The Secrets of Mary Bowser (56 page)

This novel gave me an opportunity to answer those questions. It also provided me with a chance to explore the significant roles African Americans played in abolition and to understand the conflicts that arose among anti-slavery advocates of both races, who often disagreed about what were the expedient and morally correct actions to take to end slavery. I savored the chance to learn about urban slavery in industrialized Richmond and free black life in Philadelphia. Even the Civil War—which I admit always seemed rather dull when I had to study it in school—suddenly became fascinating as I delved beyond the names of the battles to understand the daily experiences of enslaved and free blacks, as well as pro-Union and pro-Confederate white Southerners, as they lived through our nation’s most awful years.

This book that began with questions now ends with still more questions, ones you can use to guide your own discussions about Mary, Bet, and the other characters who played such remarkable roles in American history.

1. The novel opens with two epigrams, one from Ralph Waldo Emerson and the other from Maria Stewart. What specific aspects of Mary’s life confirm Emerson’s belief that all of history is in one person, and that each person’s life reflects national crises? Stewart, who was herself a black abolitionist, wondered if a woman might be the one to end slavery. In what ways does being female allow Mary and Bet to take on their great roles in history?

2. Often when we think of slavery, we think of plantations. How does slavery in Richmond differ from plantation slavery? How is it similar? What did you find most surprising about the lives of slaves and of free blacks in Richmond?

3. Though both of Mary’s parents were born in slavery, their experiences of slavery were quite different: her mother was raised in New York, was taught to read, and worked as a house slave; her father was born on a plantation and performed skilled labor at the smithy. How do these differences shape the characters?

4. When Bet frees her slaves, Mary and her parents face a difficult choice because of Virginia law. Was Bet being selfish and headstrong when she chose to emancipate the Van Lew slaves without considering how being forced out of the community would affect them? Or was she doing the right thing by letting Mary’s family and the other freed slaves decide on their own what to do?

5. Mary knows almost nothing about what Northern life is like when her parents decide to send her to Pennsylvania. What are the biggest surprises for Mary—and for you as a reader—about life in Philadelphia in the decade before the Civil War?

6. When we read the novel, we already know that during the war Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, and that after the Union victory, all the slaves become free. But Mary chooses to walk back into slavery without knowing for sure that these things will happen. Why does she make this choice? How does living free in Philadelphia shape her willingness to return to slavery in Richmond?

7. The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history. The violence that marked the era erupts in very personal ways at numerous points in the novel: when Mary learns the story of the fugitive slave whom she and McNiven transport to New Jersey; when the Philadelphia abolitionists respond to John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry; when Mary and Wilson learn about McNiven’s participation in planning the explosion at the Confederate ammunition factory; and when a Confederate soldier threatens Bet’s life. Ultimately, what do you think about the use of violence to right a deep wrong, such as slavery? Is it always justified, never justified, or, if it depends on the circumstances, what sort of circumstances justify intentionally killing someone else?

8. Mary admits to Wilson that she feels responsible for her father’s death. Do you agree? Was she wrong to stay in Richmond to continue her spying rather than saving her only blood relative?

9. Mary’s mother is certain that Jesus has a plan for her daughter. At times, Mary seems to share this belief, but at other times she doubts it. Wilson says her spying is the right thing to do, regardless. Do you think it matters whether Mary is choosing for herself to be a spy or whether she is fulfilling a plan that someone else—her mother, Bet, McNiven, or even Jesus—has for her?

10. Theodore and Wilson are very different. What attracts Mary to each of them? What attracts them to her? Do you see ways that her experience of being courted by Theodore affects her relationship with Wilson?

11. Over the course of the novel, Mary learns to trust a series of white people: Zinnie Moore, Thomas McNiven, Bet Van Lew, and Bet’s mother. What are the qualities that Mary finds easiest to trust in each, and what are the things that challenge her trust? Why does she need to learn to rely on people who are so different from each other as well as from her? What does each of these characters learn from Mary?

12. The American playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote, “The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too.” What does America today share with the past depicted in the novel? Do slavery and the Civil War still affect us?

Historical Note

Mary Bowser, Elizabeth “Bet” Van Lew, and Thomas McNiven were real people who spied on behalf of the Union. Ulysses S. Grant later declared gratefully to Bet: “You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war.”
¹
When Grant became president of the United States, he made Bet Van Lew postmistress of Richmond, Virginia, a lucrative political appointment never before held by a woman.

In the diary that details her Civil War activities, Bet wrote, “When I open my eyes in the morning, I say to the servant, ‘What news, Mary?’ and my caterer never fails! Most generally our reliable news is gathered from negroes, and they certainly show wisdom, discretion and prudence which is wonderful.”
²
The diary makes no other direct reference to Mary Bowser, but at least half of its entries are believed to have been lost, through Bet’s intentional destruction of incriminating passages and through damage incurred when the diary was hidden during the war.

