think think of Forrest Gump, where uh he you know he became a shrimping cat, uh shrimping boat, shrimping boat captain, and then that he went to Bubba's mom, and then she didn't have to cook for anyone anymore, and then she had a white person serving her.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I don't remember that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

Anyways, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Uh so as one Richmond Richmond unionist later noted, quote, negroes involved in medial activities could move about without suspicion. Officers tended to ignore their presence when discussing war-related matters, end quote.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Well, yeah, because they just like you said, they thought they were just more or less part of the scenery at that point. They were part of just the house. They didn't listen, pay attention. Of course they fucking did. You idiots, they're humans.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So this was the social environment in which Mary Bowser operated, a city where an enslaved maid dusted the furniture, who while also overhearing generals, planning troop troop movements, or glimpse um at state papers that were on the desk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, Richmond's black population, both enslaved and free, held this hidden power if they chose to use it.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

So Mary Bowser's story begins um around 1839 or 1840. She was born Mary Jane. Um, she was enslaved on a Richmond plantation owned by the Van Lou family.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Van Lou, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

The Van Lou's were a wealthy white family in Richmond elite society.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

As a child, Mary was baptized in 1846 as Mary Jane, a colored child belonging to Mrs. Eliza Van Lou.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

So this tells us that Mary was enslaved property in the Van Lou household.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

However, the Van Lou's were not typical Confederate uh slaveholders.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

Oh. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Elizabeth or Bet Van Lou, who is the daughter of Eliza. Yeah. So we'll call her Bet.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Um the daughter of the family became an outspoken abolitionist despite her Richmond upbringing.

SPEAKER_05 10:37

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Okay. And upon her father's death in 1843, Bet and her mother freed the people the family had enslaved. Oh shit. Nice. Mary Jane was still just a girl, um, and was one of those emancipated in a technical sense, but she still continued to live there and serve in the Van Lu household.

SPEAKER_05 10:59

From my understanding, that happened a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Especially when that's kind of all they knew.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

Well, yeah, but the the beauty was, uh as far as I know, and I'm I'm not speaking from experience or anything, but a lot of them because, like you said, that's all they do, but then they started getting paid.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So so in practice, Mary's status was fairly complicated. Virginia laws and even um the father, John Van Luz, will made formal manumission difficult. Um release from slavery.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

Manumission. We we talked about that with uh what's her name? Oh shit. I just lost it.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Phyllis Wheatley.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

Yes, thank you.

Education And Liberia Journey

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Um, Mary remained with a Van Lou's treated more like a servant or protege than personal possession. Okay, but legally her freedom was a little insecure.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Um, Bet Van Lu saw potential in Mary and defying social norms. Um, Bette arranged for Mary to be educated in the North in the 1850s.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Mary was sent away from Richmond. Sources suggested that she studied at a school in Princeton, New Jersey, or Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

And she received a thorough education, which was virtually unheard of for a young black woman from Virginia.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

Especially at that time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

So after several years of schooling, Bet Van Lew had an even bolder plan.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

She encouraged Mary to become a missionary in Africa. So in December 1855, around the age of 14 or 15, Mary Jane Richards, as she was back then, sailed for Liber Liberia. Oh, it was a colony fund founded for formerly enslaved black Americans. And this move was likely influenced by the colonization movement. Okay. And even some abolitionists believed that black Americans might return to Africa to spread Christianity and escape racism in the U.S.

SPEAKER_05 13:04

That's wild, but all right.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

But Mary's time was uh somewhat short-lived there. She uh found life to be a little bit more difficult and disappointing. Oh, sure. And she wrote back to uh Bet Van Loo expressing her dissatisfaction. Could I come home? And pretty much after five years, Mary was on a ship back to the United States.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

Oh, but she was there for five years. That's significant fucking time. Holy shit. Yeah. I mean, it's like, I guess I could stick it out for another couple years. Holy fuck, five years. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

So Mary coming home to Richmond in 1860 proved quite risky. Okay. Virginia law at the time forbade free blacks who had been educated in the north or lived in a free state from returning to Virginia. Wow. And such individuals could be arrested and even sold into slavery for the crime of coming back.

