1 / 15

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.

janna
Télécharger la présentation

Mary Elizabeth Bowser

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  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

More Related