Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War

To better understand the events and perspectives in Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, it is important to understand the connection between abolition, slavery, and the Civil War. The Civil War marks a major shift in the American cultural identity. The battle lines drawn in 1861 are still relevant today, both in politics and cultural heritage. The Civil War represents a point in history when many in the United States took a stand against slavery; its events include a complex struggle in the context of autonomy, freedom, and states’ rights. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy illustrates with nuance the evolving perspectives of contemporaries of the Civil War, examining the divergent views of women in particular.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln and the Union were reluctant to acknowledge the war’s abolitionist roots. The fear was that portraying the war as about abolishing slavery would drive those states already on the edge of secession to join the Confederacy. Lincoln and the military initially adopted a policy of appeasement to maintain the tenuous loyalty of states on the Mason-Dixon line, the border between the Confederacy and Union. Those states were generally slave states outright or states with large exceptions to their laws against slavery, culturally split between the Union and Confederacy.

However, despite the president’s politically motivated and strategic hesitation, many who enlisted with the Union Army were abolitionists. As Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy makes clear, Emma Edmonson and Elizabeth Van Lew were expressly fighting and working with the Union because they were abolitionists. Emma enlisted to fight against slavery. As Emma met formerly enslaved people for the first time, abolition evolved for her from an abstract ideal to an absolute, practical necessity. Elizabeth’s family had a long history as abolitionists. Her grandfather founded a key abolitionist group in Pennsylvania. As her family moved south to Richmond, Virginia, the Van Lews used their wealth and influence to buy enslaved people their freedom. Elizabeth, who was open about her support for the Union and abolitionist views, was isolated from Richmond society.

In turn, for the Confederacy and its supporters, the preservation of slavery was a key motivator for joining the war effort. Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow believed they were fighting to preserve the Southern way of life, to which slavery was intrinsic. Much of the Southern economy in the 19th century relied on slave labor, especially the export of cotton and tobacco. Supporters of the Confederacy held white supremacist beliefs enforced by their culture and faith.

Today in the United States, people who attempt to center discussions of the Civil War around general states’ rights are often obfuscating the war’s racist subtext. After the Confederacy lost, and as social acceptance of slavery diminished, Southern sympathizers began to revise history to cast the Confederacy in a more favorable, romantic light. Proponents of this long-term revisionist effort often state that the Confederacy rebelled due to the federal government’s overreach, which limited individual states’ right to self-govern. Though states’ rights were indeed part of what led to the war, it’s essential to acknowledge that the Civil War specifically concerned states’ rights to own slaves and continue the practice of slavery. Failure to acknowledge that perpetuating slavery was central to the Confederacy’s motivation indicates a misunderstanding of the war.

In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, Abbott makes clear that each of the women she writes about, for better or worse, understood that the Civil War was fought over the abolition of slavery. Throughout the novel, Abbott explores each woman’s evolving motivation and the complex history of slavery and racism in the United States while providing the cultural context underpinning their beliefs.