Forgotten Americans Who Made History

Forgotten Americans Who Made History — page 1 — 1 Mary Elizabeth Bowser Spies on the South Spies have a dangerous job They gather secret information about an enemy Then they give it to people they are loyal to Spies are used a lot during wars They can help one side win Some of the best spies are people no one would suspect Mary Elizabeth Bowser was one of these people Born around 1839 Bowser was enslaved by John Van Lew in Richmond Virginia When the slaveholder died Bowser was set free That’s when her time as a spy began Van Lew’s daughter Elizabeth was an abolitionist She wanted slavery ended That would take the North winning the US Civil War Elizabeth knew that Bowser could help by spying She helped get Bowser a job in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Elizabeth Van Lew Davis Bowser pretended to be an enslaved woman named Ellen Bond 4

Forgotten Americans Who Made History — page 2 — The home of Jefferson Davis where Mary Elizabeth Bowser worked during the Civil War Working in the Davis home Bowser overheard important information on the South’s war strategy and troop movements She then gave it to people fighting for the North General Ulysses S Grant said Bowser sent him the most useful information from Richmond during the war 1911 Year when Bowser’s story was reported with her real name in an issue of Harper’s Monthly magazine Mary Bowser was enslaved in Richmond Virginia She was freed after the slaveholder died Bowser helped the North as a spy in the house of Jefferson Davis In 1865 people began to suspect Bowser of spying She fled No records of her life after this time have been found FINALLY IN THE HALL OF FAME Mary Elizabeth Bowser has been left out of most history books about the US Civil War For 130 years the US government did not even formally acknowledge her heroic work in the war She was finally inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca Arizona in 1995 5

Forgotten Americans Who Made History — page 3 — 2 Myra Colby Bradwell Works for Women’s Rights Women in the United States today have the same rights as men They can work in any York and then Illinois She became a schoolteacher as an adult It was one of the few jobs women could have at the time In 1852 Colby married a law student named James B Bradwell The young couple moved to Tennessee There they founded a private school But by 1868 the Bradwells were back in Illinois Colby Bradwell started a legal newspaper that became highly respected She helped organize Chicago’s first woman suffrage convention in 1869 That same year she also passed the test to become a lawyer But she wasn’t allowed to work as one The Illinois Supreme Court said she couldn’t because she was a woman Colby Bradwell fought their decision but the US Supreme Court upheld it in 1873 career vote in elections and run for office This was not so in 1831 when Myra Colby was born As a child Colby lived in New 6 Colby Bradwell did not let this setback stop her from fighting discrimination She worked to secure more rights for women by helping

Forgotten Americans Who Made History — page 4 — to get new laws passed in Illinois In 1892 she was finally allowed to become a lawyer Colby Bradwell’s work allowed women after her to have better lives THINK ABOUT IT In some nations women still don’t have the right to vote How do you think women in the United States can help to change this 23 Years Colby Bradwell waited to become a lawyer Myra Colby was born in 1831 when women had few rights compared to men She became a teacher and later ran her own newspaper about the law Colby Bradfwell helped to pass laws that advanced women’s rights Women preparing to march in a procession of suffragettes in 1910 7

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