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The Secrets Of Mary Bowser (2012)

by Lois Leveen(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0062107909 (ISBN13: 9780062107909)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

review 1: The Secrets of Mary Bowser imagines the life of a former slave, freed and educated in the North, who returns to Richmond right before the Civil War as a spy for the Union. I ran across the book as a Kindle Daily Deal, and I had to admit that the premise intrigued me especially since it was based on the life of a real woman. The first and second parts of the book chronicle Mary's life as a slave and as a freewoman gaining an education in Philadelphia. I found both a bit slow, but was fascinated by the description of the life of free blacks in the north and their interaction with white society. The story really picked up when Mary moves back to Richmond to spy for the north. Leveen's account includes richly drawn characters living through a treacherous time for all. I found ... moreLeveen's arguments among the characters most enlightening as each struggled to define what it meant to be pro-Union and anti-slavery in a place where being both could be fatal. Good book. Recommended.
review 2: What I love most about this book was the authors commitment and desire to give a woman with so much history a voice. For obvious reasons, Mary Bowser's life and career was never well documented. Author Lois Leveen took the unfortunately small amount of primary and secondary archival sources and used her background in US history and storytelling to create an account of courage and heroism. While history knows the stories and lives of prominent African American women, this story (albeit fiction) delights and leaves the reader richer with the knowledge of the woman known as Mary Bowser. less

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