Written in diary/scrapbook format, this novel seeks to round out the story of Elizabeth Van Lew and her freed slave Liza, who worked as a team passing Confederate information to Union troops hoping to ensure a speedy end to the Civil War. It is a fascinating portrayal of 2 women who have been credited for the importance of their assistance.

The real Elizabeth Van Lew did keep a scrapbook and diary, but much of the diary has been lost. Mary Elizabeth Bower (Liza) also kept an album which referred to a man named Davis (Jefferson Davis, who she worked for incognito), but it is believed to have been thrown away accidentally.

related-Elizabeth Van Lew of Richmond, Virginia, Mary Elizabeth Bower, slavery, abolitionists, Quakers, American Civil War, United States history, scrapbooks, diaries and journals, freeing of slaves, spies, espionage, women during the Civil War, education during the Civil War, Northern schools, 1861-1865
RL=5th-8th