Mary Ellen Pleasant: “The Mother Of Human Rights In California”
Public DomainMary Ellen Pleasant claimed that she helped fund John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
Like many others in the Wild West, Mary Ellen Pleasant spent most of her life trying to make it rich. But Pleasant went about attaining riches in a unique way and spent her money on causes she believed in, like abolition.
Some say that Mary Ellen Pleasant was born in Georgia, though Pleasant herself claimed to have been born in Philadelphia. Likewise, it’s not clear whether Pleasant, who was born in 1814, started her life free or enslaved.
But what does seem clear is that Pleasant learned a valuable lesson at a young age. According to The New York Times, her work as a domestic servant in Massachusetts taught her to observe others. Though she learned to read and write, Pleasant mostly used her observations as a de facto education.
“I have let books alone and studied men and women a good deal,” she later wrote in her autobiography.
After Pleasant’s first husband died in the 1840s, she made her way to San Francisco with her second husband, who she eventually separated from. And then, Pleasant used her skills of observation to make her riches.
Public DomainMary Ellen Pleasant used her powers of observation to build her fortune.
While working as a cook, Pleasant often eavesdropped on her wealthy customers and used what they said to invest the money she’d inherited from her husband. Before long, Pleasant owned a variety of properties and even listed herself as a “capitalist” on the 1890 census.
But Pleasant also donated her money toward worthy causes. When she heard about John Brown’s plan to raid Harpers Ferry, for example, Pleasant allegedly gave him $30,000. She even later requested that her gravestone be inscribed with the line: “A Friend of John Brown.” And after slavery was abolished, she focused on fighting against ongoing racial discrimination.
Her life was not without difficulty, however. Pleasant lost much of her fortune after her business partner, a white man named Thomas Bell, died. Though Pleasant and Bell may have made investments in his name because it was easier, Bell’s wife won control of the assets registered under him.
Mary Ellen Pleasant died in 1904, nearly penniless but still famous in San Francisco as the “Mother of Human Rights in California.”
