Van Lew, Elizabeth (1818-1900), was a Union spy based in Richmond , Virginia, during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Van Lew’s strong objection to slavery led her to take on espionage work for the North in Richmond, the Confederate capital.
Elizabeth Louisa Van Lew was born on Oct. 15, 1818, in Richmond, Virginia, in the Southern United States. Her parents had roots in the Northern States, but they became prominent in Richmond and owned African American slaves. Elizabeth was educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, in the Northern state of Pennsylvania, where she was strongly influenced by antislavery views. Her mother, Eliza, took steps to free some of the family’s slaves after her father’s death in 1843.
Soon after the Civil War began in 1861, Richmond became the capital of the Confederate States of America. Elizabeth Van Lew met with like-minded Richmond residents to discuss ways they could help the Union. Van Lew and her mother brought food to captured Northern soldiers held in Richmond prisons and tended their wounds. Van Lew exchanged coded messages with prisoners and passed on information to Union General Benjamin Butler and certain other Northern officials. By late 1863, Van Lew had become the city’s Union spymaster. Many historians believe that her work helped more than 100 Union soldiers escape from Richmond’s notorious Libby Prison in February 1864.
After the war ended in 1865, Van Lew became active in Republican Party politics. The party, which held little popularity among Southern whites, worked to extend political power to former slaves. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant named Van Lew as Richmond’s postmaster—that is, the official in charge of the city’s post office. She held the position until 1877. In her later years, Van Lew advocated for woman suffrage and increased rights for African Americans. She died on Sept. 25, 1900.
