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Kate Barry

I was conflicted on telling this story because there are issues, such as the heroine living on a plantation in SC and owning slaves.  I didn’t want to celebrate or honor owning another living breathing human being, but human history in general is messy and hard.  We’ll never get to tell the real history of America, or the world, or women in the military if we avoid the uncomfortable and difficult subjects.  So, I decided to tell this story to honor her bravery during the Revolutionary War, because we wouldn’t be where we are today without her, warts and all.

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Mary Bowser 

Mary Elizabeth Bowser, also known as Mary Jane Richards, also known as Mary Jane Richards Denman, was a former slave who operated as a Union spy during the Civil War.  There is a lot of disagreement on her full name, so I’m just going to call her Mary.

She was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia on John Van Lew’s plantation in 1839. We don’t really know anything about her parents or her childhood because she was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia in 1839.

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LT COL Charity Adams Earley

2 major sources – A New York Times Article that was part of the  “Beyond the World War II We Know,” series and an article by By Dr. Kelly A. Spring in 2017 for the National Women’s History Museum.

Both were great articles and I wanted to give them the credit up front, and I’ll also link them and the other sources I used in the show notes

Lt. Col. Charity Edna Adams (Married name would become name Earley) was born on December 5, 1918 in Kittrell, North Carolina. She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She was the oldest of 4 children. Her father was a minister, and her mother was a teacher.  Adams was intellectually advanced, and began elementary school as a second grader. During her last year in elementary school she tested for early advancement to high school. Adams and twelve others passed the test for high school. However, her parents did not allow her to move up early, because she has already several grades ahead of her peers.
Later she graduated as valedictorian from Booker T. Washington High School. Graduating top of her class enabled her to gain a scholarship, so that she could attend Wilburforce University in Ohio, one of the best African American higher educational institutions at the time.

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