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Mary Elizabeth Bowser

Mary Elizabeth Bowser. By: Yuleiny Romero 8B4. Early life. Born in Richmond Virginia around 1839 Began her life as a slave on the plantation of John Van Lew John Van Lew was a wealthy hardware merchant. She was a slave to John Van Lew a wealthy hardware merchant. Mary Elizabeth Bowser.

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Mary Elizabeth Bowser

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  1. Mary Elizabeth Bowser By: Yuleiny Romero 8B4

  2. Early life • Born in Richmond Virginia around 1839 • Began her life as a slave on the plantation of John Van Lew • John Van Lew was a wealthy hardware merchant

  3. She was a slave to John Van Lew a wealthy hardware merchant

  4. Mary Elizabeth Bowser

  5. Later Life • The wealthy Richmond died while Mary Elizabeth was a child • Thereafter, his wife and daughter Elizabeth Van Lew freed all the family’s slaves • While Mary Elizabeth was sent to a Quaker school for Negroes in Philadelphia in the late 1850s.

  6. Continuing from later life • After graduating, Mary returned to Richmond and married William or Wilson Bowser, a free Black man, on April 16, 1861 • The ceremony was unusual because most of the people were whites

  7. After the war began • Elizabeth Van Lew asked Mary Elizabeth to help her in the elaborate spying system she had established in the Confederate capitol • Despite Elizabeth being a staunch abolitionist and loyal to the Union • was a prominent member of Richmond because of her father's wealth and status. Elizabeth Van Lew

  8. Her spy years • But her views and actions attending to Union soldiers at Libby Prison with food and medicine, in particular earned her the enmity of her community. • Elizabeth used this to her advantage

  9. Continuing of her spy years • taking on a slightly crazy, muttering, slovenly personage that earned her the nickname "Crazy Bet“ to cover up her serious efforts to help the Union • Elizabeth also helped escaped prisoners by hiding them in a secret room in her mansion.

  10. Summary • Mary had considerable intelligence, as well as some acting skills. • In order to get access to top-secret information, Mary became "Ellen Bond," a dim-witted, also slightly crazy, but able servant. • Elizabeth had a friend take Mary along to help at functions held by Varian Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. • Mary proved herself well and was eventually taken on full-time, working in the Confederate White House until just before the end of the war. Of course, they assumed she was a slave.

  11. The End

  12. QUIZ Where was Mary Elizabeth Bowser born? • In Dominican republic • In Richmond, Virginia • In Puerto Rico

  13. Wrong Answer

  14. oops! wrong Answer

  15. Correct Answer

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