Mary Ellen Pleasant

Mary Ellen Pleasant was a free Black entrepreneur and abolitionist at the height of the California gold rush. Born in 1814 Pleasant wrote that her mother was a "full-blooded Negress from Louisiana" and her father was Hawaiian. Though she identified personally as Black, she passed as white among the cultural elites of the day. As a hotelier and restauranteur in San Francisco Pleasant amassed a fortune worth more than $30 million. As part of the Underground Railroad she provided formerly enslaved with gainful employment in a variety of businesses throughout California. Dedicated to the cause of Black liberation Pleasant personally financed the raid on the armory at Harper’s Ferry West Virginia in 1859. When abolitionist John Brown was executed for murder and treason a note was found in his pocket that was attributed to Pleasant upon her death bed in 1904.  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."

https://www.nps.gov/people/mary-ellen-pleasant.htm

https://www.nps.gov/hafe/index.htm

The Joy Trip Project celebrates Black History Month. The Unhidden Minute is part of the Unhidden Podcast Project supported through a National Geographic Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society, with the cooperation of the National Park Service. This series elevates the untold stories of Black American history.

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