Who was Elizabeth Van Lew? Find Out More About the Great American Spy!
Elizabeth Van Lew’s short biography
Elizabeth Van Lew was born in Richmond, Virginia on October 12, 1818, to two north-born parents.
Elizabeth’s mother Eliza Louise Baker Van Lew was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and her father John Van Lew was born in New York.
Her father was a hardware salesman who sold items from hammers to pens and earned a large income. Her mother was a perfect housewife.
Elizabeth had her education from the Quaker school in Philadelphia, PA, or Princeton, NJ. Her education instilled anti-slavery politics and Northern support later in her life.
She kept her thoughts in a secret diary she kept buried in her backyard and whose existence she would reveal only on her deathbed.
Elizabeth never married and did not have kids. However, two of her nieces grew up at the Van Lew mansion, one of whom she treated like a daughter.
After suffering from an illness for many months, Elizabeth passed away at her Richmond on 25 September 1900.
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What is Elizabeth Van Lew known for?
Elizabeth and her mom held anti-slavery sentiments and gave their slaves independence and financial autonomy in a state with difficult-to-navigate slave laws.
Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, they allowed their slaves to work in other places for income. The family even sent one of their help to get an education at Princeton.
After the American Civil War broke out in 1861, she started caring for the wounded soldiers.
Even after her wealthy neighbors started celebrating Confederate victories, Lew focused on assisting the Union. She also brought food, clothes, writing papers, etc to the wounded soldiers there and helped them pass messages.
Elizabeth is known as one of the most productive Union Spies. She facilitated the escape of many of these men with the assistance of Erasmus Ross, a prison clerk who was a Northern sympathizer and Van Lew associate.
Van Lew is considered the most successful Federal spy of the war.
Harsh criticisms quickly met Elizabeth and her mother’s efforts. They were threatened a lot for their efforts. She later wrote in her diary,
“I have had brave men shake their fingers in my face and say terrible things,”
“We had threats of being driven away, threats of fire, and threats of death.” The Richmond Dispatch wrote that if the Van Lews didn’t stop their efforts, they would be “exposed and dealt with as alien enemies of the country.”
However, the bullying and criticism only made her more determined to help the Union.
She started passing information to prisoners using a custard dish with a secret compartment. She also communicated with them through messages hidden in books.
Elizabeth also gave bribes to the guards to provide prisoners with extra food and clothes and to transfer them to a hospital where she could take their interviews.
So much so, that Elizabeth also helped the prisoners plan their escape. She hid many of them in her home briefly.
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