SPEAKER_05 13:59

That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

But Mary knew this, so she tried to slip in quietly. But Richmond authorities noticed a young black woman without proper paper, and she ended up being arrested, claiming to be free without proof. So she gave the jailers false names. She first started calling herself Mary Jane Henley, then Mary Jones to obscure her identity. Sure. After about 10 days in custody, Mary finally admitted who she was. And Eliza Van Leo, the mother, stepped in to save her. Right. To get Mary released, um, Eliza Van Lou lied to the court and claimed Mary was her enslaved property, essentially saying that this is my slave, she belongs to me. Give her back. Yeah. And under Virginia law, an enslaved person could be retrieved by their owner, whereas a flea black black person would have been punished.

SPEAKER_05 14:58

That's fucking wild.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

So Mary was turned over to the Van Lou's custody rather than being sold at auction. Okay. So the Van Lou's even paid a$10 fine for allowing their slave to go at large.

SPEAKER_05 15:11

$10 fine. Which, I mean, again, 1850s, 60s, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:17

Decent amount of money back then, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

So legally and socially, she was a black woman who did not fit neatly into the usual slave or free categories. Yep. But soon after her release, Mary slipped back into life with the Van Lu family. On April 16th of 1861, church records show Mary from the Van Lou household marrying a man named Wilson Bowser, who was a free black servant there, and that's how we have got her last name.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Mary was about 20 at this time.

SPEAKER_05 15:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

It was um a brief marriage. Um and then it didn't last. We're not really sure what happened to him.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

Oh, so something could have a good.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

We don't really have records of what he ended up as. If he died in the war or what? We're not we're not sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:05

All right, fair enough. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

So literally the next day after getting married, April 17th, 1861, Virginia voted to succeed from the Union. Secede.

SPEAKER_05 16:20

There it is. There it is.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

The Civil War ignited around them. Yep. Mary Bowser, a young black woman with an exceptional education and a very unusual life experience, was now in the capital city of a riding slaveholders' republic. And that republic was at war with the country that also had educated her.

unknown 16:40

Oh dear.

Arrest And Legal Limbo

SPEAKER_00 16:41

As Richmond transformed into the Confederate Capitol, Mary Bowser's former uh owner turned to ally, Bet Van Lew, emerged as one of the most important Union loyalists in the South.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Bette is a fascinating character in her own right. Yep. By 1861, she was in her early 40s, unmarried, and known as the town eccentric. Her neighbors called her Crazy Bet because of her odd behavior.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

But could you imagine being walking around and there goes Crazy Bet again? But I mean, it's just funny because like she probably was um I'm I'm assuming you're gonna tell us a little more, but like just fine. People are just psychopaths.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Well, she kind of used that to her advantage because they all thought that she was this harmless, crazy person, yeah, a little dazed.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Um, but she ran an aggressive spy operation under the Confederates' noses.

SPEAKER_05 17:44

I'm liking bet.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Right after war broke out, Van Lu began volunteering in Richmond prisons where union POWs were kept.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Under the guise of charity, she brought food, medicine, and books.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Um, in reality, this was the start of an espionage and resistance network. Oh shit. She smuggled messages into prisons and out of prisons to um by hiding notes in the supplies that she re delivered. She even helped some prisoners literally sneak out and hit escapees in a secret room in her mansion. And by 1863, Union generals had caught wind of this brave Richmond lady aiding their cause.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

And General Benjamin Butler sent agents to formally recruit Eli uh Bet Van Lew as a union spy.

SPEAKER_05 18:35

Wasn't she kind of already doing that?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Not officially.

SPEAKER_05 18:40

Well, did it matter that it was official or not?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Yes, because she had this ring of people, this little tiny ring. Now she's just got massive amounts of people that help her now.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

I mean, I I I get that. Don't get me wrong. But it's like she's already doing the Lord's work.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

So she accepted, and with Butler's support, she expanded her espionage ring.

SPEAKER_05 19:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Devising clever mess mes methods like invisible ink.

SPEAKER_05 19:09

Oh shit. She used to use lime. She had to use milk.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Oh. And once the milk dried, heat would reveal the secret writing.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Heat and paper had different burn temperatures. So it would burn the muck.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

What is it? Fahrenheit, 450. Oh fuck. There's a book. And the title of the book is What Paper Burns At.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:39

Oh my god, I can't believe I can't forget. I can't think of it. Anyway, I'm sorry.

