Mary Elizabeth Bowser: A Union Military Spy in the Southern Confederate White House

Mary Elizabeth Bowser

The story of Mary Elizabeth Bowser is one of intrigue and espionage during the U.S. Civil War. She is among a number of Black women who served as spies for the Union. The most well-known Union spy is Harriet Tubman, who worked in South Carolina and Florida.

Like much about Mary, her exact birth and date of death are shrouded in mystery. Many commentaries report that she was likely born in 1839 as Mary Elizabeth Richards into slavery on the plantation of John and Elizabeth Van Lew near Richmond, Virginia. John Van Lew was a wealthy hardware merchant. In 1851, when John Van Lew died, his widow Elizabeth freed Mary and all of the other enslaved Africans on the Van Lew plantation. A staunch abolitionist and Quaker, Elizabeth also purchased many of her former slave's family members owned by others. She would also free them in an effort to bring the families back together.

Recognizing Mary's keen intelligence, Elizabeth sent her north to attend the Quaker School for Negroes in Philadelphia. After Mary graduated she returned to Richmond and married Wilson Bowser, a free Black man on April 16, 1861. This was only a few days before the U.S. Civil War began. The couple settled near Richmond and Mary maintained a close relationship with Elizabeth.

A southern lady, Elizabeth had earned quite a reputation for her sympathies. Dubbed "Crazy Bet", she encouraged this personae to cover the very serious espionage work for the Union when the Civil War began. She organized an intricate spy operation in support of the Union by using her resources and connections in the Confederate capital. It is said that her mansion was outfitted with many secret doors that led to secret rooms that became a safe haven for African fugitives who also supplied Elizabeth with information that she transcribed into cipher codes sent to Union officers, which included General Ulysses S. Grant.

Elizabeth's operation became so sophisticated that she planned to send a spy to the white house of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Mary Elizabeth Bowser, an able actress like Elizabeth herself, would become "Ellen Bond", a dull-witted, but able servant for the White House of the Confederacy. 

Once settled in Davis's home, Mary played her role well. She pretended to be slow-thinking. No one suspected that she could read, for this would have been illegal within the Confederate states. Mary read warfare dispatches as she cleaned the house. She listened keenly to the conversations of the Confederate men as she served them meals. These military communications would be relayed back to the Van Lew mansion. Elizabeth coded information, which was placed inside of false eggs or printed on dress patterns -- to be passed to her network of Union agents.

Jefferson Davis eventually began to suspect that there was a leak. The Union was learning entirely too much, as the most secret communications of the cabinet were divulged. In the last days of the war, suspicion fell on Mary and she fled from the Davis's house in January 1865. Her last act for the Union was an attempt to burn down the Confederate White House, but this was unsuccessful.

Even after the war, Elizabeth never revealed Mary's espionage work. We know about this information today from others, such as Thomas McNiven, another Union spy in Richmond who was a baker. The Thomas McNiven Papers report that Mary "was working right in the Davis home and had a photographic mind. Everything she saw on the Rebel president's desk, she could repeat word for word. Unlike most colored, she could read and write. She made a point of always coming out to my wagon when I made deliveries at the Davis' home to drop information."

After the Civil War ended, the U.S. federal government destroyed its records related to Southern spies during Reconstruction to protect their lives. There was, however, a journal known to have been written by Bowser herself. It is said to have chronicled her wartime work, but the journal was lost by the Bowser family around 1952. There is no record of Bowser's life after the war. There is no exact date known regarding her death. In 1995, the U.S. government honored the service of Mary Elizabeth Bowser by inducting her in the Military Intelligence Corp Hall of Fame.

Sadie Alexander: An Early African-American Lawyer and Civil Rights Activist

Sadie Tenner Mossell Alexander (b. 1/2/1898 - d. 11/1/1989)

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander accomplished many "firsts" in her lifetime. Born January 2, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Alexander would go on to become the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Economics and the first African-American woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and become a Pennsylvania lawyer.

