Mary Ellen Pleasant
By
John C Abercrombie
Mary Ellen Pleasant is a name that does not register with many in the study of history, however, she payed an important role.
This is the 3rd in a mini series about John Brown and the raid on Harpers Ferry. The first installment was about John Brown – the man
The 2nd was about the Raid on Harpers Ferry itself
This post will uncover who she was and her role in the struggle for civil rights. She has been called the mother of civil rights in California.
Research on her early life give some mixed results but are not significant and not unusual for a Black person in pre-civil war days. There are reports that she was born a slave in Georgia and that she was born free in Philadelphia.
What we do know is that she was separated from her parents at an early age and became a domestic working for a White family in Massachusetts. The Hussey family was Quaker and abolitionists, living in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
They also had a granddaughter, Phoebe Hussey Gardner about the same age as Mary Ellen and they were close friends. Working for the Hussey family she learned to read, write and work in a shop. She never received a formal education.
Mary Ellen was industrious and worked her way out of bondage and was treated lie a family member. She and Phoebe formed a lifelong friendship. While with the Hussey family, Mary Ellen met many prominent abolitionists and was inspired by them. With the support of the Hussey and Gardner, she often passed for White.
There were laws that criminalized teaching Black, slave or free from being taught to read or write. This was not because they were not capable, it was a method of denying equal rights although there were loopholes to allow Whites privileges denied to Blacks.
Pleasant is reported to have been extremely fair in complexion and could pass for White. This is a matter that she changed later in her life on census records.
She was married twice, the first to James Smith, a wealthy flour contractor and plantation owner. He had freed his slaves and worked as a “slave stealer”. James Smith is reported to have been Black, but able to pass for White.
Passing is nothing new. We have covered some in posts here, such as Walter Francis White and Homer Plessy. Mary Ellen and James worked as “slave stealers” on the underground until his death after 4 years of marriage. He left her money to continue the work after his death and she did.
It is believed that her second marriage was conducted by Captain Gardner the wife of her lifelong friend Phoebe.
Later as attention increased from slave owners and trackers they moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. It is believed that she traveled by ship to San Francisco, California in 1852. This is extremely interesting as it appears that many others traveled to California by ship.
She had previously helped many slaves flee to the North and Canada by ship when she was on the East Coast.
Although Mary Ellen did not have a formal education, she was shrewd and studied people, learning much. She worked running exclusive men’s eating establishments, meeting the city founders as she catered lavish meals. She benefited tremendously from the information gained this way.
Keep in mind that there were often legal difficulties dealing with women. She enlisted the help of Thomas Bell, working at the Bank of California and together they made large sums based on the information she was able to garner.
While Bell made money on his own, the team of Pleasant and Bell amassed a fortune of $30,000,000. Many believed Bell to be her brother as she was passing as White.
She did not hide her racial identity from other Blacks and was successful in finding jobs for those coming to California on the underground railroad. Many of the people she supported became important leaders.
She was dedicated to the cause of civil rights and the freedom of slaves. In 1857 to 1859 she moved from San Francisco to help John Brown. She supported him with money and work. In fact, when John Brown was captured in the Harpers Ferry event, there was a note in his pocket with the initials “MEP” these were misread as “WEP”. She was not caught and returned to San Francisco to resume her work there.
John Brown was hanged, December 2, 1859 after being convicted of murder and treason. A note was found in his pocket. It read, “The ax is laid at the foot of the tree. When the first blow is struck, there will be more money to help.”
People believed it to have been written by a wealthy Northerner sympathetic to his cause, overlooking the right choice, Mary Ellen Pleasant. She was in the area, providing not only service but money to John Brown and his cause. She had the means, the passion and admitted it. .
Assumptions are only one of the reasons many are forgotten in the pages of history. Mary Ellen Pleasant is quoted in an interview, “Before I pass away, I wish to clear the identity of the party who furnished John Brown with most of his money to start the fight at Harpers Ferry and who signed the letter found on him when he was arrested.”
History missed an important connection because they pursued the racial stereotype that ruled out any Black as having the means or desire to fund the struggle for freedom. As a result, we see a great deal of information about the “Secret Six” but nothing about a woman who donated $30,000 to Brown. To keep that in perspective, it would be almost $1,000,000 today.
Mary Ellen Pleasant has acknowledged her friendship with John Brown and her role in the raid on Harpers Ferry. After the Civil War, Mary Ellen Pleasant m changed her racial identity in the City Directory making sure it was changed from White to Black. As indicated, this was no surprise to the Black community.
