Northern sympathizer in the Confederate capital, daring spymaster,
postwar politician: Elizabeth Van Lew was one of the most
remarkable figures in American history, a woman who defied the
conventions of the nineteenth-century South. In Southern Lady,
Yankee Spy, historian Elizabeth Varon provides a gripping, richly
researched account of the woman who led what one historian called
"the most productive espionage operation of the Civil War." Under
the nose of the Confederate government, Van Lew ran a spy ring that
gathered intelligence, hampered the Southern war effort, and helped
scores of Union soldiers to escape from Richmond prisons.
Varon describes a woman who was very much a product of her time and
place, yet continually took controversial stands--from her early
efforts to free her family's slaves, to her daring wartime
activities and beyond. Varon's powerful biography brings Van Lew to
life, showing how she used the stereotypes of the day to confound
Confederate authorities (who suspected her, but could not believe a
proper Southern lady could be a spy), even as she brought together
Union sympathizers at all levels of society, from slaves to
slaveholders. After the war, a grateful President Ulysses S. Grant
named her postmaster of Richmond--a remarkable break with custom
for this politically influential post. But her Unionism, Republican
politics, and outspoken support of racial justice earned her a
lifetime of scorn in the former Confederate capital. Even today,
Elizabeth Van Lew remains a controversial figure in her beloved
Richmond, remembered as the "Crazy Bet" of Lost Cause propaganda.
Elizabeth Varon's account rescues her from both derision and
oblivion, depicting an intelligent, resourceful, highly principled
woman who remained, as she saw it, true to her country to the end.
General
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