Thomas McNiven described the Richmond spy ring in an informal memoir dictated to his daughter shortly before his death in 1904. Although he claimed this espionage network included nearly three hundred operatives, he singled out Mary Bowser in particular: “Miss Van Lew was my best source. She had contacts everywhere. Her colored girl Mary was the best as she was working right in Davis’ home and had a photographic mind. Everything she saw on the Rebel President’s desk she could repeat word for word.”
³

Very little other information is known about Mary Van Lew Bowser. Documents from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond record her baptism on May 17, 1846, and her marriage to Wilson Bowser on April 16, 1861. Sources often cite her birth year as 1839 and indicate that she was educated in Philadelphia after being manumitted by the Van Lews, although no definitive evidence for these claims has been discovered.

The lack of historical information about Mary Bowser is not surprising. During the nineteenth century, little formal effort was made to record the daily experiences of slaves, free people of color, or white women. Historians today struggle to piece together what sources survive from this era. Elizabeth Varon, who has researched Bet Van Lew’s life extensively, notes that the involvement of African Americans in Virginia’s Union spy ring is nearly impossible to document in detail. Ultimately, Varon could neither confirm nor disprove the rumored contributions of Mary Bowser.
⁴

Nevertheless, many scenes in the novel draw on real incidents—for example, Bet Van Lew did locate and rebury Colonel Dahlgren’s body, and the article accusing her of having Union sympathies is taken word for word from the
Richmond Examiner
. At times I altered factual details, such as omitting the existence of Bet’s younger sister, and creating a family connection between Wilson Bowser and David Bustill Bowser, who were both real people but as far as I know were not related. Despite these changes, I have made every effort to be historically accurate and to present events and language that were plausible for the era.

As much as I enjoyed researching the period, people, and places depicted, the most exciting part of the writing involved imagining what cannot be found through research: the thoughts, motivations, and daily actions of the characters, especially Mary Bowser. She was truly an American hero, and I hope my interpretation goes a small way toward making up for the loss of her story as she would have told it.

The World of Mary Bowser: Q&A with Lois Leveen

As an author, how do you make the life of someone who lived one hundred and fifty years ago feel real to readers today? As you wrote the story from Mary’s point of view, how could you conjure up what she might be thinking?

That’s what drew me to this story: the chance to interweave research and imagination. I love to learn lots of details about the period I’m writing about, and what I uncover sparks my invention of plot and dialogue.

For example, reading is extremely important to Mary. It’s something that is forbidden by Virginia law and by Mistress Van Lew. It’s what her mother and Bet both conspire to give her. It’s what she relies on once the war starts, first to smuggle messages from the prisons and later to gather intelligence in the Confederate White House. But as important as reading is for a slave or a spy, it’s crucial to Mary in a more personal way. When she is living in Philadelphia, reading is really her first great love. Literature touches her emotionally and allows her to connect with other people. In that way, she isn’t so different than readers of
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
.

When I considered what Mary might be reading, it helped me understand how she would think and feel and act. Of course, I am a literature geek, so I love reading literature from all eras, and for readers who are interested, I’m happy to share Mary’s reading list. Much of what she would have read for school would have been written by classic Roman authors—the novel mentions Ovid, Pliny the Elder, and Seneca—or British authors—Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shakespeare’s contemporaries, John Donne and Edmund Spenser. In the novel, she’s especially inspired by literature written by American authors, many of whom were former slaves or other abolitionists. (Some of these works are still in print and can be found at any bookstore, and all of them are available online in free digital copies.)

Frederick Douglass,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
and “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “History”

Olaudah Equiano,
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Benjamin Franklin,
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie
and “The Village Blacksmith”

Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Frances Watkins,
Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects

Phillis Wheatley,
Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and Slave

The most entertaining item Mary reads is
Godey’s Lady’s Book
. This very popular monthly magazine included the latest fashions, travel articles, how-to craft projects, and stories about “celebrities,” like the British royal family—it wasn’t so different from women’s magazines today.

One book I’ve always loved is Louisa May Alcott’s
Little Women
. Because it wasn’t published until after the Civil War, I couldn’t include it on Mary’s reading list. But I reread it many times as I wrote
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
, because Alcott was masterful at depicting dances and charity fairs, and showing subtle difference in what sort of dresses were worn by young ladies depending on whether their families were well-off or not.

What else did you find helpful for creating this novel?

Visual sources are very important to me. They let me put myself and my readers in Mary’s world. I kept nineteenth-century maps of Richmond and Philadelphia tacked up on the wall, along with photographs of both cities and of the characters in the novel. The more specifically I can picture what Mary saw, the better I can convey it to readers.

Van Lew mansion

Mary Bowser and Elizabeth Van Lew grew up in this Church Hill mansion, one of the grandest antebellum homes in Richmond. The house and garden were destroyed in 1911 to make way for a school. Some historians believe the site was chosen for demolition because certain Richmonders were still angry that “Crazy Bet” remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.