She then began a series of court battles fighting to change laws that prohibited Blacks from riding on trolleys and other worthwhile causes in the fight for civil rights.
Pleasant and 2 other Black women were ejected from a San Francisco streetcar in 1866. She filed 2 lawsuits. The first against the Omnibus Railroad Company was withdrawn after the company changed policy to allow Blacks to ride their streetcars.
The second case Pleasant v North Beach & Mission Railroad Company reached the California Supreme Court and resulted in laws that outlawed segregation in the city’s public conveyances.
Many are familiar with the name Mammy Pleasant. It was considered a derogatory slur and she did not like the name applied to her. She was frequently referred to as “Mammy” Pleasant in the press. She is quoted here in a statement to the press “I don’t like to be called mammy by everybody. Put it down. I am not mammy to everybody in California. I received a letter from a pastor in Sacramento. It was addressed to Mammy Pleasant. I wrote back to him on his own paper that my name was Mrs. Mary E. Pleasant. I wouldn’t waste my paper on him.”
During her later years, Mary Ellen Pleasant had to use her resources in a series of court battles including the family of Thomas Bell who claim that Pleasant was keeping him prisoner in the mansion that she built at the corner of Octavia and Bush.
Mary Ellen Pleasant is buried in Napa, California in the Tulocay Cemetery, Tulocay Cemetery Funeral Home & Crematory is located at 411 Coomsville Road, Napa, California 94559.
Her site is marked with a metal sculpture dedicated June 11, 2011. The site has been designated a “Network to Freedom site by the National Park Service.
Pleasant has been featured in several works of fiction
The book “A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant” by Michelle Cliff published in 1993 features her and her abolitionist activities.
The ghost of Mary Ellen Pleasant in a 1997 play “Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers.
The historical novel “Sister Noon published in 2001 by Karen Joy Fowler.
The documentary “Meet Mary Pleasant” 2008.
A Comedy Central episode of Drunk Historywhere she is portrayed by Lisa Bonet.
In 1974 eucalyptus trees planted by Pleasant outside her mansion at the Southwest corner of Octavia and Bush Streets were designated a Structure of Merit by the City of San Francisco. This is now known as Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park. Hopefully, it is not an intended slight that it is the smallest park in San Francisco.
Pleasant Street on Nob Hill is also named for her.
As you scroll down through the books and videos, you will encounter some value offers. These take you directly to Amazon or other affiliate sites where you can do all your shopping.
We encourage you to use our links as we receive a small royalty without cost to you. These funds help us continue to provide you with quality information.
To see the full listing of posts, click on our Blog list
For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. These posts focused on the horrors of being Black in america and concluded with a detailed look at a detailed look at teh Brown v Board of Education case. To see the posts, click here
For Black History Month, 2021 we focused on Inventors, Scientist and Medical Achievements. To see these posts, click here
To observe the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, we posted a mini-series. To see it, click here.
To comment or make suggestions on future posts, use Contact Us
We encourage you to share the site on social media.
Use our links to Amazon anytime you shop Amazon. We receive a small royalty without cost to you. Continue to scroll for fascinating Videos and Books to enhance your learning experience.
Continue scrolling down for more amazing information, videos, books and value items.
**
The Mysterious Tycoon and Abolitionist | Mary Ellen Pleasant
DISCLAIMER: The photos of the women up until minute 9:35 is NOT MARY ELLEN PLEASANT! In reality it is Queen Emma of Hawaii.
**
Jewelry
Shop jewelry using our Amazon affiliate link below
**
The Making of “Mammy Pleasant”:
A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth Century San Francisco (Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History) In The Making of “Mammy Pleasant,” Lynn M. Hudson examines the folklore of Mary Ellen Pleasant’s real and imagined powers. Addressing the lack of a historical record of black women’s lives, Hudson argues that the silences and mysteries of Pleasant’s past, whether never recorded or intentionally omitted, reveal as much about her life as what has been documented. The Making of “Mammy Pleasant” integrates fact and speculation culled from periodicals, court cases, diaries, letters, Pleasant’s interviews with the San Francisco press, and various biographical and fictional accounts. Through Pleasant’s remarkable life, Hudson also interrogates the constructions of race, gender, and sexuality during the formative years of California’s economy and challenges popular mythology about the liberatory sexual culture of the American West.
