![]() South Carolina had already voted to secede when Lincoln was elected and rumors of assassination were prevalent. Lincoln was on his way to Washington to get sworn in on March 4th 1861. This shouldn’t be perceived as a “footnote of history.” It is a major and important topic.While working with the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, he became widely known for uncovering a plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln. The description of women’s work in America would be incomplete without discussing how long and hard women of color had been working, many of these women without pay as slaves. She is currently an intern with the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Melanie Garvey will be graduating from Shepherd University in the fall with a degree in History. Warne worked for Pinkerton for twelve years-until her death in 1868. Allan Pinkerton never regretted his decision to hire her, often proclaiming “She succeeded far beyond my utmost expectations. When Pinkerton hired more female agents, he had Warne train them. During the Civil War, she often went undercover, posing as the wife or mistress of Pinkerton’s undercover-persona and was able to penetrate different Southern societies and gain information from elite Southern women. She was instrumental in preparing details for transporting President Lincoln through Baltimore. Kate Warne grew to be one of Pinkerton’s best agents. Her face was honest, which would cause one in distress instinctively to select her as a confidant.” He hired her. ![]() Her features, although not what could be called handsome, were a decidedly intellectual cast. He would later describe Kate as “graceful in her movements and self-possessed. She claimed that women have an eye for detail-that they are excellent observers. Warne insisted that women could befriend the wives and girlfriends, the mothers and sisters of suspected criminals and gain their confidence. “ most useful in worming out secrets in many places which would be impossible for a male detective,” she argued. Even then, women couldn’t become investigators until 1903.The term ‘policewoman’ isn’t coined until 1920.īut Pinkerton was different. No police force in the country hired women-nor would they until 1891. ![]() While Pinkerton agents were pioneers, Allan Pinkerton still wasn’t sure he was ready to hire a female detective. Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency: the origin of the Private Eye, Image courtesy of Pinkerton developed the idea of following and staking out a suspect, which he called “shadowing,” and working undercover, aka “assuming a role.” These are just a few of the groundbreaking techniques Pinkerton agents developed that are still used today. The agency revolutionized the way police work was conducted in America. Allan Pinkerton established the Pinkerton Detective Agency only a year before, in 1855. Pinkerton agents were part private investigators, part body guards-and all men. She wanted to be an agent at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. She wasn’t after a clerical, domestic, or factory job. Poorer white women had long been working outside the home in factories or as domestic workers. According to the 1860 Census, 601 American women were working across the country as clerical workers. Warne was part of an early, but growing, wave of middle-class white women working outside the home. A watercolor portrait of Kate Warne, Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
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