Famous Spies: James Armistead Lafayette
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James Armistead was an African-American double agent who came to prominence during the American Revolution. Armistead wanted to join the American forces, but as a slave, he had to get the permission of his master, William Armistead of Virginia. He succeeded and was sent to General Lafayette in 1781.
Lafayette saw his value immediately and ordered him to pose as a runaway slave among the British. So Armistead made his way into Benedict Arnold’s camp. Arnold, already outed as a traitor to the Americans, was now openly leading a group of British soldiers against the colonists. Armistead pretended to want to spy for the British.
When Arnold decamped that spring, Armistead moved on to another British camp, becoming a regular fixture among British forces. He overheard plans for troop movements and arms shipments, documented his findings, and sent all the information back to Lafayette. His reports were vital to the colonists’ victory at Yorktown.
And yet it was some time before James Armistead was granted his freedom. A 1782 manumission act freed slaves who had supported the colonists as soldiers — but it did nothing for the brave men and women like Armistead who had served as spies.
When James Armistead petitioned the state of Virginia for his freedom in 1786, he was supported by both his master and Lafayette. He was freed on Jan. 9, 1787, and took the name Lafayette to commemorate the general he served under. He went on to marry, have children, and become a prosperous New England farmer.
Famous Spies: Frederick Joubert Duquesne, German Spy
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Frederick Joubert Duquesne, nicknamed “Black Panther” and referred to as “The Duke” in FBI files, was a German spy during both world wars. Fueled by his hatred of the British and their treatment of Boer children and women, he turned to espionage and was responsible for relaying secrets — particularly about Allied weaponry and shipping movements — to the German forces. All of his communications featured his insignia: a snarling black panther.
Duquesne was a chameleon — he constantly reinvented himself, blending fact and fiction to create the image people wanted to see. Almost no one saw the man underneath or knew the real story of the desperate boy who had fought against the British in South Africa and lost everything. His family’s farm was destroyed, his sister was raped and murdered, and his mother died alone in a British concentration camp.
He, too, suffered at the hands of the British — he was caught infiltrating their ranks and imprisoned, forced to decode Boer communiques for the enemy. In one of the most dramatic getaways in a long career of escapes, he swam one and a half miles through shark-infested waters to reach a boat that would take him to the United States. With that, the last ties to his old life were gone. He would never return home again.
His star rose quickly in America, and he became a shooting instructor to President Roosevelt, accompanying him on his safaris to Africa. He gained American citizenship in 1913 — just in time to turn traitor and begin passing information to the Germans in World War I.
It was the beginning of a long, bloody career. Duquesne is credited with having sabotaged and sunk the HMS Hampshire in 1916, which was carrying Lord Kitchener to Russia, and having organized the Duquesne Spy Ring, whose 33 conspiring members were sentenced 300 years in prison.
He was finally caught at age 64 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. After 14 years, his health was failing, and he was released. He died two years later.