ABH – The Making of Mammy Pleasant
**
Food and Beverage Gifts
Shop using our Amazon affiliate link below
**
Mary Ellen Pleasant’s 5 Ways to Stop Caring What People Think and Focus on Your Needs
Mary Ellen Pleasant is one of the first black millionaires. She accumulated her wealth through investments in gold, silver, and businesses. Discover her rules of life that helped her to stop caring what others thought her, so she could just focus on her needs.
**
Amazing Values – Updated Daily – Check daily
**
Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Survived Slavery and Became Millionaires
Mary Ellen Pleasant used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown. Robert Reed Church became the largest landowner in Tennessee. Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem. Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone developed the first national brand of hair care products. Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley, developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for wealthy black professionals and craftsmen that would become known as “the Black Wall Street.” Although Madam C. J Walker was given the title of America’s first female black millionaire, she was not. She was the first, however, to flaunt and openly claim her wealth—a dangerous and revolutionary act.
**
Electronic Components and Home Audio
Shop Electronic Components and Home Audio using our Amazon affiliate link below
ABH – Electronic Components and Home Audio
**
29 Days Of Melanated Excellence Day 10 Mary Ellen Pleasant
**
Laptop Computers
Shop for Laptop Computers using our Amazon affiliate link below
**
Heritage of Power: Marie LaVeaux to Mary Ellen Pleasant (Enhanced Edition)
This, the latest and “enhanced” edition of Heritage of Power, provides a new index, additional images, and new, in-depth research on the life and civil-rights legacy of Mary Ellen Pleasant — called “The Mother of Civil Rights in California.” Did this daring “woman of mystery” really aid the abolitionist John Brown in his raid on Harper’s Ferry, and was she aided by New Orleans’ most famous voodoo queen Marie LaVeaux with a “Heritage of Power”? If so, what was this heritage, and how did their meeting come about? Heritage of Power answers these questions, clarifies the lives of both women, explains Pleasant’s title, and establishes her importance to modern-day civil rights. As it demystifies the lives of both women, the work presents new research and documents Pleasant’s work with John Brown. Using the latest research, this work asserts that Pleasant met LaVeaux, who empowered her to become “The Mother of Civil Rights in California,” and it supports Mary Pleasant’s claim that she indeed “was a friend of John Brown.” In so doing, Heritage of Power chronicles Pleasant’s life, sets Pleasant’s it in the context of social activism, and clarifies her traditional Diaspora faith, voodoo/vodou, which aided both women. The 1998, 2011 revised edition, and the 2012 enlarged size have been retired.
**
Clothes and Accessories
Shop for Clothes and Accessories using our Amazon affiliate link below
**
Mary Ellen Pleasant: Episode 1
How I Met Mary Ellen Pleasant I intend on telling the life story of a woman named Mary Ellen Pleasant who lived during slavery, emancipation, the wild west, and ended up in San Francisco during the last half of her almost century-long, epic life.
**
Kids Electronics
Shop for wonderful Kids Electronics using our Amazon affiliate link below
**
African American Women of the Old West
The brave pioneers who made a life on the frontier were not only male—and they were not only white. The story of African American women in the Old West is one that has largely gone untold until now. The stories of ten African American women are reconstructed from historic documents found in century-old archives.
ABH – African American Women of the Old West
**
Beauty and Grooming – Gift Sets
Shop for Beauty and Grooming Gift Sets – Holidays are Coming – using our Amazon affiliate link below
ABH – Beauty and Grooming Gift Sets
**
Who was Mary Ellen Pleasant?
**
Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant
In 1858, two black women meet at a restaurant and begin to plot a revolution. Mary Ellen Pleasant owns a string of hotels in San Francisco that secretly double as havens for runaway slaves. Her comrade, Annie, is a young Jamaican who has given up her life of privilege to fight for the abolitionist cause. Together they join John Brown’s doomed enterprise and barely escape with their lives. With mesmerizing skill, Cliff weaves a multitude of voices into a gripping, poignant story of the struggle for liberation that began not long after the first slaves landed on America’s shores.
ABH – Mary Ellen Pleasant a novel
**
You have seen it on TV – Shop for it here!
–
**
As this event is taught in our schools, the full impact of the action, the meaning and significance of it is mostly lost. The contributions of Mary Ellen Pleasant and her accomplishments are ignored but now we have been exposed to that which great effort was made to hide. Let the truth be known.
We endeavor to bring you interesting posts that educate and entertain. We hope you will share the post and site on social media and with friends.