Mary Bowser
Mary Jane Richards, also known as Mary Jane Richards Denman, Mary Jane Richards Garvin and possibly Mary Bowser, was a Union spy during the Civil War. She was enslaved from birth in Richmond, Virginia, but was effectively freed as a young child in 1843 when her owner, John Van Lew, died and his daughter, the abolitionist Elizabeth "Bet" Van Lew, took ownership of all his slaves and subsequently freed them all. But Van Lew then had Richards sent to school. When the Civil War broke out, Van Lew recruited her to serve as a spy and helper for the Union cause. She relayed information she heard to Van Lew, who in turn communicated it to Union leadership. Richards was only one of a spy ring run by Van Lew, although Van Lew considered Richards her most important source.
Richards is often referred to as Mary Bowser. She was married to a Wilson Bowser during the Civil War, but there is no record of her using this name. There is little biographical information about her in general. A 1911 article about her in Harper's Monthly, which was based in part on the faulty memory of Bet Van Lew's niece, popularized Richards' story, and was the source of much of the ensuing lore around Richards, including a 1987 TV movie, A Special Friendship. The Harper's article included details that are not known to be accurate, such as that Richards had worked undercover directly in the Confederate White House, that she had a photographic memory, and that she tried to set fire to the Confederate White House at the end of the war; and other details that are clearly false, such as that her name was "Mary Elizabeth Bowser".
Early years
Mary Jane was born near Richmond, Virginia, and was enslaved from birth by Eliza Baker Van Lew and John Van Lew or their extended family. The first record directly related to her is her baptism, as "Mary Jane" at St. John's Church in Richmond, on May 17, 1846. Mary Jane's baptism at the Van Lew family church, rather than at Richmond's First African Baptist Church where the other Van Lew slaves were baptized, indicates that someone in the Van Lew family took special notice of Richards. Not long after this baptism, Elizabeth Van Lew, sent Richards north to school in Princeton, New Jersey, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.In 1855, Richards went to Liberia in West Africa, to join a missionary community, as arranged by Elizabeth Van Lew. By spring of 1860, Richards had returned to Richmond.
The American Civil War
On April 16, 1861, Mary wed Wilson Bowser. The ceremony took place in St. John's Church, just four days after Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, the first battle of the Civil War. The marriage was relatively short lived, and by the time the war ended, she was once again using the surname Richards.Throughout the war, Mary participated in the pro-Union underground espionage ring organized by Elizabeth Van Lew. She engaged in a variety of pro-Union activities. On at least one occasion she went, as she later put it, "into President Davis's house while he was absent," pretending to be getting laundry, in order to look for documents related to the war effort. It is possible that Union military leaders such as Alfred Terry, Edward Ord, and Colonel S H Roberts benefited from her work. Although exactly what intelligence she collected is unknown, the value of this espionage ring was noted by Generals Benjamin Butler, Ulysses S. Grant, and George H. Sharpe.
Postwar life
Even just a few days after the fall of Richmond, Mary Jane Richards worked as teacher to former slaves in the city.Richards gave at least two lectures in the North in 1865 about her education, travel to Liberia, and wartime exploits. In September, a reporter claimed that she and the famed white political orator Anna Dickinson "might, indeed, easily be mistaken for twin sisters," likely referring to the strangeness of a woman speaking about political issues to a group. While speaking in New York, Richards protected her identity by using pseudonyms at both lectures, calling herself Richmonia Richards at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Manhattan on September 11 and Richmonia R. St. Pierre a week or two later at the African Methodist Episcopal Church on Bridge Street in Brooklyn.
Again using the name Mary J. Richards, she founded a freedmen's school in St. Marys, Georgia in early 1867. Her school served day students, adult night students, and Sunday school students, all taught by herself.
In a June 1867 letter to the superintendent of education for the Georgia Freedmen's Bureau, she requested that he refer to her as Mary J. R. Garvin. Though a later letter may imply that she intended to join her new husband in the West Indies after St. Mary's school closed, it has not yet been confirmed. After that date, there is no further record of her use of the name Garvin, and until 2019, historians had not been able to trace anything about her later life.
Untrue or unsubstantiated claims
In addition to the misuse of the name "Bowser," a number of claims made in purportedly nonfiction accounts about this figure are unsubstantiated, or even untrue. Many are embellishments of a June 1911 Harper's Monthly article, the first known publication of the erroneous Bowser's name. A number of modern media sources, including NOW with Bill Moyers, NPR and The Washington Post, have republished these false or disputed claims.- No evidence exists that Van Lew or Richards identified as Quaker, or that either one attended a Quaker school, as is sometimes claimed. It is not known where Richards attended school.
- It is not known whether Richards infiltrated the Confederate White House as a permanent servant, although she did on at least one occasion enter the house to look for documents.
- A "colored girl Mary" who participated in the espionage ring is claimed to have a photographic memory in a document called, "Recollections of Thomas McNiven and his activities in Richmond during the American Civil War." The document's accuracy is doubted by historians including Elizabeth R. Varon, author of Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, a biography of Van Lew.
- Although she used numerous pseudonyms, the name "Ellen Bond" was not one of them.
- Richards did not likely attempt to set fire to the Confederate White House and flee Richmond in early 1865, as she was still in Richmond in April 1865 educating newly freed slaves.
- She was not smuggled out of the city to Philadelphia in a cartload of manure during the war.
- A member of the Bowser family told an NPR reporter that in the 1950s she had inadvertently discarded a book that might have contained Mary's wartime journal. But the existence of such a journal cannot be confirmed. It is unlikely that a spy would keep such a dangerous document. Or that it would have been handed down in the Bowser family, given how short the duration of her marriage to Wilson Bowser.
- A photograph of another woman by the name of Mary Bowser has been incorrectly associated with the spy Mary Richards.
Popular culture representations
The 2013 play Lady Patriot, by Ted Lange, is about Bowser and her acts of espionage. The play was produced by Mary Lange and premiered at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Santa Monica, California. Mary Bowser was played by Chrystee Pharris.
A 1987 made-for-TV movie, A Special Friendship, was loosely based on Bowser and Van Lew's activities. Bowser was played by Akosua Busia.
The heroine of the 2017 novel An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole is based in part on Mary Bowser.
The Civil War podcast Uncivil had a 2018 episode about Mary Bowser. This episode has been criticized for presenting much of the disputed information about Richards- including the name "Mary Bowser" - as fact.