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Crazy Bet Van Lew

from Union Garage by Love Camp 7

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about

Born into a prominent Richmond family, Elizabeth Van Lew (1818–1900) returned from her schooling in Philadelphia as an adamant abolitionist determined to fight slavery in the bastion of the South. Outspoken and rebellious, she appeared to her neighbors to be more than a little eccentric and soon became known as "Crazy Bet." After Virginia seceded and Fort Sumter fell, she used her reputation as a shield behind which her shrewd and resourceful mind devised schemes to abet the Union cause from within Richmond. Her first target was the Confederate Libby Prison, which imprisoned Union captives. Pretending to make a merely humanitarian gesture, [she] brought baskets of food, medicine, and books to the prisoners. What she brought out would have shocked the guards she learned to charm and deceive. Not only did Van Lew help some prisoners escape, she also gleaned valuable information from various sources inside the prison. Newly arrived Union prisoners secretly recounted the strength and dispositions of Confederate troops they had seen on their way from the front to Richmond. Of even more use was information carelessly conveyed to the "harmless Crazy Bet" by Confederate guards and by the prison's Confederate commandant, Lieutenant David H. Todd (Mary Todd Lincoln's half-brother). 
[source: Harnett T. Kane, Spies for the Blue and Gray (Garden City, N.Y.: Hanover House, 1954]

lyrics

Just a daughter of Richmond, richer than most—
Her daddy was a hardware king.
She was well-educated, better than most—
The Quakers taught her everything:
Freedom, equality before God and man;

“When we find injustice we must do what we can—
O, dearest mother, set them free, let them be;
Are they not from God as are we, as are we?”

When Virginia seceded, war was declared,
The Union won her sympathy.
There were prisoners taken after Bull Run—
She visited them frequently,
Bringing comestibles rich and varied from her home;
Books of impeccable learning, books of moral tone:
“Make sure, my soldier friends, you read between the lines—
Who knows what truth ye may find even in the spines . . .”

Just a daughter of Richmond, richer than most,
She’s singing like a little child.
There’s a gleam in her eye, her mother would cry
To see the way her hair’s grown wild.

“Take care that harridan not surmise what we’re up to.”
“No need to worry, sir—it’s just Crazy Bet van Loo;
No need to detain her, sir, there’s nothing she can do;
She is quite insane, sir, it’s a shame what she’s been through.”

credits

from Union Garage, released March 17, 2009
French horn on the Civil War Suite—Dan Grabois
Melodica on “Crazy Bet”—Bruce Hathaway

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Love Camp 7 New York, New York

Like the Kinks and Beatles careening down the Pacific Coast Highway in a Woodie with Captain Beefheart screaming in their ear.

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