Born Sadie Tanner into a prominent African-American family, she grew up in the home of her uncle Henry Ossawa Tanner, the internationally renowned painter.  Her grandfather was Benjamin Tucker Tanner, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church and editor of both the African Methodist Episcopal Review (1884-1888) and the Christian Record (1868-1884). Aaron Albert Mossell, her father, was a graduate of Lincoln University and the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1888. Louis Baxter Moore, her uncle, was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Sadie Tanner attended high school at the famous M Street High School in Washington D.C., which was later named Dunbar High School. She was encouraged by her mother and the historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson to continue her education. She was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania and by 1918, she received a Bachelors of Science degree in Education with honors. In 1919, she received a Masters of Art degree in Economics. By 1921, she received a Ph.D. in Economics from the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the first woman of African descent to receive a Ph.D. in Economics. Active in the leadership of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, community development issues were very important to Alexander. This was reflected in the topic of her doctoral dissertation: "The Standard of Living Among One Hundred Negro Migrant Families in Philadelphia."

Alexander with sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Alexander became an actuary with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, a Black-owned insurance company in the then booming Black Wall Street in Durham, North Carolina. In 1923, Alexander married Raymond Pace Alexander, an alumni of Harvard Law School and recently barred as an attorney in Pennsylvania. Shortly after marrying Raymond Pace Alexander, she returned to school to study law.

By 1927, Alexander became the first African-American woman to receive an L.L.B. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was also admitted to Pennsylvania State Bar as an attorney. Alexander was joining a tradition started by Lutie Lytle, the first African-American woman lawyer in the United States. Attorney Lytle had received her law degree in 1897 from the Tennessee Law School. 

"The heyday was Reconstruction, really," states law professor Judith Kilpatrick, author of the Arkansas Law Review "(Extra)Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950," speaking on the practice of law by African Americans before and after Reconstruction, a brief historical period immediately proceeding the end of the U.S. Civil War. By 1890, like many other states, Arkansas began to pass laws "that forced Black people out of public office and made it impossible to vote," says Kilpatrick.

Attorney Sadie Alexender

By the time Alexander joined her husband's law firm, African American lawyers were faced with significant state-imposed legal challenges to the civil rights secured after the U.S. Civil War. Together with her husband, Alexander challenged Jim Crow laws, fighting against segregation and discrimination in Philadelphia's restaurants, hotels, and theaters. She was the first African-American woman to serve as assistant city solicitor of Philadelphia, and was elected secretary of the National Bar Association in 1943, the first woman to hold a national office in the NBA.  

'Black professional women may shed light on the unique experience of a group that has conquered double discrimination," states McLean Tobin, author of The Black Female Ph.D. "In most cases being both Black and female produces a defeating situation. Sadie Alexander overcame this 'double jeopardy,' and paved the way for her sisters to pursue doctoral degrees."

In 1947, U.S. President Harry S. Truman appointed Alexander to the President's Committee on Civil Rights. During her tenure under this federal appointment, the report "To Secure These Rights", became the basis for future civil right policy making. In 1959, Alexander opened her own law office and practiced there for nearly 20 years. In 1974, Alexander received a fifth degree from the University of Pennsylvania, an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. By 1976, she closed her law office and joined the law firm of Atkinson, Myers and Archie. She maintained an active membership in nearly three dozen local and national civic organizations while practicing law. On November 1, 1989, attorney Alexander died at the age of 91 in her beloved Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  

Benjamin Banneker's 1791 Letter to Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson's Reply

First published in 1791, Benjamin Banneker's
almanacs were widely distributed publications.

Benjamin Banneker (b. 11/9/1731, Maryland – d. 10/9/1806) was an astronomer, mathematician, clockmaker, farmer, author of almanacs and one of the three city surveyors for Washington D.C. As a country, the U.S. was not quite 20 years old when Banneker was appointed city planner to the District of Columbia by U.S. President George Washington. Banneker's 1793 almanac contained what would be the earliest known policing plan for the new nation -- which had just won its freedom from Britain, titled "A Plan of Peace-office for the United States." Benjamin Banneker certainly had many successes and he did not allow the prosperity of his personal estate to dictate his politics.  An record of human rights activism in the British colonies and early nation could easily include his writings. A vocal anti-slavery activist, Banneker publicly deplored the treatment of Negroes in the United States of America, as illustrated in his letter to Thomas Jefferson -- penned August of 1791, nearly 10 years before Jefferson was elected to the U.S.  presidency.

