Bowser, Mary Richards (fl. 1846–1867) – Encyclopedia Virginia
Whig reported “Mary Jones, alias Mary Jane Henley a likely mulatto girl, about twenty years of age, arrested for being without free papers, was committed for nine days. She was sent to the North about nine years ago, by a highly respectable lady of this city, for the purpose of receiving a thorough education, after completing which she went to Liberia.” The article asserted, “The laws of Virginia positively prohibit the return to this State of any free negro who has lived in a free State,” yet Richards remained in Richmond. This may have been because her freedom was likely de facto,...
Source: encyclopediavirginia.org