The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
A review by Steve Guarin
I, and most everybody else, never heard of Mary Bowser. I never learned of her in school. In fact I was well into adulthood before I even learned of the name and all I knew of her, was that she had something to do with spying on the Confederates. It wasn’t until I read the book about Mary, written by Lois Leveen that Mary Bowser became a person. 
She was a rarity among black people due to the fact that she was well educated. She was a rarity among all people. She did what she saw as right even though it was hard, even dangerous.
There are many scenes of danger, but the one that sticks with me, is when Mary killed a man. This man was a real danger to Mary and the daughter of her former owner, Elizabeth Van Lew. This man caused Mary to act in an unusual and desperate manner. Mary was able to quietly come up in back of him and smash his head in with rock. At this point the fear and rage that came with living under the terrible conditions of slavery caused her to go berserk. She hit the man over and over, and though I was surprised I also felt that Mary was justified.
Ms. Leveen created Mary Bowser with a full story to tell. Unfortunately written history wanted to do without Mary Bowser. The chroniclers of doings and goings on in our yesteryear’s, especially during the 1800s, left very spotty reports about the black man’s or women’s doings. In a very important part of the story, Mary was serving, literally, in the capital of the Confederacy as the (slave) servant of the President of the united secessionist states. Was this so? Because I had been taught nothing about Mary, I had to look it up. Thank God that in this age we have Google, for if we didn’t I still wouldn’t know the she really did work in Jefferson Davis’ house.
I unreservedly recommend this book. It is a very creative story about the happenings during the most interesting time in this country’s history. Action, adventure, a little romance, and morality banging their heads together.
Steve Guarin lives in the Bronx. He is retired and an activist with the New York City Independence Clubs.
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Politics for the People
Conference Call
Sunday, June 3rd at 7 pm EST.
Will Explore
The Secrets of Mary Bowser
With Author Lois Leveen
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Hi, I look forward to the discussion and will recommend this book to our church book group. Our Fellowship has sponsored a Humanity Project for the past 3 years and bring together history of the various minorities in our community. We invite all the community and have officials, police etc. involved. I think it has helped our city absorb racial changes in our community.