BENJAMIN BANNEKER'S LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON (August 1791)

I am fully sensible of that freedom, which I take with you in the present occasion, a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession, which is so prevalent in world against those of my complexion.

I suppose it is truth too well attested . . . to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.

Sir, I hope I may safely admit . . . that you are a man less inflexible in sentiments of this nature, than many others; that you are measurably friendly, and well disposed towards us; and that you are willing and ready to lend your aid and assistance to our relief, from those many distresses, and numerous calamities to which we are reduced.

. . . if this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity, to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us; and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or color, we are all in the same family and stand in the same relation to him.

. . . if these are sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, I hope you cannot but acknowledge, that it is the indispensable duty of those, who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who possess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under . . .

. . . I have long been convinced, that if your love . . . for those inestimable laws, which preserved to you the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not but be solicitous, that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof; neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in order to the promotion from any state of degradation, to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them.

. . . I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings, which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored; and which, I hope, you will willingly allow you have mercifully received, from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect Gift.

 . . . suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted . . . in order to reduce you to a state of servitude: look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that time, in which every human aid appeared unavailable, in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility . . . is the peculiar blessing of Heaven.

This, Sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horror of its condition. . . . your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

.  . . tender feelings for yourselves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to which you were entitled by nature; but, Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity, and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.

. . . I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren, is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and all others, to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends, 'put your soul in their souls' stead'; thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them; and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others, in what manner to proceed herein.

And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope, that your candor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but having taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of my Almanac, which I have calculated for the succeeding year, I was unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto.

This calculation . . . is the product of my arduous study, in this most advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein through my own assiduous application to Astronomical Study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages which I have had to encounter.

And although I had almost declined to make my calculation for the ensuing year . . . yet finding myself under several engagements to Printers of this State, to whom I had communicated my design, on my return to my place of residence, I industriously applied myself thereto, which I hope I have accomplished with correctness and accuracy; a copy of which I have taken the liberty to direct to you, and which I humbly request you will favorably receive; . . . I choose to send it to you in manuscript . . . that thereby you might not only have an earlier inspection, but that you might also view it in my own hand writing.

JEFFERSON'S REPLY TO BANNEKER (August 30, 1791, Philadelphia)

Sir --

-- I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colours of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing only to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America. I can add with truth that no one wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both of their body and mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have take the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of Society; because I considered it a document to which your whole colour had a right for their justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them.

I am, with great esteem, sir, your most obedient servant,

THO. JEFFERSON

Reverend Nathaniel Paul's 1827 Speech on the Occasion of New York's Abolition of Slavery

In 1827 Rev. Nathaniel Paul, a minister of The First African Baptist Society in the city of Albany, New York, hails the final abolition of slavery in that state.  His address  given on July 5, 1827 in Albany marks that occasion.  The address appears below.

