Mary Elizabeth Bowser, whose dates of birth and death are unknown, was born into slavery in the late 1830s on a plantation in Richmond, Va. After her master, John Van Lew, died in the late 1840s, his wife and children freed their slaves.
An outspoken abolitionist, Van Lew’s wife Elizabeth sent Bowser to Philadelphia to get an education. As tensions increased between the North and South, Bowser returned to Virginia to work as a household servant for the Van Lew family.
As Elizabeth Van Lew saw that war was impending, she recommended Bowser for a household job in the Confederate White House in Virginia. Bowser, who had already been sending reports to Union leaders about unrest in the South, used her position as maid servant under Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and other Southern military leaders to gain access to war dispatches and discussions of troop strategy and movement.
Bowser memorized details of the conversations and dispatches and sent it along to Union spies, who coded the information before delivering it to military leaders in the North. She proved to be one of the most effective spies for the North. Davis never found out about the leak in his house, although he did know Union leaders kept discovering his plans.

— Jessica Richelderfer