The Myth of Elizabeth Van Lue

The story that Elizabeth Van Lue was a Negro girl of unusual intelligence hired at the Jefferson Davis Confederate White House in Richmond to spy on the activities there. It seems to have been created after the war at Elizabeth death, passed down in Van Lue family lore. But as historians are tugging at the strings of this story, it's kind of unraveling. She can't be a union loving traitor. She's just a harmless old cooke. And while she most likely did play dumb quite often, her greatest disguise as far as I'm concerned was her ability to project herself as a Confederate slave owning loyalist to the cause.