We look forward with pleasing anticipation to that period, when it shall no longer be said that in a land of freemen there are men in bondage, but when this foul stain will be entirely erased, and this, worst of evils, will be forever done way. The progress of emancipation, though slow, is nevertheless certain: It is certain, because that God who has made of one blood all nations of men, and who is said to be no respecter of persons, has so decreed; I therefore have no hesitation in declaring this sacred place, that not only throughout the United States of America, but throughout every part of the habitable world where slavery exists, it will be abolished. However great may be the opposition of those who are supported by the traffic, yet slavery will cease. The lordly planter who has his thousands in bondage, may stretch himself upon his couch of ivory, and sneer at the exertions which are made by the humane and benevolent, or he may take his stand upon the floor of Congress, and mock the pitiful generosity of the east or west for daring to meddle with the subject, and attempting to expose its injustice: he may threaten to resist all efforts for a general or a partial emancipation even to a dissolution of the union. But still I declare that slavery will be extinct; a universal and not a partial emancipation must take place; nor is the period far distant. The indefatigable exertions of the philanthropists in England to have it abolished in their West India Islands, the recent revolutions in South America, the catastrope and exchange of power in the Isle of Hayti, the restless disposition of both master and slave in the southern states, the constitution of our government, the effects of literary and moral instruction, the generous feelings of the pious and benevolent, the influence and spread of the holy religion of the cross of Christ, and the irrevocable decrees of Almighty God, all combine their efforts and with united voice declare, that the power of tyranny must be subdued, the captive must be liberated, the oppressed go free, and slavery must revert back to its original chaos of darkness, and forever annihilated from the earth. Did I believe that it would always continue, and that man to the end of time would be permitted with impunity to usurp the same undue authority over his fellow, I would disallow any allegiance or obligation I was under to my fellow creatures, or any submission that I owed to the laws of my country; I would deny the superintending power of divine providence in the affairs of his life; I would ridicule the religion of the Saviour of the world, and treat as the worst of men the ministers of an everlasting gospel; I would consider my Bible as a book of false and delusive fables, and commit it to the flames; nay, I would still go farther; I would at once confess myself an atheist, and deny the existence of a holy God. But slavery will cease, and the equal rights of man will be universally acknowledged. Nor is its tardy progress any argument against its final accomplishment. But do I hear it loudly responded,—this is but a mere wild fanaticism, or at best but the misguided conjecture of an untutored descendant of Africa. Be it so, I confess my ignorance, and bow with due deference to my superiors in understanding; but if in this case I err, the error is not peculiar to myself; if I wander, I wander in a region of light from whose political hemisphere the sun of liberty pours forth his refulgent rays, around which dazzle the star-like countenances of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox and Grenville, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Franklin; if I err, it is their sentiments that have caused me to stray….We do well to remember, that every act of ours is more or less connected with the general cause of emancipation. Our conduct has an important bearing, not only on those who are yet in bondage in this country, but its influence is extended to the isles of India, and to every part of the world where the abomination of slavery is known. Let us then relieve ourselves from the odious stigma which some have long since cast upon us, that we were incapacitated by the God of nature, for the enjoyment of the rights of freemen, and convince them and the world that although our complexion may differ, yet we have hearts susceptible of feeling; judgment capable of discerning, and prudence sufficient to manage our affairs with discretion, and by example prove ourselves worthy the blessings we enjoy.

In 1827 Rev. Nathaniel Paul, a minister in Albany, New York, hails the final abolition of slavery in that state.  His address  given on July 5, 1827 in Albany marks that occassion.  The address appears below. 
We look forward with pleasing anticipation to that period, when it shall no longer be said that in a land of freemen there are men in bondage, but when this foul stain will be entirely erased, and this, worst of evils, will be forever done way. The progress of emancipation, though slow, is nevertheless certain: It is certain, because that God who has made of one blood all nations of men, and who is said to be no respecter of persons, has so decreed; I therefore have no hesitation in declaring this sacred place, that not only throughout the United States of America, but throughout every part of the habitable world where slavery exists, it will be abolished. However great may be the opposition of those who are supported by the traffic, yet slavery will cease. The lordly planter who has his thousands in bondage, may stretch himself upon his couch of ivory, and sneer at the exertions which are made by the humane and benevolent, or he may take his stand upon the floor of Congress, and mock the pitiful generosity of the east or west for daring to meddle with the subject, and attempting to expose its injustice: he may threaten to resist all efforts for a general or a partial emancipation even to a dissolution of the union. But still I declare that slavery will be extinct; a universal and not a partial emancipation must take place; nor is the period far distant. The indefatigable exertions of the philanthropists in England to have it abolished in their West India Islands, the recent revolutions in South America, the catastrope and exchange of power in the Isle of Hayti, the restless disposition of both master and slave in the southern states, the constitution of our government, the effects of literary and moral instruction, the generous feelings of the pious and benevolent, the influence and spread of the holy religion of the cross of Christ, and the irrevocable decrees of Almighty God, all combine their efforts and with united voice declare, that the power of tyranny must be subdued, the captive must be liberated, the oppressed go free, and slavery must revert back to its original chaos of darkness, and forever annihilated from the earth. Did I believe that it would always continue, and that man to the end of time would be permitted with impunity to usurp the same undue authority over his fellow, I would disallow any allegiance or obligation I was under to my fellow creatures, or any submission that I owed to the laws of my country; I would deny the superintending power of divine providence in the affairs of his life; I would ridicule the religion of the Saviour of the world, and treat as the worst of men the ministers of an everlasting gospel; I would consider my Bible as a book of false and delusive fables, and commit it to the flames; nay, I would still go farther; I would at once confess myself an atheist, and deny the existence of a holy God. But slavery will cease, and the equal rights of man will be universally acknowledged. Nor is its tardy progress any argument against its final accomplishment. But do I hear it loudly responded,—this is but a mere wild fanaticism, or at best but the misguided conjecture of an untutored descendant of Africa. Be it so, I confess my ignorance, and bow with due deference to my superiors in understanding; but if in this case I err, the error is not peculiar to myself; if I wander, I wander in a region of light from whose political hemisphere the sun of liberty pours forth his refulgent rays, around which dazzle the star-like countenances of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox and Grenville, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Franklin; if I err, it is their sentiments that have caused me to stray….We do well to remember, that every act of ours is more or less connected with the general cause of emancipation. Our conduct has an important bearing, not only on those who are yet in bondage in this country, but its influence is extended to the isles of India, and to every part of the world where the abomination of slavery is known. Let us then relieve ourselves from the odious stigma which some have long since cast upon us, that we were incapacitated by the God of nature, for the enjoyment of the rights of freemen, and convince them and the world that although our complexion may differ, yet we have hearts susceptible of feeling; judgment capable of discerning, and prudence sufficient to manage our affairs with discretion, and by example prove ourselves worthy the blessings we enjoy.
- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/1827-rev-nathaniel-paul-hails-end-slavery-new-york#sthash.vJ51QYkI.dpuf

