"Mary Ellen Pleasant" (Born August 19?1814-1817-died January 1904)

Was a 19 Century woman entrepreneur of partial African descent widely known as Mammy Pleasant who used her fortune to further the abolitionist movement.She worked on the

Underground Railroad across many states and then helped bring it to California during the Gold Rush Era.She was a friend and financial supporter of John Brown and well known in abolitionist circles.After the Civil War she took her battles to the courts in the 1860s,and won several civil rights victories,one which was cited and up help in the 1980s and resulted in her being called "The Mother of Human Rights in California."Mary Ellen made contradictory claims about her earliest years.Her birthday is known to be August 19;the year has been listed as unknown,probably between 1814-1817,however,her gravestone at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, California, says 1812.In version of her memoirs dictated to her god-daughter Charlotte Downs,she claimed she was born a slave to a Voodoo priestess and the youngest son of the Governor of Virginia James Pleasants.She showed up in Nantucket,Massachusetts circa 1827 as a 10-13 year old bonded servant to store keeper,"Grandma"Hussey and worked out her bondage,then became a family member and lifelong friend to Grandma's granddaughter Phoebe Hussey Gardner.The husseys were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement,and Mary Ellen met many of the famous luminaries of the movement during her youth on Nantucket Island.Called "the Mother of Civil Rights in California"from work begun in the 1860s,her achievements went unsurpassed until the 1960s.She was once the most talked-about woman in San Francisco.When other African Americans were rarely mentioned,she claimed full-page articles in the press.Mary Ellen dramatic life was part of the story of slavery,abolition the gold rush,and the Civil War;she helped shape early San Francisco and covertly amassed a joint fortune once assessed at $30,000,000.With the support of the Hussey/Gardner's she often passed as white.Mary Ellen married James Smith,a wealthy flour contractor and plantation owner who had freed his slaves and was also able to pass for white.Mary Ellen worked with James as a "slave stealer"on the Underground Railroad until his death about four years later.They transported slaves to northern states such as Ohio and even as Canada.James left instructions and money for to continue the work after his death.She began a partner/marriage with John James Pleasant circa 1848,although no record exist of it,their marriage was probably conducted by their friend Captain Gardner,Phoebe husband,on his boat.They continued James work for a few more years when increasing attention from slavers forced a move to New Orleans.J.J.Pleasants appears to have been a close relative of Marie Laveau's husband and

there is some and there is some indication that Mary Ellen and Marie Laveau did meet and consult many times before Mary Ellen went to San Francisco during the Gold Rush Era,Arriving in April 1852 by boat.J.J. had gone ahead and written back that the area seemed promising for the Underground Railroad.When Mary Ellen arrived in San Francisco (known as Yerba Buena briefly),she passed as white,using her first husband name among the whites,and took jobs running exclusive men's eating establishments starting with the Case and Heiser establishment.She met most of the founders of the city as she catered lavish meals and she benefited from the tidbits of financial gossip and deals usually tossed around the tables.She engaged a young clerk,Thomas Bell,at the Bank of California and they began to make money based on her tips and guidance.Thomas had made money of his own,especially in Quicksilver and by 1875 they had amassed a 30 million dollar fortune between them.J.J. ,who had worked with Mary Ellen from the slave stealing days to the civil rights court battles of the 1860s and 70's,died in 1877 of diabetes.Mary Ellen did not conceal her race from other blacks and was adept a finding jobs for those brought in by Underground Railroad activities.Some of the people she sponsored became important black leaders in the city.She left San Francisco from 1857 to 1859 to help John Brown.She was said to have actively supported his cause with money and work.There was a note from her in his pocket when he was arrested after the Harper's Ferry Armory incident,but as it was only signed with the initials "MEP"(which was misread as "wep