Mary Jane Richards

Mary Jane Richards, also known as Mary Bowser, was a formerly enslaved Black woman who became a Union spy during the American Civil War. Born in Richmond, Virginia, around 1840, she was freed by her owner, Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy white abolitionist. Van Lew arranged for Richards to be educated in the North before returning her back to the South to gather intelligence. Under the alias Mary Bowser, she posed as an illiterate servant in the Confederate White House, working in the home of President Jefferson Davis. Using her intellect and photographic memory, she accessed sensitive military information, which she relayed to Union forces through the Van Lew spy network. Exploiting racist assumptions, Richards was able to move unnoticed and unchallenged. Her bravery and brilliance made her one of the most effective undercover agents of the Civil War. Though much of her life remains obscured, her legacy as a patriot and freedom fighter endures.

The Joy Trip Project celebrates American History. The Unhidden Minute is part of the Unhidden Podcast Project supported through a National Geographic Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society, with the cooperation of the National Park Service. This series aims to elevate the untold stories of Black Americans who are too often left out of the stories share about our common national heritage.

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