War Erupts And Crazy Bet

SPEAKER_00 19:44

So Bet Van Lu's network, sometimes called the Richmond Underground or Richmond Ring, eventually included dozens of people, white unionists, Virginians, enslaved and free black people, men and wet women, all trades and trace and um trades and trades, all more trades.

SPEAKER_05 20:03

Can you say trades and trades? Trades, am I right?

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Bett was the ringleader and middleman collecting intel and forwarded forwarding it on to Union commanders in Washington. Makes sense or camped outside Richmond.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

But to penetrate the highest levels of the Confederate government, she needed eyes and ears in Jefferson Davis' own household. Oh boy. This is where Mary Bowser enters. Bet knew Mary's intellect encourage. Who better to be planted as a spy in the Confederate White House than in persons the Confederates would never suspect? A black woman servant.

SPEAKER_05 20:47

Well, I mean, they're spot on, right? Because why would you expect that? In this time frame, like, oh, it's another servant girl.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Whatever. But obviously the correct people knew, like, no, she's fucking intelligent. She knows what she's doing. She's free, but she's spying.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:14

So I mean.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

So we don't have Beth's own writings detailing the moment she recruited Mary.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

That's too bad.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Um, but later testimony and circumstantial evidence made it clear that by late 1862 or 63, yeah, Mary Bowser was enlisted as part of Van Lu's uh spy ring.

SPEAKER_05 21:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

So whether by name or under her married name Bowser, Mary did end up working inside the Confederate executive mansion by 1863.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Richmond newspapers after the war and even uh Bette's own deathbed recollections confirm that an educated black maid was planted in the Davis home as a spy.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Uh Bette had freed Mary years before.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Now she's asking Mary to pose as an uneducated spy. Slave in order to infiltrate the rebel president's house.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

How did she go? Like I I would have a hard time going from yes, I'm this smart person to yes, master. You know, it's like good on her for like doing this because that would be tough. Yeah. Honestly. I I I don't think I could do it, but um good good on her, because I'm sure this helped.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:31

Obviously.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So So uh Bet later wrote with admiration about her black informants in Richmond, noting how crucial their perceived invisibility was.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Sure.

Building The Richmond Ring

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Um they had diary entries, um, almost certainly referring to Mary Bowser, um, which reveals reveals the setup. So each morning, Bette would discreetly get a briefing from Mary and other servants about the latest gossip and secrets. Mary Bowser working inside Jefferson Davis's household was Bett's star contributor gathering the reliable news that Bette passed on to union leaders. Sure, makes sense. So by late 1863, Mary uh was employed in the Richmond Mansion mansion.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Um Mary's duties include cleaning, serving meals, domestic tasks. Yep. Um, but unlike most domestic servants, Mary had an exceptional asset. She was highly educated and she could read.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

Well, that that is a huge benefit for these people at this time because a lot of them didn't know how. So no, that's oh that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

So from Mary's later accounts, we get glimpses of how she operated. She recalled one instance when posing as a washerwoman, she entered President Davis's study while he was away. Um, a clerk unsuspectingly let her into his private office.

SPEAKER_05 23:59

That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

And Mary opened drawers and read through sensitive uh documents. Jefferson Davis himself walked in on her in his office.

SPEAKER_05 24:11

And he's like, What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

He was startled and demanded to know what she was doing, and she likely gave some excuse, but Davis let her go without punishment simply because she was black, and he assumed that she couldn't actually grasp the importance of what she had seen.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

The fucking stupidity of this era.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

So another um legend of Mary is that she is has an idetic or photographic memory.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

So um she could remember like word for word different things, but that was sure more than likely just her intelligence, not necessarily a photographic memory.

SPEAKER_05 24:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

So um because spy communications were destroyed for safety, yes. Um, we have only a few specifics. Um in one of her post-war talks, she claimed that she slipped into a secret session of the Confederate Senate.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

The actual legislative chamber while they were debating a um a bill to draft nearly every abled-body male.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Um, and Mary said that she sat in this meeting, then he immediately relayed the outcome to the Union contract contacts, alerting them that the Confederacy was desperate enough to conscript boys and old men.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

Which is wild. I mean, honestly, wild.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

She also recounted helping sabotage um Confederate supplies. And after leaving Richmond briefly in late 1864, Mary w says she went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she aided Union troops in capturing a large cache of Confederate tobacco.

SPEAKER_05 26:03

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 26:04

And even helped apprehend two rebel officers.