Estevanico aka Estaban: The North African Moor Enslaved on 1528 Spanish Expedition to Americas

Estevanico aka Estaban (b. 1490 - d. 1539)

Estevanico aka Estaban was a Berber-speaking Moor born in North Africa and is among the earliest individually named Africans known to the Americas. Estevanico was born in Morocco, North Africa, raised in a North African Muslim family. In 1513, at about the age of 23 years, he was captured in Africa by Portuguese slave traffickers. We do not know his native name, only the name he took when made to convert to the Christian Catholic religion by his captors. We will refer to him as Estevanico.

In the year 1513, the enslaved Estevanico was shipped to Portugal from his native home of Morocco. Morocco is that region where the North African empire of Hannibal was headquartered at Carthage, founded in 9th century BC. In fact, Portugal was previously part of the nation of the Moors from 711 AD to 1492. The African Moors ruled what is now known as Spain and Portugal for 700 years when a migration of North and West African Muslims (Moors) entered the region -- Jews, Christians and Arab Muslims later joined the prosperous Moors. The Moors lost the Iberian peninsula to the Christian Crusaders by 1492. Based on the years of Estevanico's birth and capture, the White Christian Crusaders that originally invaded the Iberia soon crossed over to Africa and began capturing African Moors and enslaving them in the region.

By 1520, Estevanico was sold from Portugal to a Spanish captain, Andres Dorantes de Carranza. Dorantes joined Spain's sojourn into what was for them "The New World." By this time, Spain was establishing colonies along the Gulf Coast of what is now known as the United States and Mexico regions, and within the Caribbean islands and South America.

September 1528, Estevanico sailed with Dorantes' crew from port San Lucar de Barrameda on a Spanish expedition. The Spanish expedition included a fleet of five ships containing about 600 men. Estevanico sailed on the Magdalena as it made its way across the Atlantic Ocean landing first on the island of Hispaniola (aka Española). Hispaniola now contains the independent nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

After a month, the ship continued to Santiago, Cuba and then Trinidad.When Estevanico and the Spanish crew arrived in the region now known as Tampa Bay, Florida the Spanish expedition of colonizers numbering about 300 in number. The men split the crews into sea and land expeditions and faced both friendly and unfriendly indigenous people in the Florida region.

Estevanico and the ship's crew found themselves wrecked off the coast of Texas, the surviving among them numbering four. Those four men were three Europeans and the enslaved African, Estevanico -- thought to be the first non-Natives to this region. Estevanico's captivity continued among the surviving Spanish men -- which included Andres Dorantes and two others. The men made small ships from animal hides and eventually began to travel along the Gulf of Mexico Coast region. They ventured into the interior and are known to have traded with native peoples in the region to survive. This subsistence among the four men lasted about 8 years.

