Mary Jane Richards, was a former slave who operated as a spy for the Union while working on the household staff at the Confederate White House. Mary was born into slavery about 1839 or 1841, on a plantation owned by Elizabeth "Bet" Van Lew, and John Van Lew (parents of Elizabeth) or their extended family in Richmond, Virginia. Although her exact date of birth is unknown, on May 17, 1846, “Mary Jane, a colored child belonging to Mrs. Van Lew,” was baptized at the Van Lew family church. John Van Lew, a wealthy hardware merchant purchased her as a companion for his daughter, Elizabeth. She was baptized at Richmond's First African Baptist Church where the other Van Lew slaves were baptized.
Uncommonly lenient and progressive with their slaves, the Van Lew mistresses taught Mary to read. Though Mary began life as property, by the time she was baptized, Mary had been given her freedom and practically adopted by Van Lew’s daughter Elizabeth. Upon John Van Lew death, in either 1843 or 1851, his wife and daughter both progressive Quaker women and abolitionists set Mary and the rest of the family’s slaves free. The only issue is that once a slave is free, they have a limited window of time to stay in the state of their former enslavement before they are pressed back into bondage. Mary and her mother would have to leave Virginia and her father. Mary continued to work as a free paid servant for the Van Lews.
Elizabeth arranged for Mary to be educated in Philadelphia and also in Princeton, New Jersey. Mary comes to the north, but realizes that prejudices are just as intense in Pennsylvania as they are in Virginia. In 1855, Elizabeth arranged for the girl, then using the name Mary Jane Richards, to join a missionary community in Liberia via the American Colonization Society. After about four years as a missionary, Mary returned to Richmond to work for the Van Lew family. This was the winter of 1860, when tensions between the slave states and free states were running high.
During that year she becomes involved with the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves make their way to freedom, endangering her life on more than a few occasions. Her efforts take her back to Virginia just before the outbreak of war. She witnesses the political and social changes within Richmond’s community as the Confederacy is established and struggles to maintain its independence from the Union. She became Mary Bowser on April 16, 1861, four days after the Civil War started, when she married a man named William (Wilson) Bowser. The marriage was short lived, and there is no indication through records that she took his surname. The couple never had children. They settled just outside Richmond, and Mary continued to work in the Van Lew household.
The relationship between Mary Jane Richards and her mistress later helped solidify the espionage efforts that Van Lew had formed to help the Union win. At the beginning of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, Elizabeth Van Lew asked Mary to be a spy to help the Union. Elizabeth couldn't take on the task by herself because she was supposed to be an important member of Richmond, but only because of her father's wealth and status. Mary was part of Elizabeth’s spy ring, the Richmond Underground. Elizabeth was a spy but also she helped the Union by saving the prisoners and helping them escape.
Van Lew used her elite status and connections to successfully place Mary Richards as a new Black servant in the headquarters of Confederacy president Jefferson Davis. Little did the Davis family know that Mary was no ordinary servant. Mary used Southern prejudices to her advantage — she knew the Davis family would assume that she couldn’t read, write, or comprehend what took place around her. Under this humble and overlooked guise, Mary became privy to information intended only for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Before Mary started working for him and his wife she changed some things. First off, she had to change her name to "Ellen Bond" just so no one would know her actual identity. She had changed it many times before she settled on that one.
Next she had to assume the role of a slave again. Mary was used to be treated with proper respect and like the intellectual that she actually was. Thirdly, Mary had to act unintelligent which would make it easy for her to get information the Confederates. To avoid suspicion, she pretended she was crazy and went by the nickname "Crazy Bet." The politicians, military officers, and other Whites who visited the Davises regarded Black people as ignorant, so they didn’t have their guard up when Richards was around. Mary listened in on conversations about troop strategies and movements while doing house hold chores. Whether she was dusting Jefferson Davis's office or clearing away dishes during a cabinet meeting, Mary was always on the lookout for information. Mary memorized all the documents while she was cleaning up around the Confederate White House and in President Jefferson Davis’ office.
Richards worked at social events of Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis. It was assumed that slaves could not read or write or know any complex political conversations. Mary had a special knack for remembering, verbatim, anything spoken. She remembered the conversations that she overhead, word for word. Mary Jane sometimes slipped away to the Van Lew mansion to deliver intelligence personally. At other times she sewed dispatches into one of Mrs. Davis’s gowns in need of repair, then dashed to a nearby seamstress also in the spy network. This woman promptly signaled for Van Lew to retrieve the information from the shop. She knew other methods of transferring information, using serving trays with false bottoms or hanging up laundry in code in different patterns of dark and white clothes. Information Richards dropped ranged from troop movements and supply routes to battle plans and changes in command.
Her literacy enabled her to read the confidential documents they carelessly left around. Her photographic memory also served her well in absorbing information. It was a dangerous job — if Mary was caught, she would be hanged without a trial. Mary’s work was invaluable to the Union cause. She memorized the Confederate’s troop numbers, including the defectors, dead and wounded. Indeed, having a very good memory enabled Mary to effectively report to Elizabeth by way of Thomas McNiven of what was said and what she read word for word. A local bakery man, Thomas McNiven, supplied the Confederate White House with baked goods and served as a part of Miss Van Lew's spy network. Given his profession, he was a hub for information. Thus, Mr. McNiven, was able to receive important information from Mary when he delivered to the White House each evening.
Mary learned about Confederate battle plans and secret troop movements, none more significant than the fall of Richmond. She found lists of ammunition storage and other supplies. She came across the blueprints for top secret military projects such as the CSS Virginia, a submarine-like “iron monster of the sea.” And she kept track of Union prisoners, including how may were held in the overcrowded prisons in Richmond (Libby Prison and Belle Island). Throughout the war, Mary participated in the pro-Union underground espionage ring organized by Elizabeth Van Lew.
Finally, President Davis realized there was a leak in the Confederate White House, but never suspected Mary. Richard’s spy tactics worked until she was unexpectedly discovered. With Elizabeth Van Lew's help, Mary departed from the Confederate White House in early 1865. Her last act as a Union spy and sympathizer was an unsuccessful attempt to burn down the Confederate White House. A rumor that has been proved false. As with most Union spies who served in Richmond during the war, all records of Mary's work were destroyed by the War Department to protect her from the retaliation she would have faced if the extent of her service were uncovered. Basically, there was no record of Mary's existence.
Even just a few days after the fall of Richmond, Mary worked as teacher to former slaves in the city. She gave at least two lectures in the North in 1865 about her education, travel to Liberia, and wartime exploits. She reverted to using the name Mary Richards and did not thereafter refer to herself as Mary Bowser or Mrs. Wilson Bowser. Using the name Mary Jane Richards, she founded a freedmen's school in St. Mary's, Georgia in early 1867. Her school served day students, adult night students, and Sunday school students, all taught by herself. After 1867, we don't know what happened to her. But we do know that Mary Jane Richards was courageous, effective, and was a Civil War hero. The journal that Richards later wrote chronicling her wartime work was also lost when family members inadvertently discarded it in 1952.