Infiltrating Davis’s Household

SPEAKER_05 26:08

That's I mean, good, good on her. That's fucking awesome. Seriously. Like you hear so many stories about this time frame, obviously, and you know, civil war, people fighting for the freedom of other people, really. But you don't you don't get to hear a lot of these stories. Yeah. Which I think is fucking awesome because like there's so many of them that we probably will never ever know about. But uh they were integral into a lot of different facets of this war. Whether they directly impacted the outcome or not, it doesn't matter. It's just they were they were so important to create like what's the word I'm looking for, like excuse me. Positivity towards like the future that could be, right? Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't I don't I don't know how to better word it, I'm sorry, but um they believed in the betterment of their future. Yeah, and like, and obviously we fought this war for that, but there's so many people on the call it the front line, which could be debated on what you call the front line, but uh the she was on the front line of like her situation and was able to help. I mean, good good good on her, that's fucking awesome. You don't you don't get to hear these stories a lot, is my point.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

So Jefferson Davis and his inner circle were starting to grow suspicious that some leak was feeding the Yankees.

SPEAKER_05 28:00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yes. Um, the first lady of the Confederacy, um, Davis' wife, yeah, insisted that no servant of hers was a spy, but her defensiveness suggests the question was certainly raised.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Um, Confederate military leadership came to realize that by 1864 that Richmond did have an espionage problem.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Confederates finally recognized that those um they enslaved were striking back in secret. Oh there's a wartime story that Jefferson Davis suspected an informer in his house but never figured out who it was. If he did suspect Mary, he didn't have any proof.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Um, but Mary definitely um continued her charade into being an ordinary servant. Um she was the clueless, flighty maid who talked to herself and acted forgetful, completely blending into the background.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

So as Union armies closed in on Richmond in early 1865, the miss the risk to Mary was um had been increasing.

SPEAKER_05 29:03

So well, yeah, it's it's gonna bottleneck button up bottleneck, that's not a right word in looking for it, but it's it's gonna grow because obviously who else is it, right? I mean at this point.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

So so um Mary Bowser finally fled the Confederate White House in January of 1865. Okay. Um by late um 64, she had already kind of tried to leave, um, likely under um Bett's advice. Sure. Um, and her husband, the Wilson Bowser, yeah, um, had already fled the city earlier.

SPEAKER_05 29:44

Right, right, right.

Reading Secrets In Plain Sight

SPEAKER_00 29:44

That's really the only thing we have about him, is that he fled the city at some point. But Mary's mission was essentially over, the Confederacy was collapsing. Mary slipped away before Richmond fell, avoiding any last-minute betrayal that might land her in the noose. And when she left, she had survived nearly two years undercover at the Confederate government.

SPEAKER_05 30:08

That's fucking I mean, that that that's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah. Richmond fell to Union forces on April 3rd, 1865, um, liberating the city's enslaved population.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Mary Bowser, um, who had likely been hiding outside the city, returned to Richmond almost immediately after its liberation.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Now a completely free woman in a free city.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

So there was an urgent need for teachers among the thousands of freed men and women. Yep. And Mary's rare literacy made her extremely valuable.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

Which I kind of thought you were gonna go that way because yeah, how could it not, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Mm-hmm. So northern miss missionaries and aid societies were setting up schools in Richmond's churches, and Mary became a teacher um at the first uh African Baptist Church in the summer of 1865.

SPEAKER_05 31:02

Where is and this is still in Mississippi?

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Rich Richmond, Virginia.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

I'm sorry, Mississippi. God damn it, Bradley. Yes, Richmond. That's I was testing you my bad.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

So one report from that year lists a Mary J. Richards teaching black children and adults. Okay. Um she was starting to use additional aliases to her name. So Richards is another one.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

Keep herself safe out of the spotlight. We'll just say, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Um, she did not remain a teacher in Richmond for long. Um, she was always fiercely independent, and as a young black woman in her mid-twenties, um, she was ready to move on.

SPEAKER_05 31:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

So in September of 1865, just five months after the Confederacy's fall, yes, Mary resurfaced in the north. Okay. She won went on to uh do a brief lecture tour. Um, and on September 11th, 1865, at a church in Harlem under the alias Richmonia Richards.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

Richmonia?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yep, she delivered um additional speeches. Um, a week or two later in Brooklyn, she called herself Richmonia R. Saint Pierre. Um why did she keep changing her name? Because she didn't want to be caught.