By July 1536, the four men arrived in New Spain, now known as the State of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico. Estevanico and the other three expedition survivors were received in Mexico City by the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain. Estevanico was granted his freedom at that time and was also noted by commentators as being received to the region's Avavares tribe as a medicine man. There may be a number of theories to explain why Estevanico was seen as a medicine man among the natives to the region.

Ancient Olmec sculpture

The region of Mexico is part of the earliest known civilization in the Americas, the Olmec kingdom whose remaining sculptures portray prominent negroid features. Additionally, the wisdom Estevanico exhibited to survive against these historical odds can also be contributed to knowledge obtained from his native African people of Morocco. He was already 23 years old when captured into European slavery.

What remains of the record states that by 1539 Estevanico led Fray Marcos of Nice into what is now known as the western region of the State of New Mexico, in the United States. He knew the region as well as many non-Natives because of his 8 years wondering and trading with native tribes after the Spanish expedition's shipwreck. Ultimately, Estevanico's demise arose when the natives saw Estevanico leading the expedition of white European men into the region. That year, in 1539, he was killed by the indigenous people at Hawikuh, New Mexico.

Dr. Wangari Maathai: Nobel Laureate African Environmentalist

Photo: Nobel Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai (4/1/1940 - 9/25/2011) 

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai was the first African woman and environmentalist bestowed with the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Maathai mobilized women to plant more than 40 million trees in Africa. She championed environmental sustainability as a direct link to human sustainability and a tool against poverty. She was described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a leading voice in Africa.

"Professor Maathai introduced the idea of women planting trees in Kenya to reduce poverty and conserve the environment," said Archbishop Tutu. Founder of the Green Belt Movement. 

"[Maathai] will be remembered as a committed champion of the environment, sustainable development, womens' rights, and democracy," stated former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Atta Annan after her death in September 2011. "Her contribution to all these causes will forever be celebrated and honored."

Early Life in Kenya in East Africa

On April 1, 1940, Wangari Muta was born to Muta Njugi, her father, and Wanjiru Kibicho, her mother -- a  Kikuyu farming family from the Nyeri District of Kenya, in the village of Ihithe. She is noted as saying that her parents gave her an early respect for the soil and its bounty. Her first formal studies in Kenya began at the age of eight at the Ihithe Primary School and later at St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School in Nyeri and Loreto High School Limuru.

In 1959, at the end of British rule in East Africa, a young Wangari left Kenya to study in the United States of America at Benedictine College (then Mount St. Scholastica College) in the state of Kansas. She earned a Bachelors of Science in 1964 and would go on to earn a Master's of Science in Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She would continue of science and environmental studies at university in Germany.

In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya where she was appointed research assistant to a zoology professor at University College of Nairobi and opened a family-run general store in Nairobi. In Kenya, she would marry Mwangi Mathai and have three children: Bangari Maathai, Sangari Maathai and Mangari Maathai. After an embattled divorce from Mathai, she succeeded in retaining the family name by adding an "a": Maathai.

In 1971, Maathai became the first Eastern African woman to earn a Ph.D. when she was awarded a Doctorate of Anatomy. She became a senior lecturer, associate professor and chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi. It was at the university that Wangari Maathai began campaigning for equal benefits for women working at the university.

Green Belt Movement

To honor Nairobi's community leaders, the first "Green Belt" tree was planted in the city's Kamukunji park in 1977. Maathai encouraged Kenyan women to plant native tree nurseries throughout Kenya, agreeing to pay them stipends for each seedling found in a native forest and planted elsewhere.

Maathai became an active environmentalist, voice for women and for African self-sufficiency. In 2009, she authored the book "The Challenge for Africa." In the epilogue to her book, "Unbound: A Memoir", Dr. Maathai writes:

Trees have been an essential part of my life and have provided me with many lessons. Trees are living symbols of peace and hope. A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded, and that no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remains unseen, who are the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand. 

Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable: Father of Chicago

USPS Commemorative Postal Stamp of Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable (born c. 1745 - d. 8/28/1818)

According to Native American tradition, an African man born in Santa Domingo (Haiti) was the first non-native American to settle at the city that is now called Chicago. The native accounts were corroborated by the Europeans in 1779 when a British Commandant of Fort Michilimackinac reported the frontiersman as a "handsome Negro, well-educated, and settled in Eschikagou (Chicago)."

