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

Espionage is the “process of obtaining military, political, commercial, or other secret information” with illegal monitoring devices, spies, and secret agents (“Abolitionism.” Britannica, 16 Oct. 2023). All four women in Abbott’s novel, despite the great risks, took part in one kind of espionage or another. Espionage differs from other types of intelligence gathering because in practice, it is often illegal, and the tactics employed are often direct and aggressive in nature. During the Civil War, spies were seen as dishonorable unless the intelligence they gathered secured victory for the side they served. Women who were caught spying were seen on the same level as sex workers—often charged with prostitution in addition to any direct espionage-related charges. Men who were found guilty of espionage were hanged; women would face exile, execution, or imprisonment (“Confederate Women Spies.” History of American Women).

The Anaconda Plan was a Union military strategy devised by General Winfield Scott at the beginning of the Civil War. The United States Navy formed a snake-like blockade stretching around Missouri, down the Mississippi River, through the Gulf of Mexico, and into the Atlantic, effectively cutting the Confederacy off from the rest of the world. The Anaconda Plan isolated the Confederacy, stopping most trade, crashing the economy, and halting the import of much-needed supplies. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy frequently references the effects of this strategy. Rose Greenhow drowned trying to avoid capture during a blockade run on her way back to the United States. Belle Boyd started a massive brawl between soldiers because she had access to whiskey, something that was hard to obtain in the Confederacy due to the Anaconda Plan’s blockade. Abbott also notes the shortages of medicines, like quinine to treat malaria, in the South. Because of her wealth, Elizabeth had access to sugar, iron works, tools, etc., as well as access to the North, that other Southerners did not. She used her access as a way to distract detectives searching her home for proof of her espionage.

In the context of the Civil War, “contraband” was the term used by the Union Army to refer to an enslaved person who had escaped or was brought to Union lines. In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, there was no official Union policy regarding any enslaved people the army came across. General Benjamin Butler refused to return any fugitive enslaved people, inspiring a policy that declared the enslaved as “contraband of war.” Any enemy property, or contraband, that the Union obtained would not be returned, so by referring to enslaved people as contraband, the Union was able to free any enslaved people they found. The term was quickly adopted by the Union Army to refer to escaped and fugitive enslaved people. The term also indicates the cultural attitude toward African Americans, as even those who fought to free the enslaved still used language that referred to them as property instead of people. Abbott uses the term frequently in Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, adopting Civil War-era terminology to enhance her immersive narrative style. Emma meets many escaped enslaved people during her time in the Union Army as they march toward Richmond. Though her encounters with them push her to properly understand the gravity of the war she is fighting, she nonetheless consistently refers to them as “contraband.”