8. Elizabeth Van Lew: A Confederate Traitor During the American Civil War
Elizabeth Van Lew came from a wealthy slave-owning family in Richmond Virginia. However, in her teens, the young Elizabeth began to question the morality of slave-owning. By the time of her father’s death in 1843, Elizabeth felt confident enough to petition her brother to free all the family’s slaves. Astonishingly, he agreed, and many of the Van Lew’s freedmen stayed on as paid members of staff.
However, when the American civil war broke out in 1861, Elizabeth’s crusading spirit took her down the path of treason against the south. Many southern ladies visited Union prisoners of war out of charity and Elizabeth was no different. She and her mother began to visit prisoners of war in Richmond’s Libby prison, bringing the men food, clothing, and other essential provisions. However, Elizabeth also began to smuggle out letters and pass on information about Confederate strategy. She even helped enemy soldiers escape, hiding them in her home before smuggling them out of the south. When the Union hierarchy heard of Elizabeth’s activities, they recognized a likely recruit. So, in 1863, General Benjamin Butler officially recruited Elizabeth Van Lew as a spy.
Elizabeth became the head of the Richmond spy ring. She was responsible for recruiting new members to her cause and even managing to turn a high-ranking officer at Libby prison. In between these activities, she continued to pass on information about Confederate movements. Elizabeth had managed to cultivate a reputation for mental instability that had earned her the name of “Crazy Bet.” This reputation for harmless madness meant she could information gather undetected. Elizabeth conveyed her information in coded messages hidden in hollowed-out eggs and vegetables which were transported by her servant Mary Bowser.
When Richmond finally fell to the Unionists in 1865, Elizabeth unashamedly raised the stars and stripes above her house. At the war’s end, she was appointed Richmond’s postmaster by General Ulysses S Grant. However, her neighbors never forgave her betrayal of the southern cause. She was shunned in her community and lived in isolation on her family’s estate until her death in 1900. Elizabeth had also impoverished herself in the Union cause. However, the family of one of the unionist officers she had helped escape during the war showed their gratitude to her by supplementing her income.