SPEAKER_05 32:32

But okay, but she's in the north.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

I know.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

I know there was this that fuck, what was that act called? We talked about it. Where they could go and get slaves or whatever, but at this point it's like it's falling apart, so it's like, okay, anyway, I'm sorry. I just like, but why? Okay, I get it, but but why? Anyways.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So during one of her lectures, yes, she openly recounted infiltrating Jefferson Davis's house and even described um that moment when Jefferson caught her rifling through his papers.

SPEAKER_05 33:12

Um I dropped a contact. No, what?

Close Calls And Leaks

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Um, but she delivered a punchline that would was it was that he had let her go just because she was black. But um a consistent theme in her speeches was criticism of how even some union officials treated black people poorly.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

She shared an anecdote of Union Provist Marshall cruelly punishing a black man in Richmond, underscoring that the struggle for true freedom and dignity was far from over.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

And Mary used these platforms not just to boast about her heroics, but to advocate for education and uplift African Americans. Gotcha. Um, in 1866, Mary had faded from the public spotlight.

SPEAKER_05 33:59

Which is understandable because what is she gonna do now?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 34:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Um, records from the post-war Freedmen's bureau finds her in St. Mary's, Georgia in 1867, where she established a school for free people.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

Really?

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Mm-hmm. In June of 1867, she had a meeting with Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, around this time, Mary married again, which is why we don't really know what happened to her first husband.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

She wed a union veteran named John Graven, Garvin, excuse me. And even the master of aliases in letters, Mary started referring to herself as Mrs. Mary J.R. Garvin.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Oh, that's why.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

This marriage seems short-lived, or at least Mary chose yet another new identity afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

By late 1867, she was signing reports as Mrs. John L. Denman. Yes. So what matters is that Mary was trying to redefine herself in the aftermath of the of the war.

SPEAKER_05 35:10

Yeah. Oh, sorry. Perhaps um why why do you think she thought she needed to do this so much? Like, what is your opinion on it?

SPEAKER_00 35:20

I'm not sure. My my only guess was just to stay hidden.

SPEAKER_05 35:23

But she was still doing lectures and stuff, so well, and that's my point, is like you're you're doing these public things. You want to stay hidden. Obviously, the the war's over, though. So slaves are done. Unless you're where was it? Is it Texas? That's the whole reason why you have fucking Juneteenth, because they're the last to know they were free or whatever shit it was. But it's like, why why did she have to keep changing her name?

SPEAKER_03 36:00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Because it's like you're free at this point.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

So the last known trace of Mary Bowser is a letter she wrote in October of 1870 to her mentor, Bet Van Loo. Bet in this letter from New York City, Mary signed it as MJ Denham, politely informed Van Lou that she did not plan to return to Richmond. She expressed a desire to grow beyond the influence of the Van Lou family and succeed on her own.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Sure.

Exit From Richmond

SPEAKER_00 36:29

She mentioned working as a seamstress and planning to further her education to become a professional teacher. Um, Mary was essentially saying a final goodbye to Bet Van Lew, closing the chapter on that part of her life. Right. After this 1870 letter, Mary Jane Richards, Bowser, Garvin Denman disappears from the historical record.

SPEAKER_05 36:54

Probably because there's too many names.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

We don't know when or where she died or if she had any children or continued her teaching vocation under another name. Right, right, right. But like a good spy, Mary Bowser exited the stage quietly, her later life a complete mystery.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

Oh, like a good neighbor.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

State Farm is there.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

That's the story of Mary Bowser.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

That's wild that she had so many like aliases at the end. I mean, in my opinion, you would think you don't need any, you're free. But she wasn't, I guess, fully free at that time, so I I I get it. But that's wild.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

I mean how'd you like your beer?

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Well, it's delicious. Good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

How'd you like your it's it's decent.

SPEAKER_05 37:46

It's different. You don't you can say if you don't like it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

It's I d I don't dislike it.

SPEAKER_05 37:53

But you wouldn't go for it.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

I wouldn't buy this.

SPEAKER_05 37:57

You know what?

SPEAKER_00 37:58

What?

SPEAKER_05 37:58

I did. So you're welcome. Well, I suppose. Alright, buffoons. That's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_05 38:19

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at history buffoonspodcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

SPEAKER_05 38:38

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Remember, the buffoonery never stops.