Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904) was an inventive entrepreneur during the California Goldrush. A staunch abolitionist, she secretly financed one of the most famous uprisings in the lead up to the Civil War.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat. Our woman of the day today was an inventive entrepreneur during the California Goldrush. A staunch abolitionist, she secretly financed one of the most famous uprisings in the lead up to the Civil War.
Let’s talk about Mary Ellen Pleasant.
The conditions surrounding Mary Ellen’s birth are unclear. Some records claim she was born into slavery in 1814 on a Georgia plantation. Another, suggests she was the daughter of a Caribbean voodoo priestess and a Virginia planter. In her own autobiography, she claims to have been born in Philadelphia to a Hawaiian father and a Black mother.
Regardless, we know that Mary Ellen was sent to Nantucket, Massachusetts at a young age to work as a domestic servant. While in Massachusetts, she studied the men and women she served. In her autobiography, she said that working in a wealthy New England home was a sort of informal finishing school.
It’s likely that Mary Ellen met her first husband, James Henry Smith, while living among the Massachusetts elite. A wealthy man, historians aren’t sure whether James was white, or of mixed race ancestry. What we do know, is that he died in the 1840s and left Mary Ellen a sizable inheritance. With these funds, Mary Ellen resettled in Bedford, Massachusetts - a stop on the underground railroad. It’s there that she met her second husband, John Pleasant.
By 1850, the California Gold Rush was in full swing. New England was buzzing with tales of Black miners striking it rich. Seeing an opportunity, Mary Ellen went west to San Francisco. There weren’t many women out in California at this time, and there was a premium on stereotypically “feminine” work. Mary Ellen took a job as a cook and immediately started earning far more than she made as a domestic servant back East. Since Mary was sitting on a large inheritance, it’s likely that she saw another benefit from this work aside from a steady paycheck. Replicating her practice of observing the wealthy, Mary eavesdropped on the men she served in the restaurant. She took note of their business insights and used that information to invest her inheritance.
Mary Ellen invested widely in the growing California economy. She put her money in dairies, laundries, and even Wells Fargo Bank. She owned restaurants and boarding houses that were rumored to be brothels. She teamed up with a white banker named Thomas Bell on numerous projects. On Mary Ellen’s 1890 census, she stated her profession as, “a capitalist”.
Aside from amassing wealth, Mary Ellen’s primary passion, and motivator, was civil rights. She invested heavily in the Black community in San Francisco, financially supporting safe houses and funding resource centers for Black people fleeing slavery.
But her most significant contribution to the abolitionist movement was lost to history for many decades.
In 1859, John Brown was hanged for murder, treason and inciting a slave insurrection. He had led a raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He had hoped to use the armory’s stockpile to lead an armed slave liberation movement. At least seven people were killed in the failed insurrection attempt. On the day of John Brown’s hanging, there was a note 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.” At the time, southern officials assumed the note came from a wealthy northerner who had financed John Brown’s uprising. But it was actually written by Mary Ellen Pleasant.
In her autobiography, Mary Ellen identifies herself as the financier of John Brown’s insurrection. She donated $30,000 to the cause - what would be nearly $900,000 today. This significant donation shows both Mary Ellen’s commitment to abolition, and her extensive wealth.
Mary Ellen was well known in San Francisco society at the time. But her reputation wasn’t always a positive one. Many were skeptical of a Black woman who had managed to amass so much influence and financial success. Suspicions of Mary Ellen led to two very disparate interpretations of her rise to prominence. In one, she was painted as a Black sorceress who bewitched men into giving up their money. In another, she was Mammy Pleasant, a docile Southern Black woman, loyal to her white friends. Both were attempts to diminish Mary Ellen’s independence and shrewd business acumen.
Mary Ellen’s fortune took a turn for the worse when her business partner of many years, Thomas Bell, passed away. At the time of his death, Mary Ellen was in the midst of building a 30-room mansion in which she was meant to live, alongside Thomas Bell and his family. When Thomas died, his widow took Mary Ellen to court and claimed that she had bewitched her husband into giving up tens of thousands of dollars.
The trial revealed that the house, as well as many of Mary Ellen’s business ventures, were in Thomas Bell’s name. That could be easily explained by the fact that it was far easier for a white man in the late 1800s to start a business or own property than it was for a Black woman.
Rumors started circulating that Mary Ellen had manipulated the family for her own gain, siphoned money away to ‘undeserving Black women’ and abused the family’s children. There was even a rumor she had killed Thomas Bell.
Despite evidence that Mary Ellen had personally paid for the construction of the mansion, the court ordered her to leave. They transferred full ownership to Thomas’ widow, leaving Mary Ellen diminished and embarrassed.
Mary Ellen spent her remaining years living with friends. Though never impoverished, she had fallen a considerable distance in both financial and social status. She passed away in 1904.
The San Francisco Examiner ran her obituary with the headline, “Mammy Pleasant Will Work Weird Spells No More.”
Throughout her life, Mary Ellen’s achievements were minimized. Her influential role as an abolitionist was tarnished by the impurities of some of her businesses. Her financial success was devalued on baseless racist suspicions. She suffered from many sexist tropes, such as manipulating and bewitching men. In reality, Mary Ellen prospered and persevered at a time in which no one wanted to see her thrive.
In 1965, Mary Ellen’s dying wish was granted. Her tombstone was belatedly amended to include the inscription, “She was a friend of John Brown.”
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat.
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