The Secrets of Mary Bowser (57 page)

Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection, LC-D4-500382

St John’s Church

St. John’s Church, located directly across Grace Street from the Van Lew mansion, is where Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech proclaiming, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Although it was extremely unusual for slaveowners to have their slaves baptized or married in this church, parish records show that Mary “a colored child belonging to Mrs. Van Lew” was baptized on May 17, 1846, and that Mary and Wilson Bowser were married on April 16, 1861, indicating how exceptional Mary Bowser was in the eyes of the Van Lews.

Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, LC-B811-3366

Confederate White House

Nicknamed the Gray House for its stucco exterior, this Richmond mansion was home to Jefferson Davis and his family, as well as to slaves and servants who waited on them during the Civil War. Today it is part of the Museum of the Confederacy, and you can tour the rooms described in
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
and imagine what it was like to live—and spy—there.

Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection, LC-D4-43165

Slave cabins

Compared to the elaborate mansions in which slaves worked, the cabins in which slaves lived lacked any amenities—even window panes or finished floors. In Richmond, slaves might have been assigned to sleep in sections of “outbuildings,” such as kitchens or stables that were part of antebellum urban lots.

Photograph courtesy of Lois Leveen

Mary Bowser

This photograph is rumored to be of Mary Bowser. Although she’s looking confidently at the viewer, it’s hard to make out her features. She seems hidden in plain sight—just as she was during the Civil War.

Photograph source: James A. Chambers, U.S. Army Deputy, Office of the Chief, Military Intelligence

Elizabeth Van Lew

Even in her youth, Bet Van Lew seemed to have more on her mind than the typical Southern belle.

Photograph originally published in
On Hazardous Service: Scouts and Spies of the North and South,
William Gilmore Beymer, Harper & Brothers Publishers: 1912

Elizabeth Van Lew’s cipher

When Bet Van Lew died in 1900, her family found a yellowed scrap of paper hidden in the back of her watch. The paper contained this cipher, which she created to encode the messages the spy ring smuggled out of Richmond to the Union command. She carried it with her for nearly forty years after the war ended.

Originally published in
On Hazardous Service: Scouts and Spies of the North and South,
William Gilmore Beymer, Harper & Brothers Publishers: 1912

The food Mary describes serving or eating adds to the sense of history. How did you choose which dishes to include?

One of my high school teachers used to write “B.S.” on our papers—which he always claimed meant “be specific.” It’s great advice for an author. Don’t tell me the character had lunch. Tell me
exactly
what she ate, and how it tasted. That really puts the reader in the story. Some of the most fun I had was researching nineteenth-century “receipts,” as recipes were called, both for food and for medical home-remedies from the era. It was very edifying, although knowing how to hash a calf’s head or fricassee calf’s feet is not information I hope to draw on anytime soon. Here are a few sample recipes for dishes mentioned in
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
. Maybe you can see why Mary never wanted to learn how to cook.

From
The Virginia Housewife: Or, Methodical Cook

by Mrs. Mary Randolph

1838

To Harrico Mutton

Take the nicest part of the rack, divide it into chops, and with one bone in each beat them flat; sprinkle salt and pepper on them, and broil them nicely; make a rich gravy out of the inferior parts, season it well with pepper, a little spice, and any kind of catsup you choose; when sufficiently done, strain it, and thicken it with butter and brown flour, have some carrots and turnips cut into small dice and boiled till tender, put them in the gravy, lay the chops in, and stew them for fifteen minutes; serve them up garnished with green pickle.

To Roast Woodcocks or Snipes