In 1783, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable's U.S. citizenship was officially recorded in what is now known as the area of Peoria, Illinois. His farm was recorded at Peoria in the early 1770s. The farm encompassed more than 800 acres of land. Du Sable's settlement in this area was prior to the land becoming a part of U.S. territory. The French held territory along the Mississippi River such as Louisiana, with its main city post at New Orleans. The French also held the St. Louis area.

HAITIAN BORN JEAN BAPTIST POINT DU SABLE

Du Sable was born in St. Marc, Santa Domingo (eastern Haiti) in 1745. His mother was an African referred in historical records as Suzanna, an emancipated slave from a region in Africa now within the Congo nation. His father was a French merchant mariner on a ship called Black Sea Gull. This blogger has not been able to find a reliable source for the name of Du Sable's father or mother. The record does indicate that his father provided him an education in France. Du Sable also worked as a seaman on his father's ships.

By the 1760s, we find that Du Sable is living in the Louisiana Territory, then under French rule. He moved from New Orleans to St. Louis, both still within French colonial rule. Du Sable established a fur trading post at St. Louis before relocating to Chicago.

DU SABLE SETTLES AT CHICAGO

Commemorative bust of Jean-Baptiste Pointe Du Sable along Chicago River

Records indicate that by June 6, 1770, Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable had established his trading post at the mouth of what is now the Chicago River, near the Tribune Tower building. The natives called the area where Du Sable settled Eschikagou because of the wild onions that grew in the region. In this field of tears, Du Sable married Kittihawa (also called Katherine) of the Potawatomi tribe and settled into running a family trading post.

An explorer and entrepreneur, Du Sable was a well-known and highly respected businessman in the Northwest territory of the United States. He spoke fluent French, Spanish, English and several Native American languages. He traded heavily with neighboring tribes and established the main supply station for westward bound white men who were moving from the English colonies. In 1778, he was temporarily jailed by the British armed forces on charges of being a French spy. These allegations were never substantiated.

DU SABLE: A GENTLEMAN FRONTIERSMAN

Bust of Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable.

Du Sable was known as a man of fine tastes. Du Sable built his home on the north bank (North Michigan Avenue) of what is now known as the Chicago River, near the site of today's Wrigley Building (chewing gum) and the Tribune Towers. Monsignor Meshan wrote that Du Sable was the only man who thought of having a cabin built of imported French walnut wood. Meshan said his home contained "a feather bed, a couch, and a bureau, to say nothing of mirrors and pictures, in the midst of a wilderness." Du Sable's establishments along the Chicago River were reported to possess 23 Old World art treasures.

On May 14, 1800, records show that Du Sable sold his Chicago holdings to a European trader for $1,200 (2015/CPI=$17,000). He left the region that would become a great metropolis. He moved to live with his son on property they owned in Saint Charles, Missouri. Some commentators state that Du Sable's imprisonment during the Revolutionary War by the British may have precipitated his move from the region as the "westward expansion" of Europeans began to advance. Du Sable and his family were detained by the British for five years during the Revolutionary War.

As a Black man who was multilingual, free and self-employed, Du Sable may have been considered suspicious by the British and the French, as well as those Europeans who were identifying themselves as Americans. Whatever his reason, there is a Native American saying that may capture in part the magnitude of his historical legacy: "The first white man to settle in Chicago was a black man."

Du Sable died August 28, 1818 in St. Charles at the age of 73.

Du Sable's death was recorded at St. Charles Burromeo Catholic Church. Monsignor Meshan said the following of Du Sable:

"For more than twenty years his name was associated with Chicago. Here was a frontiersman who lived with an air of regality, and if the city which traces her permanency from him adopted, at a later date, the motto "I Will," she can be sure the first Chicagoan had all the qualities that this slogan implies."

Further Historical Material and References: 

• In addition to a number of historical documents, a portrait painting of the city's first non-native American settler is located at The Du Sable Museum of African American History in Chicago's South Side Washington Park.
• A miniature replica of Du Sable's living establishments and trading posts can be found at The Chicago Historical Society.